The 20-year-old was previously selected by General Manager Dale Tallon of the Florida Panthers with the 40th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. Since being drafted by Florida, Heponiemi has gone on to dominate at both the WHL, Liiga, and international levels.
During the 2017-18 pro-hockey season, Aleksi Heponiemi would proceed to annihilate the competition in the WHL. While participating in 57 regular-season games for the Swift Current Broncos, “Hepo” would record a historic slash line of 28 goals, 90 assists for 118 total points.
Essentially, Aleksi proved he longer belonged at the WHL and needed to play against more skilled opponents.