2026 NHL Draft – Top 10 Finnish Prospects

These rankings lean on NHL Central Scouting’s final April rankings for International and North American Skaters, then cross-reference public consensus from Daily Faceoff, McKeen’s Hockey, Elite Prospects, The Hockey News, TSN’s Craig Button and Draft Prospects Hockey. Those are then balanced against my own rankings as an amateur Finnish scout who tracks the Finnish development pipeline year-round, with primary reporting pulled from Finnish-language outlets including Leijonat.fi, Yle, Iltalehti, Jatkoaika, Tappara.fi, NHL.com/fi, and the clubs’ own sites. The threshold is Finnish nationality or birth in Finland, regardless of current league.

10. Anttoni Uronen, C, HIFK (Liiga)

Consensus Rank: Late round

Uronen is the gritty Liiga rotation profile that Finnish observers have flagged more often than any other late-round 2026 Finn. The 6-foot center, born in Kerava on June 24, 2008, played 27 Liiga games for HIFK as a 17-year-old this season, putting up 10 points and getting first-line center looks in stretches before injuries cut into his run. He signed a contract extension with HIFK on March 11, locking him in for one more year of Finnish development.

The family hockey lineage is rare for this class. Anttoni’s twin brother Eelis is a 2026-eligible defenseman ranked 101st by Central Scouting, and their older brother Tuomas is a Vegas Golden Knights prospect. Anttoni was Finland’s alternate captain at the 2026 U18 World Championship in Slovakia, scoring Finland’s second goal in the 6-1 opener against Norway from a setup by his twin brother. Smaht Scouting framed his game heading into the tournament as physicality and intensity that extracts value from less glamorous situations, which is the kind of profile NHL teams convert into bottom-six pros at a higher rate than the consolidated boards predict. The North American Scouting consensus has him outside the top 50 and the late-round projection is fair, but the Liiga body of work is the reason he leads this group of late-round Finns.

9. Noel Pakarinen, LW, Kiekko-Espoo (Liiga, U20 SM-sarja)

NHL Central Scouting – Preliminary Players To Watch List: C Rating (4th/5th round candidate)

Pakarinen is the steadiest mid-round profile in the Finnish class. The 6-foot-2 left winger was born in Palo Alto, California while his father worked there, but has lived in Espoo since infancy and is culturally and developmentally a 100 percent Finnish product. He came up through Espoo Blues, then through Kiekko-Espoo when the organizations merged in 2019, won a U15 national title in 2022-23, and led Kiekko-Espoo’s U20 squad with 13 goals and 17 assists in 31 games this season for a 0.97 points-per-game pace.

He earned his Liiga debut on Dec. 17, 2025 at age 17, slotting in as a fourth-line right wing against Kärpät in Oulu and picking up an assist on a Jere Väisänen goal in 8:19 of ice time. He told Leijonat.fi his game is built on three things: work ethic, game-reading skill, and goal-scoring. I have mentioned him earlier in a THW profile, flagging his plus-6 rating without a single minus entry through his first seven U20 SM-sarja contests this season, the kind of structural cleanliness Finnish coaches translate into the word “luotettava” (reliable). He played bottom-six minutes at the U18 Worlds without producing offensively, but the underlying body of work is a mid-round forward profile with NHL middle-six potential.

8. Olli Wahlroos, F, TPS (U20 SM-sarja)

NHL Central Scouting Rank: 88th (Among International skaters)

Wahlroos is the cleanest off-puck shooting profile in this class. The 6-foot-1 left winger from Kaarina, just outside Turku, has been a TPS junior product his entire career and put up eight goals and seven assists in 18 U20 SM-sarja games this season, a pace that makes him a goal-scoring wing first and a playmaker second. He was a cornerstone of Finland’s silver-medal Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster in August 2025, where Turun Sanomat called him one of the team’s foundational pieces (From ‘TPS’s forward talent started his season among the most promising in the world’ – Turun Sanomat, 9/15/2025).

He played top-six minutes at the U18 Worlds in Slovakia, including a first-line role alongside captain Anttoni Uronen and Wilmer Kallio in the quarterfinal against Czechia. Elite Prospects and other public scouting partners have flagged his off-puck timing into the slot and catch-and-release shooting from the inside hashmarks as the high-end skill. The defensive details and pro pace are the questions, but the shooting is real, and this is the kind of mid-round Finnish power-shot wing profile NHL teams have historically converted at a higher rate than the consolidated boards predict.

7. Luka Arkko, LW, Pelicans (U20 SM-sarja)

NHL Central Scouting – Preliminary Players To Watch List: C Rating (4th/5th round candidate)

Arkko is the most physically mature 2008-born Finnish forward in this class, and the U18 World Championship absence from injury is the lost stage that will hurt his draft stock more than any other Finn in the top 10. The 6-foot-3, 209-pound left winger from Lahti, also the Pelicans’ Marko Jantunen-palkinto winner as junior organization forward of the year for 2024-25, posted 11 goals and 14 assists in 22 U20 SM-sarja games this season, and added six goals and five assists across 14 international U18 appearances. He was identified by LeijonaUutiset as Finland’s number-one star after a two-goal performance against Switzerland late last year.

The frame and feet sound like a power-forward template, but NeutralZone’s tape work flagged “soft hands and smart passing” alongside willingness for net-front and power-play work. He was not on the U18 Worlds roster (missed the 2026 U18 World Championship due to injury, limiting late-season draft exposure,) which he had been trending toward since the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August. The U18 Worlds in Slovakia would have been his last live look. Without it, the 2026 draft becomes a tape-based projection from his September-through-March body of work, and he projects as a third or fourth-round forward with a top-nine NHL ceiling if his transition skill scales.

6. Vertti Svensk, LD, SaiPa (Liiga, U20 SM-sarja)

NHL Central Scouting Rank: 84th (Among International skaters)

Svensk is the high-variance bet of this Finnish class. The 6-foot-1, 168-pound left-shot defenseman from Joensuu put up four goals and 28 assists in 21 U20 SM-sarja games and added 18 Liiga regular-season appearances plus one playoff game, mostly as SaiPa’s seventh defenseman, with stretches at fourth-line wing under head coach Raimo Helminen. Tony Ferrari at The Hockey News had him 32nd in his April board, but Central Scouting was much lower at 84.

The Miro Heiskanen comparison that has circulated in scouting circles originated with Finnish-speaking observers, who in Jatkoaika’s Nov. 16 feature got the explanation directly from Svensk: he grew up at the Joensuu rink with his father and credited the rink staff for letting him on the ice whenever there was free time. That is independent practice culture, not just a comp. He was passed over for the U18 Worlds in favor of eight other defenders, with his sub-176-pound frame and inconsistent defensive zone reads under pressure as the public concerns. His older brother Simppa Svensk is a current U20 SM-sarja scoring leader and the second hockey player in the family. Vertti Svensk’s range is the widest in the Finnish class, from the early second round to the fifth round.

5. Samu Alalauri, LD, Pelicans (U20 SM-sarja) / UMass Commit

NHL Central Scouting Rank: 19th (Among International skaters)

Alalauri has been one of the steadier risers in this class. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound left-shot defenseman from Lahti posted six goals and 19 assists in 40 U20 SM-sarja games for Pelicans U20 and was a scoring driver internationally with strong production for Finland’s U18 program. Elite Prospects and The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler trended him from preseason honorable mention into the top 50 by spring. He was named Pelicans’ junior organization defenseman of the year in 2024-25, and was Finland’s alternate captain at the U18 Worlds in Slovakia, where Jatkoaika called him “the tournament’s overall ice-time leader” through the round-robin.

He scored the 4-4 tying goal with five minutes left in regulation against host Slovakia from a Suvanto-led offensive set, then was on the ice for the overtime winner, which is the kind of late-game weight that travels at the next level. He committed to the University of Massachusetts in September 2025, then signed a Pelicans contract extension in May 2025, bridging him for one more year of Finnish development before NCAA arrival in 2026-27. His profile inside Finnish scouting circles is the inverse of Juho Piiparinen’s at international level: Alalauri is the offensive driver, Piiparinen the steady defender. At club level both are more rounded, but that international split is the framing English consensus boards have undervalued, and the UMass commitment positions him exactly where the 2026 draft has been trending for high-end Finnish defensemen.

4. Vilho Vanhatalo, LW/RW, Tappara (Liiga, U20 SM-sarja)

NHL Central Scouting Rank: 14th (Among International skaters)

Vanhatalo is the largest skill prospect in the Finnish class, a 6-foot-4 left-shot winger whose shot mechanics and physical frame have made him polarizing on consolidated boards. He spent the bulk of 2025-26 anchoring Tappara’s U20 SM-sarja team with 10 goals and nine assists in 38 games, then ranked among the U20 SM-sarja playoff scoring leaders with six goals and four assists in seven games before being released to the U18 Worlds. He earned eight Liiga call-ups along the way, with his first appearance on Nov. 26 against Jukurit slotting him in on the fourth line for 8:19 of ice time.

In an April 16 Leijonat.fi interview after the U20 SM-sarja quarterfinal, Vanhatalo diagnosed his own season with unusual self-awareness, saying his early production was strong, his Liiga stint left him with what he called an “apina selässä” (monkey on his back), and that his recent stretch had finally shaken it. That kind of internal accountability from a 17-year-old is a Tappara coaching imprint. He scored the 3-2 goal against host Slovakia in overtime in Finland’s tournament-saving group-stage win on April 25.

The Vanhatalo family is hockey through and through. Older brother Lassi, 6-foot-7 and 28 years old, plays Liiga (currently HIFK), and older brother Miika, 30, is the head coach of Tappara’s U18 SM-sarja team. Vilho told NHL.com/fi Lassi has been his biggest idol, and joked that with his brother at two metres tall, he might still grow a few centimetres. His range on consolidated boards runs from the second to early third round, with TSN’s Craig Button at 37th the high end. The skating gap is real, but the Tappara penalty-kill trust he earned in late 2025-26, flagged by general manager Janne Vuorinen on Tappara.fi as “rooli kasvoi alivoimapelaajana” (meaning role grew on the penalty kill), is the unusual habit underneath the power-forward shell.

3. Oscar Hemming, LW, Boston College (NCAA)

NHL Central Scouting Rank: 11th (Among NA skaters)

Hemming is on the Central Scouting North American list because he plays at Boston College in Hockey East, but he is one of the top Finnish prospects in this class. The 6-foot-4 Vaasa-born left winger is the younger brother of Dallas Stars 2024 first-rounder Emil Hemming, drafted 29th overall, and the family resemblance shows in the shot, the puck protection, and the willingness to play through traffic.

The pathway to Boston College was the most unusual European-prospect story of the draft cycle. Iltalehti, FinnHockey, and Pallomeri tracked the timeline: Hemming terminated his Kiekko-Espoo junior contract last summer, signed with the Kitchener Rangers in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Import Draft on August 25, saw Kiekko-Espoo legally block the move, signed with the Sherwood Park Crusaders in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) in October, and learned the IIHF would impose a multi-year international ban if he played BCHL hockey.

He accelerated his academic schedule and enrolled at Boston College for the spring semester, with the school announcing the addition on Dec. 26, 2025. He played 19 NCAA games, finished around one goal and seven assists for eight points, was named Hockey East Rookie of the Week, and worked his way up to top-line minutes alongside fellow 2026-eligible James Hagens and Boston Bruins prospect Andre Gasseau.

What Finnish coverage has emphasized that English boards have not is that the IIHF threat, not the OHL block, was the decisive lever, and that Hemming’s hockey IQ is talked about as exceeding his older brother’s, not just his frame. Public boards from Sportsnet, Daily Faceoff, McKeen’s, and TSN have him in the 10 to 15 range. The shot is borderline NHL-ready, the frame is pro-level, and the in-tight finishing under pressure is a habit that scaled cleanly from his 35-goal Kiekko-Espoo U18 season into Hockey East minutes within months.

2. Juho Piiparinen, RD, Tappara (Liiga)

NHL Central Scouting Rank: 6th (Among International skaters)

Piiparinen is the most pro-ready defensive profile in the 2026 class. The 6-foot-3 right-shot defenseman, born in Lahti and a Pelicans junior alum before moving to Tampere, played 29 Liiga games as a 17-year-old for Tappara and was an underage selection for Finland at the 2026 World Junior Championship. THW’s Top 10 Defensemen list ranked him sixth overall in the class for his fundamentals, his skating, and his ability to match up against men through structure rather than power. He won the 2024-25 U18 SM-sarja championship with Tappara, scoring the deciding final goal, before earning his way into Liiga full time.

He was named captain of Pikkuleijonat for the U18 World Championship in Slovakia, with Tappara teammates and Pelicans alums Alalauri and HIFK product Anttoni Uronen wearing the As. He told Tappara.fi the captaincy was a major honor, that you do not get to wear the national-team jersey too often, and that wearing the C is a big deal. After Finland’s 7-0 loss to Canada in the group stage, Piiparinen’s accountability quote in Jatkoaika was captain language: he said the first thing he did was stand in front of the mirror and think about what he could do better, that the team has to dare to throw itself into games more, and that everyone there was selected for a reason.

The offensive ceiling is the question that will set his floor. He is not going to put up gaudy point totals, but the tools, the intelligence, and the right-shot scarcity put him squarely in the late-first to early-second round conversation, and he signed a two-year extension with Tappara through 2027 that gives the drafting team another full Liiga season to evaluate.

1. Oliver Suvanto, C, Tappara (Liiga)

NHL Central Scouting Rank: 3rd (Among International skaters)

Suvanto is the highest-ranked Finn on the final Central Scouting International board and the clear top of this class. The 6-foot-3, 207-pound center, born in Turku and now a fixture at Tampere’s Hakametsä, played 48 Liiga games for Tappara as a 17-year-old, putting up two goals and nine assists for 11 points in a third and fourth-line deployment, and added two goals in seven games for Finland at the 2026 World Junior Championship as one of two underage selections. NHL Director of European Scouting Jukka-Pekka Vuorinen, via NHL.com, described Suvanto in January as the most complete and mature 17-year-old center seen in Liiga since Aleksander Barkov.

The independent Finnish-language corroboration came from Yle’s Ismo Lehkonen, who wrote ahead of the World Juniors that Suvanto has “härskimpi kilpailuvietti kuin Barkovilla” (a more savage competitive instinct than Barkov), which is saying a lot. Tappara released him to Pikkuleijonat after the team’s Liiga semifinal series, and he showed up in Slovakia and produced almost immediately, putting four points on Norway in the opener and scoring the overtime winner against host Slovakia in a 5-4 win on April 25, a performance Jatkoaika headlined as silencing the home crowd. He was held without a point in the 7-0 loss to Canada and the 2-1 quarterfinal loss to Czechia.

What Finnish observers see that English scouting tends to underweight is faceoff sustainability against men. HFBoards Finnish-speaker tracking on his early Liiga shifts pegged him at 83.3 percent on his draws as a 17-year-old in his second start centering the second line, the kind of small-sample number that, sustained, is the entire reason Tappara’s coaching staff trusted him as a true center rather than reflexively shifting him to wing. The other habit worth flagging is pre-zone-entry stick angle. His stick is on the puck-carrier’s blade or sealing the half-wall before he arrives at the battle, the drilled habit that makes him “luotettava” (reliable) in the language Tappara coaches use. Whether he goes off the board late in the first round or early in the second comes down to how teams weigh his Liiga production curve against his role and tools, which are clearly first-round caliber.

A Class Built Around Tampere and Lahti

What ties this group together is the concentration of clubs. Three of the top four Finns (Suvanto, Piiparinen, and Vanhatalo) play out of the Tappara organization, the same club that has put underage players on Finland’s World Junior roster in back-to-back cycles, and Piiparinen himself came up through Pelicans before moving to Tampere. The other cluster is Lahti, where Pelicans developed Alalauri, Arkko, and Piiparinen’s early years. Hemming’s Boston College pathway and Alalauri’s UMass commitment together represent something genuinely new: the NCAA is now a real Plan A or Plan B for Finland’s first-round-talent juniors, which it was not as recently as the 2024 cycle.

The U18 Worlds disappointment in Slovakia, where Finland scored 14 goals in three group-stage wins but were shut out 7-0 by Canada and lost a one-goal quarterfinal to Czechia, will not move the top of the Finnish board, but the lost stage hurts the late-round names like Wahlroos, the injured Arkko, and any Finn outside the top three more than Suvanto, Piiparinen, or Vanhatalo, who had already done enough.

Honorable mentions to round out the Finnish board:

• Kärpät U20 winger Janne Karassaari
• Overage goaltender Patrik Kerkola and a handful of other repeat-eligible Finns
• U20 goaltender Pyry Lammi
• Centers Jiko Laitinen and Viljo Kähkönen
• Pelicans defenseman Eelis Uronen (Anttoni’s Twin)
• TPS winger Wilmer Kallio

With NHL European Scouting director Jukka-Pekka Vuorinen running point on the international list, the Finnish names this class produces will be especially well-vetted by the time names are read in Buffalo on June 26 and June 27.