Eeli Tolvanen

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FinlandFinland  Eeli Tolvanen Ice hockey player
Date of birth April 22, 1999
place of birth Vihti , Finland
size 179 cm
Weight 82 kg
position Left wing
Shot hand Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 2017 , 1st round, 30th position
Nashville Predators
Career stations
until 2015 Espoo Blues
2015-2017 Sioux City Musketeers
2017-2018 Jokerite
2018-2020 Milwaukee Admirals
since 2020 Jokerite

Eeli Tolvanen (born April 22, 1999 in Vihti ) is a Finnish ice hockey player who has been under contract with the Nashville Predators in the National Hockey League (NHL) since March 2018 and has been on loan at Jokerit in the Continental Hockey League since August 2020 ( KHL) is used. The left winger was selected in 30th overall position by the Predators in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft and represented his home country at the 2018 Winter Olympics .

Career

Eeli Tolvanen was born in Vihti and went through in his youth, the youth sections of the Espoo Blues in about 40 kilometers away in Espoo . In the 2014/15 season, at the age of 15, he already made seven appearances for the U20 of the Blues in the Jr. A SM-liiga , the highest-ranking junior league in Finland. As a result, however, the attacker decided to move to North America in the United States Hockey League (USHL), the highest junior division in the USA, to the Sioux City Musketeers . A transfer to the Canadian Ontario Hockey League would also have been possible, as the Oshawa Generals had considered him in 17th position in the CHL Import Draft .

In the USHL, Tolvanen scored 38 points in 49 games in his debut season and was subsequently appointed to the USHL All-Rookie Team . He increased this performance significantly in the following season, with 30 goals and 24 assists in 52 games, a point average of over 1.0 and was therefore elected to the First All-Star Team . In the subsequent NHL Entry Draft 2017 , the winger was considered in 30th position by the Nashville Predators , although he was originally expected to be in a higher draft position. Shortly before the draft, however, it was announced that he had not met the admission standards of Boston College , for which he should play at the beginning of the 2017/18 season, so that he was only considered at the end of the first round of the draft.

As a result, the striker returned to his Finnish homeland for the time being and joined the Jokerit , with whom he has been playing in the Continental Hockey League (KHL) since the beginning of the 2017/18 season . In his first game in the professional field he promptly scored a hat trick , making him the youngest player in KHL history to score three goals in one game. In addition, no 18-year-old scored more points in the league history than Tolvanen, so he exceeded the previous record of 32 points (held by Yevgeny Kuznetsov ) in January 2018. He also represented his team a little later at the KHL All-Star Game .

After the end of the KHL season, Tolvanen signed an entry-level contract with the Nashville Predators in late March 2018 and made his debut in the National Hockey League (NHL) a few days later . In the course of the following two seasons, the Finn completed only seven NHL games and played most of his assignments with the Milwaukee Admirals farm team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Due to the late start of the 2020/21 season in North America, Tolvanen was loaned to his ex-club Jokerit in August 2020.

International

On an international level, Tolvanen represented his home country for the first time at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament 2015 and achieved fourth place with the team. He then took part in the World U-17 Hockey Challenge 2015 , with the Finnish selection taking fifth place. However, he personally led the tournament in goals (9) and scorer points (10) and was therefore elected to the All-Star team. A little later he won the gold medal with the Finnish U18 national team at the U18 World Cup in 2016 , while he was again the top goalscorer (7) of the event. This was followed by three participations in U20 World Championships in 2017 , 2018 and 2019 , in which the Finnish U20 national team only missed the medal ranks twice, but became world champions in the third and final year.

Tolvanen had already made his debut with the senior national team as part of the Euro Hockey Tour in November 2017 , before he was called up to the Finnish squad for the 2018 Winter Olympics in mid-January 2018 . He benefited from the decision of the National Hockey League not to interrupt the season for this Olympiad and thus ban their players from participating. In Pyeongchang he finally reached sixth place with the Finnish selection and placed third on the scorer list with three goals and six assists, so that he was appointed to the all-star team of the tournament. A few months later he also took part in the 2018 World Cup , where he achieved fifth place.

Achievements and Awards

International

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

Regular season Playoffs
season team league Sp T V Pt +/- SM Sp T V Pt +/- SM
2014/15 Espoo Blues U20 Jr. A SM liiga 7th 2 3 5 +1 2 - - - - - -
2015/16 Sioux City Musketeers USHL 49 17th 21st 38 -14 12 - - - - - -
2016/17 Sioux City Musketeers USHL 52 30th 24 54 +18 26th 13 5 5 10 +3 6th
2017/18 Jokerite KHL 49 19th 17th 36 +14 28 11 6th 1 7th -1 8th
2017/18 Nashville Predators NHL 3 0 0 0 ± 0 0 - - - - - -
2018/19 Milwaukee Admirals AHL 58 15th 20th 35 -8th 24 5 0 0 0 -4 2
2018/19 Nashville Predators NHL 4th 1 1 2 +2 0 - - - - - -
2019/20 Milwaukee Admirals AHL 63 21st 15th 36 +2 18th - - - - - -
USHL total 101 47 45 92 +4 38 13 5 5 10 +3 6th
AHL total 121 36 35 71 −6 42 5 0 0 0 −2 4th
NHL overall 7th 1 1 2 +2 0 - - - - - -

International

Represented Finland at:

year team event result Sp T V Pt +/- SM
2015 Finland Hlinka Memorial 4th Place 5 1 1 2 ± 0 0
2015 Finland WHC 5th place 5 9 1 10 0
2016 Finland U18 World Cup gold medal 7th 7th 2 9 +6 0
2017 Finland U20 World Cup 9th place 6th 2 4th 6th -1 2
2018 Finland U20 World Cup 6th place 5 1 5 6th +6 4th
2018 Finland Olympia 6th place 5 3 6th 9 +1 4th
2018 Finland WM 5th place 4th 2 2 4th +2 2
2019 Finland U20 World Cup gold medal 7th 0 4th 4th +3 2
Juniors overall 35 20th 17th 37 8th
Men overall 9 5 8th 13 +3 6th

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; 1  play-downs / relegation )

Personal

His brothers Joona (* 1992) and Atte Tolvanen (* 1994) are also ice hockey players, whereby his oldest brother has already made it into the professional field in Finland, while Atte Tolvanen is active as a goalkeeper at Northern Michigan University .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Satchel Price: Eeli Tolvanen's historic KHL season shows why he could be 2017 NHL Draft's biggest steal. sbnation.com, December 12, 2017, accessed February 17, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Predators first-rounder Tolvanen nets hat trick in first KHL game. sportsnet.ca, August 23, 2017, accessed on February 17, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Tolvanen matches Kuznetsov's record, Zaripov gets on the scoresheet. en.khl.ru, December 12, 2017, accessed on February 17, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Preds Sign Eeli Tolvanen to Three-Year Entry-Level Contract. March 29, 2018, accessed March 29, 2018 .
Squad of Jokerit in the 2020/21 season
personal data
SURNAME Tolvanen, Eeli
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish ice hockey player
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1999
PLACE OF BIRTH Vihti , Finland