His reads in the defensive zone are sometimes off, or he misses his mark entirely, which leads to increased scoring chances against. While his offensive exploits are outstanding, and an immense part of his game, on the other side of the puck he still struggles a bit. However, his slapshot is also not to be trifled with as he unloads one-timers with startling ease and power for a player of his build. He whips his wrist shot with great velocity, often loading it up to snap by goalies. Right now in the Canadiens organization there may be only a few players overall who can match Ylönen’s skill in the category. Of course, I would be remiss to not discuss the other major strength in Jesse Ylönen’s game: his high-level shot. It doesn’t always work, but his success rate is far from poor, and the aggression to open up better attacking lanes is something that many prospects lack in their toolkit. He can and often will look to improve his spot in the offensive zone by keeping the puck on a string while attempting to dangle around the defence. His ability to read the zone makes him not only a dynamic goal-scorer, but also an extremely capable playmaker as well. He has a goal and assist through the opening 11 minutes in Springfield. Jesse Ylönen makes it a two-goal lead for the Rocket! The main portion of the votes had him 12th to 15th overall, while our two community participants provided the low votes. The trio of myself, Jared, and Justin ranked him at eighth overall, likely due to the higher familiarity having closely watched his AHL growth. The voting was broken into three clusters overall: top 8, mid teens, and the late teens. There he’ll need to continue to build on those skills and reach what his ceiling could be. His skill set will inevitably force the hand of the Canadiens and will land him an NHL role. He was still an impact player, using his speed and finesse to drive opponents back while opening space up for his linemates. Even with that identity, the talent of Ylönen frightened teams enough that throughout the AHL playoffs, he was double-teamed in the offensive zone, and on every power play. With the Rocket as well, the team was never built in a way that his skill set would be complemented.Īs I mentioned in Rafaël Harvey-Pinard’s profile, the Rocket were a team that scored by committee. The Pelicans were a club far outside the bubble of top teams in Finland, and lacked some of the high-end stars that other teams had.
It’s easy to look at his numbers and be left wanting more, but adding context is always important in that regard. Since graduating from the under-20 leagues in Finland, Ylönen has been a solid offensive producer at each level he’s played, from the Mestis and Liiga in Finland to the AHL the last two years. All the skills are there for him to make the leap full-time this year, and could very easily continue to grow under the eyes of Martin St. He is continuing to iron out some inconsistencies that all young players go through in their development and will look to build on his 14-game NHL showing from 2021-22. In that time, Ylönen has become one of the most skilled players in the organization, and it shows every single time he takes the ice. It hasn’t been the easiest road either, with COVID preventing him from joining the Laval Rocket originally as the season was cancelled, to the virus forcing an abbreviated AHL season the following year, to last year when many players were yo-yoed between the leagues. The young Scottsdale-born winger is hoping to make a full-time NHL impact in the near future, and continue the Montreal Canadiens’ march toward fixing nearly a decade of development incompetence.įor Ylönen he’s done extremely well to put himself firmly in the viewfinder of the Canadiens’ front office and coaching staff, in both the old regime and the new one as well.
#Top lane tank buster 2017 full#
When it comes to the Laval Rocket, there is no one on the team more full to the brim with tantalizing skill and promise than Jesse Ylönen.