Few players are drafted out of the Mestis league, the second-tier professional league in Finland. Finnish prospects either play in the U20 league or, if they are more advanced in their development, directly in Liiga. But during the 2017-18 seasons, one player dragged a pack of NHL scouts to the arena of the Espoo United: young skating prodigy, Jesse Ylönen.
Ylönen scored at a decent rate as an 18-year-old in Mestis. Due to the lack of NHL talent coming out of the league, you couldn’t really put his production in perspective, but his 0.5 points per game remained intriguing as young, lanky forwards don’t usually score in professional hockey.