:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71070154/1407422108.0.jpg)
With their final pick of the 2022 NHL Draft, the Chicago Blackhawks selected Finnish forward Riku Tohila in the seventh round (199th overall).
Finnish to finish! Welcome to the team Riku
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) July 8, 2022
That concludes the 2022 Draft folks! pic.twitter.com/hCddUUCV3x
Tohila’s height certainly stands out at 6-foot-5 (more on that below) and it appears there will be plenty of room to add some muscle with his weight currently listed at 190 pounds. Tohila will turn 19 in December and is expected to play with JYP in the Finnish Elite League for the 2022-23 hockey season.
As one might expect now that a few hundred hockey players have been selected, limited data exists on Tohila. He was described in The Athletic as a player who “works hard” but with the caveat that this “offensive skill and sense are debatable.”
He’s listed at 6-5 in just about every outlet available, but apparently he’s grown since then:
The Blackhawks' seventh-round pick, Riku Tohila, is a 6-foot-8 CENTER. Doneghey said he's well behind the curve, naive and from a small town, but that they thought he was worth a late pick because of his long-term potential.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) July 8, 2022
Riku Tohila (CHI, #199) is one of the more obscure picks from Finland in recent memory. Not a player I had noted down as having chances of getting picked, but I did catch many of his team's games. He's 6-foot-5 and pretty competent defensively, but... yeah. Very weird pick.
— Lassi Alanen (@lassialanen) July 8, 2022
More to come on Tohila, if we can find anything to share.
Loading comments...