Comments / New

Grading Petteri Nurmi’s season

Petteri Nurmi went into the season as a veritable unknown, a joker, in the Montreal Canadiens’ deck of prospects. The smooth-skating defenceman’s trajectory had been steadily improving over the last two seasons in the Finnish Liiga, and with that in mind some were expecting a similar trend for the 2022-23 season.

The one question was HPK, a small-market team from Hämeenlinna, just North of Helsinki. Could they follow up the seventh-place finish from the previous season, or would they fall though? The answer was, unfortunately for Nurmi, the latter. HPK finished just out of the playoffs at 12th, missing the 10th place by a point.

There are certain things that look positive for the team though. The club had the best goal difference between the three teams fighting for that last spot. For Nurmi, the trajectory continued to point upward, going from four points in 58 games to 15 points in 48 games.

He came back from the summer World Juniors with mononucleosis, and that impeded his season considerably. This should be taken into account when considering his overall performance.

Strengths

Nurmi’s strengths lie in his vision of the game. He knows what to do with the puck before he gets it. He thinks the game in a good way and should be able to quarterback a power play in the upcoming season. His passing is crisp and accurate too, again something that can be seen in his point production, where all points but one were assists.

Mr. Timo Kunnari tells us that Nurmi is a player who comes in every day and works hard. That’s something that is also needed in order to progress on to the next step in his development.

Weaknesses

While Nurmi has a decent shot that gets through to the net, and one that is not always obvious for opposing defenders that have to cover the passing lanes, he should be using it more.

He is a jack of all trades but master of none. In order to really progress, he needs to improve everywhere, and as with many young players he needs to start with his physique.

Grade: C+

The bout with mononucleosis cost Nurmi a fifth of the season, and still he had his best season of his short career. This creates a problem for me grading him: with a full season, or with the added benefit of the playoffs, his grade would probably have been a B-.

One of the reasons the season stands out is Nurmi’s strong underlying numbers. He had a positive shot-share differential compared to his team, while being lower in PDO. He was also fifth in scoring among defenders, while being the seventh-most-used blue-liner in regard to ice time per game. All this points to the fact that there is something to build upon for next season, most likely his last in Finland, before Montreal gives him a chance in the AHL.


Timo Kunnari visits the podcast to give us an understanding on Petteri Nurmi’s season and future development:


Support Habs Eyes On The Prize by signing up for Norton 360