Korhonen or Laakso

Why not trade up and get both?

Finland isn’t known for producing high-end rearguards with only two players, Aki Berg and Joni Pitkanen, selected in the first round over the past decade.

However, that number could double next summer as Teemu Laakso of HIFK and Risto Korhonen of Karpat are prime candidates to be taken within the first 30 picks.

Interestingly, they are perfectly suited to each other, and form a formidable top pairing on the Finnish national team. They were instrumental in upsetting the American Team at the Viking Cup last December, with Laakso earning ‘Top Defenseman’ honors.

Laakso is the flashier and more offensively skilled of the two, while Korhonen is bigger, tougher and meaner.

McKeen’s Finnish correspondent Mikko Vuori was fortunate to catch a recent game between the junior squads of HIFK and Karpat, pitting the two promising young rearguards against one another.

Here are Mikko’s scouting notes from that contest:

Teemu Laakso .. Was constantly doubleshifted and got loads of icetime, especially on special teams .. has noticeably turned up his offensive game a notch this season .. hit the crossbar with a wrister on the powerplay .. created a nice shorthanded breakaway after first intercepting a pass in neutral zone and then deking a defenseman, but shot the puck over the net .. scored a goal right after the odd-man rush, with a snapshot that hit the goalie .. boasts a very hard shot, but doesn't use the slapper often enough still .. prefers to use fast wristers in order to generate rebounds .. his outlet passes are terrific - hard and accurate .. possesses good top-end speed and fairly good acceleration, both areas of his skating that could use further improvement .. consistently makes smart decisions in the defensive zone .. showed some fatigue in the last ten minutes of the game .. must add more muscle to better handle the action along the boards.

Risto Korhonen .. A very tough player to play against .. is always looking to finish his hits .. tends to concentrate solely on his man-to-man coverage and, at times, can lose focus on the puck .. without question, was the strongest player on the ice, dominating his opponents in the one-on-one battles .. though wasn't a big factor in the attack .. played on the second powerplay unit, but only once pinched in to create a scoring chance .. favours the easy pass in both the defensive and offensive ends of the rink .. is a smooth skater considering his size .. though not blessed with great top-end speed, he didn’t have any troubles in his lateral movements in this game .. looks like a player who should be well-suited for the smaller North American rinks.