After the first professional season that he had, could it be anybody else? The Calgary Flames have done a nice job drafting and developing defensemen over Brad Treliving’s tenure and the top prospect on our annual rankings could potentially be one of the best in awhile. An agile, mobile and competitive blueliner, Finnish import Juuso Valimaki jumped to the pros in 2018-19 and made the NHL out of training camp.
His season went a bit sideways due to an ankle injury, but his truncated time with the Flames and Stockton Heat really provided glimpses of just how good Valimaki could be.