How acquired: Selected with No. 49 pick in 2022 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
2024-25 season: Seattle (NHL): 12 GP, 3-3-6; Coachella Valley (AHL): 58 GP, 28-16-44<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old impressed during his first full season in North America, using size and an exceptional shot to earn a mid-March promotion.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t always an easy transition coming over, but Nyman (6-2, 212) succeeded in part because of how coachable he was.<\/p>\n
“He takes information and implements it right away,” Murphy said. “He’s a big, strong guy and he’s got a heavy shot, gets it off, and has shown an ability to get to open spots and score, which has really opened a lot of eyes.”<\/p>\n
Projected NHL arrival: This season<\/p>\n
How acquired: Selected with No. 58 pick in 2022 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
2024-25 season: Seattle (NHL): 1 GP, 0-0-0, 4.01 GAA, .667 save percentage; Coachella Valley (AHL): 33 GP, 20-10-2, 2.26 GAA, .913 save percentage<\/p>\n
Kokko has taken big steps in each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
First, he took over the starting job and helped Pelicans to the final in Liiga, the top professional league in his native Finland as a 19-year-old. Then he came to North America and was Coachella Valley’s No. 1 by the beginning of the Calder Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n
Still just 21 years old, Kokko has impressed with his size (6-3, 184), athleticism and competitiveness while still refining his approach mentally.<\/p>\n
“He’s a confident kid that absolutely loves winning, hates losing and battles in the net,” Murphy said. “Couple good years of really big steps.”<\/p>\n
Projected NHL arrival: 2026-27<\/p>\n
How acquired: Selected with No. 20 pick in 2023 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
2024-25 season: Coachella Valley (AHL): 51 GP, 6-15-21<\/p>\n
Sale was Czechia captain at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, scoring the bronze-medal clinching goal in a 3-2 shootout victory against Sweden after getting the winning goal in two of the first three games.<\/p>\n
“Big moments, he raised his level,” said Murphy, noting the 20-year-old is a three-time World Junior medal winner (two bronze, one silver). “We love he was able show his skill on the highest stage and execute in big moments.”<\/p>\n
Sale (6-2, 174) was also able to translate that skill during his first pro season, navigating the inevitable ups and downs of being in the AHL so young.<\/p>\n
“He showed us stretches of the playmaking ability, high-end hockey sense and vision,” Murphy said.<\/p>\n
Projected NHL arrival: 2026-27<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How acquired: Selected with No. 49 pick in 2022 NHL Draft 2024-25 season: Seattle (NHL): 12 GP, 3-3-6;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-92640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}