The Carolina Hurricanes have a ton of promising offensive prospects in the pipeline, as evidenced by the past few installments of this series. Aleksi Saarela is absolutely one of those, and today we’re going to look at exactly why Saarela is going to be an offensive workhorse in the NHL in the very near future.
Aleksi Saarela was selected 89th overall in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers. Before being drafted, however, Saarela spent the previous four seasons playing in the Finnish SM-Liiga (formerly the Finnish Elite League), where he racked up 56 points in 105 games played over the course of those four seasons.