Carolina Hurricanes Prospects: Sebastian Aho Showing Major Upside in Finland
By Brett Finger
Between now and the start of the preseason, Cardiac Cane will preview every Carolina Hurricanes prospect as they enter the 2015-2016 season and what we expect from them in the coming year.
Player: Sebastian Aho
Position: Left Wing
Date of Birth: July 26, 1997 (18)
Birthplace: Rauma, Finland
Height/Weight: 5’11″/176 lbs.
2015-2016 Team: Kärpät (Liiga)
Scouting Report:
"A very competitive buzzsaw-type winger who will wear the opposition down in their own end. Strong on his skates and has room for even more growth in that department. Excellent puckhandling ability and finesse; controls plays with form and function. Can try to do too much, but that will go away with time and maturity. All-in-all, a winger that loves to compete and be hard to play against. (ELITE PROSPECTS)"
It is incredibly rare to come across a player that, at the age of 17, scored the championship winning over time goal in game seven in his native land’s professional hockey league, but that is what Sebastian Aho did earlier this year.
A 2nd round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2015 NHL Draft, Aho shows signs of not only being a very good prospect, but a player that can perform in big situations as well.
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Aho is mature well beyond his years when it comes to his on-ice play. As a 17-year-old, he tallied 4 goals and 11 total points in 27 games with Kärpät of the Liiga in Finland, the country’s top hockey league. He also skated in 3 games as a 16-year-old the season before. The Liiga contains grown men, upwards of 15 or 20 years older than Aho.
The Carolina Hurricanes obviously saw a lot of good in the Fin’s game, so they took him much earlier than most projected in the draft, but they are confident that they have a really good player on their hands.
Noah Hanifin, Carolina’s 2015 1st round pick, is 4 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than Aho, but he had nothing but good things to say about him.
"“He’s really quick, a really good skater,” Hanifin said. “You can tell he plays against men in the Finnish league. He’s really strong in the corners, protecting the puck, things like that.”"
Hanifin and Aho went head to head in the 2015 World Junior Championship in Montreal.
What Sebastian Aho lacks in size after just turning 18, he makes up for in grit, skill, speed, and his ability to ware down opposing players.
Aho is a 200 foot player that won’t shy away from playing hard in his own zone or going to the dirty areas. On the flip side of that, he also isn’t shy of trying to dazzle his way through the offensive zone, and many times, he is successful.
He has fantastic puck handling ability, which he has shown off in the Liiga of Finland on many occasions, as well as during the Red vs White scrimmage at the end of Hurricanes prospect development camp in July.
Sebastian Aho tallied 3 goals in the scrimmage.
The young winger is still a pretty raw player, but he has shown flashes of brilliance throughout his young hockey career, which should supply the organization with some optimism.
Aho is set to return for his first full season with Kärpät in Finland this season. If he can have another big season, he will continue to shoot up prospect rankings. He is a kid that is very young, even by prospect-terms, with a late July birth day, so when prospect camp roles around next year, he will still be just 18.
He has a lot of growing to do physically. He still stands to grow another inch or two, which would put him over 6’0″. And at 176 pounds, he will need to continue to put on weight and get stronger while playing in Finland for the next few seasons.
Unless he absolutely stuns the Liiga this season, Aho is probably 2 more seasons away from getting his entry level deal and coming to North America to play with the Hurricanes and Checkers.
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Down the road, Sebastian Aho shows signs of a top-six forward at the NHL level if all goes well with his development. His work ethic, skill, speed, two-way game, and his difficulty to play against make him a good prospect at the forward position for Carolina.
Sebastian Aho is a very reliable and talented player for his age, and he is a player that the Carolina Hurricanes should be very excited about.