Miro Heiskanen

Miro Heiskanen
Date of birth	July 18, 1999
place of birth	Espoo , Finland
size	184 cm
Weight	79 kg
position	defender
number	# 4
Shot hand	Left
Draft
KHL Junior Draft	2016 , 2nd round, 52nd position Salawat Julajew Ufa
NHL Entry Draft	2017 , 1st round, 3rd position Dallas Stars
Career stations
2013-2018	Helsingfors IFK
since 2018	Dallas Stars

Miro Heiskanen (born July 18, 1999 in Espoo ) is a Finnish ice hockey player who has been under contract with the Dallas Stars in the National Hockey League since July 2017 . He was selected by the Stars in third overall position in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft .

Career

Miro Heiskanen was born in Espoo and played for the Espoo Blues youth department in his youth before moving to Helsingfors IFK for the 2013/14 season. As a 16-year-old he played regularly in the U20s of the club in the 2015/16 season, scored 14 points in 30 games in the Jr. A SM-liiga and was subsequently named Rookie of the Year. The defender of Salawat Yulayev Ufa was then selected in 52nd position in the KHL Junior Draft 2016 , before he was accepted into the professional department of Helsingfors just a few days later on a three-year contract.

In September 2016 Heiskanen made his professional debut in the Champions Hockey League and subsequently established himself in the club's regular squad, so that he made 37 appearances in the Liiga and scored 10 points.

The Finn was considered to be one of the most promising talents in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft 2017 , so he was traded as a top 5 pick and the first selected defender. Both came true when the Dallas Stars selected him in third overall position and finally gave him an entry-level contract in July 2017 .

However, Heiskanen missed the subsequent pre-season due to a concussion , so that he did not play for the stars for the time being, but returned to Helsingfors IFK. At the end of the 2017/18 season he was honored in his home country with the Pekka Rautakallio trophy , which honors the best defender in the Liiga. As part of the following pre-season season, Heiskanen won a place in the stars' squad and made his debut in the NHL at the beginning of October 2018. He finished his first season with 33 points from 82 games and was also included in the NHL All-Rookie Team .

International

At the international level, Heiskanen first represented his home country at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge 2015 , where he finished fifth with the team. A little later he won the gold medal with the Finnish U18 national team at the U18 World Cup in 2016 . At the turn of the year 2016/17 he made his debut as a 17-year-old at the U20 World Cup 2017 and was the youngest player in the Finnish team. The defender then took part in the 2017 U18 World Cup, with the team losing to the United States in the final and thus winning the silver medal. Heiskanen himself, however, led all the players in the tournament in templates (10) and the plus / minus statistics (+8), so that he was named the best defender and voted into the tournament's all-star team.

At the U20 World Cup in 2018 , Heiskanen represented the Finnish U20 national team again, but missed the medal ranks with the team as in the previous year. In November 2017 he made his debut with the senior national team as part of the Euro Hockey Tour , before he was also 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, the Finnish selection finally took sixth place. A few months later he also took part in the 2018 World Cup , where he achieved fifth place.

Achievements and Awards

• 2016 Rookie of the Year of Jr. A SM-liiga
• 2018 Pekka Rautakallio Trophy
• 2019 NHL All-Star Game
• 2019 NHL All-Rookie Team

International

• 2016 gold medal at the U18 World Championship
• 2017 silver medal at the U18 World Championship
• 2017 Best Defender of the U18 World Cup
• 2017 All-Star-Team of the U18 World Championship

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2018/19 season

				Regular season							Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2015/16	Helsingfors IFK U20	Jr. A SM liiga		30th	3	11	14th	+14	46		-	-	-	-	-	-
2016/17	Helsingfors IFK	Liiga		37	5	5	10	-1	4th		8th	0	3	3	-1	0
2017/18	Helsingfors IFK	Liiga		30th	11	12	23	+17	8th		14th	3	6th	9	+6	18th
2018/19	Dallas Stars	NHL		82	12	21st	33	-14	16		13	2	2	4th	± 0	2
Liiga overall				67	16	17th	33	+16	12		22nd	3	9	12	+5	18th
NHL overall				82	12	21st	33	-14	16		13	2	2	4th	± 0	2

International

Represented Finland at:

World U-17 Hockey Challenge 2015 U18 World Championship 2016 U20 World Cup 2017 U18 World Championship 2017

U20 World Cup 2018 Olympic Winter Games 2018 World Championship 2018

year	team	event	result		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2015	Finland	WHC	5th place		5	0	5	5		2
2016	Finland	U18 World Cup			7th	0	1	1	+1	0
2017	Finland	U20 World Cup	9th place		6th	0	1	1	-2	0
2017	Finland	U18 World Cup			7th	2	10	12	+8	0
2018	Finland	U20 World Cup	6th place		5	0	2	2	+1	0
2018	Finland	Olympia	6th place		5	1	0	1	± 0	2
2018	Finland	WM	5th place		8th	0	2	2	+7	0
Juniors overall					30th	2	19th	21st		2
Men overall					13	1	2	3	+7	2

( 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 )

Web links

• Player biography on the Dallas Stars website
• Miro Heiskanen at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IFK kiinnitti kolme U18-maailmanmestaria. (No longer available online.) Hifk.fi, May 30, 2016, archived from the original on June 2, 2016 ; Retrieved May 25, 2017 (Finnish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Zachary Devine: Miro Heiskanen - 2017 NHL Draft Prospect Profile. thehockeywriters.com, May 5, 2017, accessed May 25, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Dallas Stars sign Miro Heiskanen to a three-year entry level contract. nhl.com, July 8, 2017, accessed July 8, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Stars' Miro Heiskanen: Suffering from concussion. cbssports.com, September 14, 2017, accessed October 5, 2017 .