The 2021-22 NHL season is upon us, but internationally, teams have been in action for about a month. One league that is in the early part of their season is Finland’s Liiga, home to 15 teams and dozens of NHL teams’ prospects, including Islanders 2021 NHL Draft pick Eetu Liukas.

Liukas, 19, was born on September 25, 2002, in Kaarina, Finland. He spent his youth playing for TPS and has moved up the ranks, playing for their U16 Akatemia, U16, U18, and U20 teams before making his professional debut with the top-level team in 2019-20. As of October 6, he has scored 58 goals and 126 points in 158 games over six years since starting with the U16 program.

As he has elevated through the ranks, he has dealt with the same struggles that many young players do at the top level including having a tough time scoring. He has registered no points in his first seven games in the Liiga this season and has only tallied one goal and three points through 29 games with the professional team, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The Islanders drafted Liukas in the fifth round with the 157th overall selection in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. He plays a physical 200-foot game and takes to the role his team needs him in. He never passes up a physical play and is willing to sacrifice the body when necessary.

I reached out to Will Scouch for a second opinion on Liukas. Scouch is a McKeen’s Hockey contributor and founder of Scouching, where he takes both aspects of the “eye test” and advanced analytics to give a different perspective on the game to fans, especially focusing on the draft. You can check out his scouting report on Cameron Berg.

“Eetu Liukas is a tough one for me. I was curious as to why he made his Liiga team based on all of the viewings I had had of him. His game with the puck is lackluster, low pace, and simple, but he’s a physical player who can throw his weight around and play hard off the puck. Being one of the older first-time eligibles doesn’t help either, but there will always be a role in the NHL for crash and bang players who are at their best when the other team has the puck, especially in the playoffs. Liukas is a longshot to me, especially for any kind of valuable steal in the 5th round, but considering his style of play, he could be “a guy” in a few years with development to his play with the puck across the board to be at least average when his team has the puck. If his job is to pass pucks to easy targets as soon as he receives possession and heads to the net to clean up rebound trash, maybe there’s something there, but Liukas wasn’t a player I would’ve pushed to draft in 2021.”

Eetu Liukas is definitely a more questionable draft pick for the Islanders, and despite being an older first-year draft-eligible player, will likely be a long-term project for the Islanders.

SEF