Hurricanes Prospects: Patrik Puistola Leads World Juniors in Scoring

The Carolina Hurricanes have three prospects playing for team Finland in the World Juniors Championship. None are more exciting than Patrik Puistola.

The Carolina Hurricanes’ prospects in the World Juniors Championships continue to shine. After  Dominik Bokk helped Team Germany secure their first win last night with a pair of goals, it was Patrik Pustolia‘s turn to today to push Team Finland forward with a pair of goals of his own against Kazakhstan.

The Finnish forward picked in the third round just last year has the makings of a serious steal in the draft. He now has four goals and three assists for seven points in three games played in the tournament so far. That has given him sole lead amongst all players at the WJC. He has no signs of slowing down either, playing like a man amongst children.

The 18 year old native of Tempere, Finland has only 10 points on four goals and six assists in 26 games played across three teams in the Finnish leagues of Mestis and Liiga. He also has eight points in six games played in international play for Finland’s U20 national team outside of the tournament.

This tournament has brought out a much more competitive and intricate style to his play as it seems he is finally playing with those of his caliber and speed. The results have been incredibly fast paced scoring. The kind that would be “blink and you’ll miss it” sometimes like this tally on the powerplay from earlier today:

His hockey IQ is extremely high and if he continues to develop the way he is currently developing he might actually become something of a second Sebastian Aho for this team. Just look at how he identifies a developing play and maneuvers into a perfect scoring lane to put in his second tally of the night for Finland:

To be quite honest, this kid should have gone higher in the draft. If he continues to play like this, Finland might just follow up last year’s gold medal win with a second one leaving teams like USA and Canada to wonder where it all went wrong.

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It has only been three games but Patrik Puistola has been a gem to watch during the World Junior Championships. The fact that he is the leading scorer in this tournament, one that has seen at least seven games so far see a team put up at least five goals and up to eight is impressive. There is plenty of scoring to go around, but Puistola has managed to elevate above the competition.

The Carolina Hurricanes have many exciting prospects coming up the pipeline and may have the best prospect pool in the league right now. Patrik Puistola is one of the few names that might become household ones in the Raleigh metro area sooner rather than later.  At 18 there is still much room for him to grow, which should be even more good news for his development.

Question for CC Readers: Which Canes Prospect in the tournament excites you more. Bokk or Puistola?