Debuting at 22nd, Veeti Miettinen is the Winter T25U25’s first new player to the series.
Back in the summer when we did our rankings at the traditional time, but before the NHL actually had their draft, I wound up being someone who ranked our draft picks — even our fourth and fifth round picks — more aggressively than others. My mindset was that most of the guys being ranked from 15th to 25th were guys who were themselves drafted in the same area, if they were drafted at all. I looked at guys the Toronto Maple Leafs had drafted in those rounds the previous years and saw where we all ranked the likes of Mikhail Abramov (4th round pick), Nicholas Abruzzese (4th round pick), Filip Kral (5th round pick), and even Pontus Holmberg (6th round).