#aron kiviharju

[three-headed-monster]

draft mini primer! it's tradition at this point, so i had to, but i'll be real, i don't know too much about these boys. but i hope this might lead you to your next favourite little guy, so happy draft day!

[100ducksizedfolignos]

every new thing i learn about this guy makes me so unwell about him

[puckpocketed]

As someone who’s the go-to prospects blog in my mind, do you have any thoughts on Aron kiviharju dropping to the fourth round? The video the Wild shared after he got drafted is soo interesting to me

"Let me tell you one thing, man; you just made the biggest steal of the draft. I promise you that."

29/06/2024 - The Minnesota Wild draft Aron Kiviharju 122nd overall

Aron Kiviharju was supposed to go 1st overall.

Can you be a bust before you ever get drafted? Can the narrative miasma of going 1st overall linger on someone who went 122nd?

Kiviharju’s first game report from the 2024 EP Draft Guide is dated November 24th, 2019. He was 13 back then. According to them, no other player in EP's database — nor in any other draft guide this year — has had scouts' eyes on them so early, for so long. They say he understands the game beyond what's reasonable for a player his age, that he's always excelled while playing above his year level, that even though he's small and light there's something special about his game. Singular, elite, a phenom. This child is the next big thing. He is 13, 14, 15, he is anointed Boysaviour before his voice has cracked.

How many times have we heard this story before?

One day, Aron Kiviharju will be competing with and against players his age. And when that day comes, it might feel a bit odd for the defenceman. For years, ever since Kiviharju was young, he has played up a level, or two, or three. At age 13, he was playing U16 hockey with TPS Turku and, this past season, as a 15-year-old, he started with TPS’ U18 team before moving on to the U20 club. His numbers – 30 points in 35 games – would be deemed impressive for a 19-year-old forward, never mind a young defenceman who only turned 16 in January.

Steven Ellis' article on Kiviharju for Daily Faceoff, early September 2023, broadens the scope of public scrutiny even further:

Time travel back to 2022, and you'll find his name is printed right next to some familiar faces from this year's draft: Macklin Celebrini, Cole Eiserman, Berkly Catton, Ivan Demidov — except, they're all listed as possible challengers to his assumed throne.

And then, the accident.

The glaring flag on Kiviharju's draft profile, and across every report, every interview, and article since is the reality of his stalled potential. A scout’s job is to project a player’s future, but progress is rarely linear. What might halt a once-promising player's progress? Injuries and global pandemics and a poorly managed season or two; these things don't care for destiny. For every realised prodigy there are a dozen more who will fall short of expectations — this is something you pick up fast reading backdated draft guides and sifting through the history of the NHL.

In Kiviharju's case, the dislocated kneecap and the skate cut to the throat are the things most will write about. Behind the scenes, however, there were evidently other factors that contributed to his drop to the 4th round.

You see, every time I think I've escaped it, the size issue comes back.

The belief remains, however, that larger is better. I’m understating just how much it pervades hockey discourses: it’s present in scouting reports and has had measurable impacts on drafting; I hear it on professional and amateur hockey podcasts; it’s thrown out casually during interviews by coaches and fellow players. I can’t read or listen to anything about Faber without stumbling across it — the preoccupation with size. I’ll be very clear here: I’m not reading anything malicious from specific people, I’m not accusing anyone of crimes, and in no way am I implying that ice hockey is unique here. Just the opposite, in fact. I know professional sports hinges upon producing stars, that the commodification of young bodies is endemic to the business. Those stars are, stripped down to the basest definition, workers who perform with their bodies and sell their labour, whose bodies will inevitably be coveted and revered for their adherence to the Platonic Ideal of their respective crafts. For men’s sports, there’s something extra on top of the commodification of children’s bodies — it’s the vernacular of near-fetishistic worship; of the masculine, the oxymoronic youthful-but-mature, the virile. The language used to praise Faber and other young d-men like him has my stomach twisting in a discomfort that I find hard to quantify — players, coaches, and the media all talk about him, and the hockey blinders slip. He’s a “workhorse”, a “stud”, he’s got “a man’s body” — and call it projecting, call it reading too deeply into innocuous statements, but the closest thing I can compare it to is hearing my AFAB body spoken about as an object whose value can be reduced to its function, its usefulness, its closeness to sexual maturity.

Excerpt from the last time I wrote about a Minnesota d-man (sensing a pattern here).

Kiviharju probably would've dropped some places regardless of his injury and missed time; that's where the league is trending right now in terms of draft preference. When you're small, every mistake is amplified by your lack of size. You must be twice as skilled, faster, more consistent.

p. 595, The 2024 Elite Prospects NHL Draft Guide

Kiviharju's media appearances read like someone who is haunted by his draft stock despite his assertions otherwise.

Kiviharju's bold proclamation, caught on GM Bill Guerin’s hot mic, that the Wild just got "the biggest steal of the draft” will likely be associated with Kiviharju's rise — or perhaps his fall — as Minnesota media and fans work at their mythmaking. I don't know if I want to care about some hockey myths anymore. My appetite for them sours day by day. These myths were started by the eyes and hands and mouths of people watching a boy of 11 play hockey, who witnessed him and salivated at his unwritten future. Part of me thinks: I don't want to be complicit in their continued weaving — though I know I will be anyway.

I read what he says in the lead up to the draft and it's like he's telling himself as he tells us; that he will not care, because he is worth more than this.

From Kiviharju's draft day interview, transcribed by me:

Q: What's the biggest thing you learned about yourself going through the rehab process? AK: Kind of like... it's — life is more than hockey. Hockey is the biggest thing for me. I love the sport. I will do this for the rest of my life, for sure. First playing it, then probably I will continue with hockey after my career, so I've been always thinking like that, and I'm still thinking like that, but it's just that it's — more. Life is more than just hockey, there's a lot of things. And there's a lot of different things about myself, kind of like when you don't — if hockey is my fuel and I'm a car and I'm 200 days without getting any fuel, we have to find some new ways how to get that fuel, to keep my car going. - Q: How has your cut healed since U-18's? AK: Yeah so (he gestures to the cut right below his jawline) that was a pretty close one, but thank God we're alive. That's what I kind of meant when I said that this life is more than just hockey. So first you're 200 days without playing hockey and when you come back your first game the World Under 18's a skate cuts your throat open, so it's very close calls, and that's when you remember that this is only hockey.

Whatever happens, I want Kiviharju to hold on to this. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for him. In so many ways, he fits the archetype of players I enjoy. I want him to make it to the show and blow everyone's expectations out of the water and bring Minnesota the Cup. I love this team, even if I rarely post about them. Even still, whether he shoots into stardom or he washes out of the NHL, it doesn't fucking matter. It's only hockey.

And he is more than his ability to live up to our myths.

[carsonlambos]

the minnesota wild’s 2024 nhl draft class

[liigainenglish]

[bsaka7]

[nonametis]

2, 18, 20? (:

2. Teams you have a soft spot for?

Who have I not mentioned yet? I don’t really see myself as fan of any DEL teams, maybe Berlin? But I like knowing what’s going on with Straubing, and also Ingolstadt and Köln (fourth line teams). I got a soft spot for whichever teams in Norway Jussi Tammela is on, which was Ringerike this past season and will be Sparta Sarpsborg for the next one. And the Hannover teams, because my friend lives close. Technically more the Indians than the Scorpions, but either are okay.

18. who would be on your dream hockey team?

Okay, this is just really going to be MY guys

Goalies: Noa Vali, Jonas Stettmer

Dmen: Sisu-Petteri Lehtonen, Otto Salin, Aron Kiviharju, Topias Vilén, Eemil Viro, Antti Tuomisto, Ruben Raffkin, Valtteri Pulli

Forwards: Markus Nurmi, Juuso Pärssinen, Mikael Pyyhtiä, Louis Anders, Roope Mäkitalo, Ville Järveläinen, Viljami Marjala, Oliver Kapanen, Kristian Tanus, Topias Haapanen, Juhani Jasu, Jonne Tammela

Is it obvious I’m still watching Liiga more closely than I do the DEL or NHL? Not at all I presume? This is also not realistic at all, but yeah, this is a pretty good luck over my (mostly Finnish) guys

20. A player you think is underrated?

That puts pressure on me 😭 and I have no idea what people actually say about these guys, unless they’re the really popular guys. I already mentioned Pära for this in another ask, so I gotta go for someone else. I don’t think we can say that Momü is underrated. Juraj Slafkovsky isn’t really either. I mean, staying on the topping of Liiga, Topias Haapanen or Juhani Jasu might be? Although, Jasu maybe not if HIFK got him now (😭😭😭😭😭) but Toppe maybe? I mean, I’m not mad if K and I stay alone as his (hopefully mostly invisible) Fanclub, but I think sometimes people tend to keep focussing on the hot and coming first liners and stuff, and the fourth liners can blend in with the background. Which I don’t think he hates from what I can glean from his media presence.

[boxscorehockey]

Seattle Squid Franchise Roster

Seattle- Ian

G

Blackwood Mackenzie Clara Damian Comesso Drew Daccord Joey Daws Nico Dostal Lukas Fowler Jacob Gajan Adam Gardner Evan Gidlof Marcus Greaves Jet Gustavsson Filip Hildeby Dennis Hofer Joel Hrabal Michael Ingram Connor Kokko Niklas Lankinen Kevin Merzlikins Elvis Montembault Samuel Mrazek Petr Portillo Erik Primeau Cayden Saarinen Kim Samsonov Ilya Schmid Akira Stolarz Anthony Tarasov Daniil Vejmelka Karel Vinni Eemil Wallstedt Jesper Woll Joseph

F

Bedard Connor Beniers Matty Bjorkstrand Oliver Bratt Jesper But Daniil Catton Berkly Celebrini Macklin Chinakhov Yegor Cotter Paul Cowan Easton Crouse Lawson Dach Kirby Doan Josh Domi Max Dufour William Dvorsky Dalibor Edstrom David Evangelista Luke Fisker Molgaard Oscar Garland Conor Gaucher Nathan Gauthier Cutter Gauthier Ethan Goyette David Hage Michael Hagel Brandon Holmstrom Simon Howard Isaac Knies Matthew Lucius Chaz Mangiapane Andrew McCann Jared McMann Bobby Mercer Dawson Merkulov Georgi Miettinen Julius Minten Fraser Musty Quentin Novak Tommy Nyman Jani Raty Aatu Rehkopf Carson Reichel Lukas Robertson Nick Sale Edouard Sherangovich Yegor Stenberg Otto Stone Mark Stramel Charlie Strome Dylan Tolvanen Eeli Tomasino Philip Villeneuve Nathan Voronkov Dmitry Wood Matthew Wright Shane

D

Bertucci Tristan Boqvist Adam Casey Seamus Ceulemans Corson Chychrun Jakob Cormier Lukas Dunn Vince Durzi Sean Ekman Larsson Oliver Evans Ryker Faber Brock Freij Alfons Gavrikov Vladislav Harley Thomas Hughes Luke Kesselring Michael Kiviharju Aron LaCombe Jackson Lundkvist Nils Luneau Tristan Mateychuk Denton Matheson Mike Mews Henry Miromanov Daniil Molendyk Tanner Moser Janis Mukhamadullin Shakir Niemela Topi Pickering Owen Rinzel Sam Romanov Alex Simashev Dmitri Thompson Jack Valimaki Juuso Vlasic Alex Willander Tom Yakemchuk Carter

2024-25 waivers: 9

[aagranlund]

i’m so happy to get to watch the future #1 pick of the 2024 draft play in tps for two more years <3

[juhollamago]

For the hockey ask: 3 and 10!

🍁🍁🍂🍂🍁🍁

3: I mean, if this is just about like rookies, I gotta rep my boy Aatu Räty, even though he might be playing in Bridgeport.

Juraj Slafkovsky is also fantastic because he sort of might not be what you expect (he played like power forward position in Liiga and then was MVP in Olympics). Mason McTavish's save from World Juniors gold medal game still pains me but he was so insanely good. Kent Johnson's gold winning goal is going to haunt me forever but every single time I've seen KJ play he just amazes me.

Liiga rooks are bit questionable, but Aron Kiviharju at age 16 might make some games in TPS and that kid... phew. one to watch!

10: KooKoo's Liedes, Ilves' Suomi and Jets' Wheeler. bonus mention for Frölunda's Lundqvist lol.

[paradoxicalca]

Aron Kiviharju(13yo), leading scorer at C1(u16) Pitsiturnaus

Player eliteprospects page: https://ift.tt/2YHEsiK scored 2 goals and 8 assists for 10 points in 5 games.Here's the tournament scoring leaderboard: https://ift.tt/2MWayjZ thing, of course, is that he's a defenseman, and also a double underager. The C1 Pitsiturnaus is somewhat highly regarded as a C1 level tournament in Finland. While it's more of a regional tournament, the teams tend to be very strong, stronger than the club teams will be during the season, since several players will participate here who'll end up playing above their age group during the actual season.Most players don't participate in this tournament as double underagers. Brad Lambert - a top forward prospect for the 2022 draft - was rather close in 2017, when he participated while being about a month older than Kiviharju is right now. He scored 4 points.The all-time scoring record in Finnish C-SM(spring) as a double underager is by Jesse Puljujärvi with 34 points in 23 games. The record for C-SM Q(fall) for a double underager is 25 points in 11 games by Mikael Granlund, but that's from an era when the league was extremely weak.This past spring, Aron Kiviharju also participated in the u14 WSI, where he scored 21 points in 8 games as an underager defenseman.It'll be interesting to follow the following season. I for one can't wait for the CSM season to begin. It's very rare to get to follow a player like this. TPS's first game will be on August 28th. Aron Kiviharju(13yo), leading scorer at C1(u16) Pitsiturnaus Source

[100ducksizedfolignos]

not our new baby finn with the childhood koivu jersey 🥺😭

[100ducksizedfolignos]

mr. guerin… dad bffs with saku…… crying about it

[liigainenglish]

Aron Kiviharju selected 122th overall by the Minnesota Wild

[carsonlambos]

im obsessed

[liigainenglish]