One of the top scoring re-entries this year is Finnish-born OHL sniper Linus Nyman. The diminutive winger has spent the last two seasons on a powerful Kingston team, benefiting from and contributing to the strength of that group. We have Nyman ranked near the end of our Top 100 last year, and after going unclaimed he has only improved his offensive numbers. Unfortunately, the size and stylistic issues that left him undrafted last year remain. Still, with the skating and scoring goals part down pat, we’ve got Nyman back in our Top 100 again, with the hope that he’ll eventually add the strength need to be a difference maker at the pro level. Linus Nyman checks in at no. 79.

Before journeying to North America, Nyman had already been building a promising prospect resume in his home nation of Finland, including some promising international appearances. Nyman was taken by the Frontenacs 53rd overall in the 2016 CHL Import Draft, joining the team the following year. He’s had two strong years in Kingston, to add to strong Hlinka Memorial and World Under-18 performances in his draft year. Facing the difficult situation of being an international overager, Nyman is returning to Finalnd after signing a two-year contract with Lukko of the Finnish SM-Liiga.

Statistically speaking, Linus Nyman is a stud. He’s right up near the top for every metric we’ve concocted, and his average percentile (0.968) is actually the second best among all available forwards in this draft (it should be noted that pro players are unfairly disadvantaged here, as only SEAL and pGPS have built in mechanisms to account for league quality, but still, he leads all junior players who are on the same playing feel).

This will be a recurring theme, but as mentioned in the lede, Nyman has dynamite numbers. Only a handful of available forwards scored more points than his 86 – they were all older and all played more games. Among all available players, the only first time eligible player to tally more was defenceman Evan Bouchard (you’ll have to wait a few weeks to get our take on him obviously).

Nyman tore up the OHL at 5-on-5, posting 32 goals and 63 points at even strength, the most of any available player. His even strength production was heavily of the primary variety, while on the power play he proved to be more of a distributor, which is exactly the mix that SEAL likes. Even more positive, his eight primary power play assists (when including playoffs), set up seven different triggermen (see the Scoring Network below), demonstrating that his setup abilities weren’t reliant on any particular teammate. The only real hit Nyman takes his is in the age category, being the year above many of his available peers, but with a mid-July birthday, he’s still relatively young as far as overagers go.

Each of the teammate relative charts bear out a consistent message: Nyman was a leader, not a follower. Among his most frequent linemates (which included some of the OHL’s best players), to a man they were better with Nyman than without him, be that in point rate or goal share. Granted, there’s no doubt that Nyman benefited from the opportunity to play with Gabriel Vilardi and Jason Robertson, and his offence suffered when you took them away, but that’s only to be expected with players of that quality.

As with all the other numbers I’ve gathered, Nyman looks great through the pGPS lens, with more than a 40% expected likelihood of NHL success. It’s a step up from last year, when he was already in the 20’s in that regard, and it’s one of the best bets available for overagers. His match pool contains the likes of Doug Gilmour, Nick Cousins, and Tobias Rieder.

If you’ve gotten this far, you’ll know that Linus Nyman has had an excellent year by all statistical standards, from a pGPS XLS% worthy of a first rounder, to a shot rate of nearly three per game, to a 5-on-5 Primary INV% of just short of 30% (meaning he had a goal or primary assist on about 30% of his team’s 5-on-5 goals).

It goes deeper than numbers though. Nyman’s skating is well regarded, with shifty edge work and the coveted ability to change speeds quickly. He has an accurate shot, good hands, and is a demonstrably intelligent player. So then why doesn’t he appear in the top 100 of any other draft rankings?

Make no mistake, this is largely about size. Nyman measures in at either 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10 (depending on who you ask), and somewhere around 160 pounds. Now, the new NHL has become a lot more hospitable for smaller players, there’s no doubt about that, but for Nyman it’s not just about the size, but how he uses it – and that’s not at all. While the successful undersized NHL players have grown adept at using their agility and intelligence to wade through the “dangerous” areas of the ice, Nyman avoids the areas entirely. He shies away from physical contact and requires help from his teammates to retrieve pucks and move them through certain spots. As you can imagine, this style doesn’t bode well for his ability to help in the defensive zone either. The positioning and anticipation is there, but the strength and battle level is not. Moreover, that lack of strength impedes the power of his shot, making it difficult for him to beat goalies from distance, even with above average accuracy.

Simply put, Nyman needs to add strength if he hopes to be effective in the future, and he’ll need to add several degrees of intensity. If he does that, there’s no further reason that he couldn’t become a productive middle six (or even top six) point producer at the NHL level. While the addition of muscle comes relatively easy, an increase in battle level and competitiveness could be harder to achieve. This is an area where chats with the player and his junior team staff would come in handy, to get a grip on his psychological readiness to improve in that sector. The feedback from those questions, for a player like Nyman, could mean the difference between getting picked in the third or fourth round, and not getting picked at all.

Nyman will head home next season to play in the SM-Liiga in Finland. That shouldn’t detract from him getting picked altogether: Canucks prospect Petrus Palmu recently did the same thing and ended up winning the Liiga’s rookie of the year award, and there are no indications that he won’t be willing to return to North America in the future. This move could bode very well for Nyman – Liiga is one of Europe’s best professional leagues, it’s played on an ice surface that’s closer in size to North American rinks than its Swedish or Russian counterparts, and tends to have a more physical style of play than what we’d assume of a European league. It could be a good litmus test as to the steps that Nyman is taking in working towards the NHL someday.

From HockeyProspect.com’s 2017 NHL Black Book:

From Scott Crawford at McKeen’s Hockey: