After selecting Alexander Command, a physical and two-way Swedish center at 12th overall in the first round of the NHL Draft, Sunny Mehta decided to trade down from the 35th overall pick. He sent 35 to Chicago in exchange for the 37th and 119th picks. When that 37th pick came up, the Devils selected Matias Vanhanen from Finland, out of the WHL.
Matias Vanhanen is a playmaking, shifty forward. He had 21 goals and 66 assists and only 6 PIMs for the Everett Silvertips of the WHL this season after scoring 47 points in 42 games in the Finnish U20 league in 2024-25. He also had 12 goals and 12 assists in the playoffs for Everett this year. In World Juniors, Vanhanen had six assists in seven games for Finland’s U20 team. Per Mitchell Brown’s CHL tracking, Vanhanen is an excellent passing transition player, though he has work to do defensively (though that may be hard to see at times with his whopping +58 in 62 WHL games), and his shot is rather weak. But he does go to the net, which could make up for some of that lack of shooting talent.
At first glance, I like the pick. He’s a straight-up hockey player: he works with speed and creates goals by either going to the net or finding his teammates who are heading there. At 5’11” and 176 pounds, he is not a massive physical presence on the ice, but he has the speed and puck skills to be difficult to dispossess when in motion. Adding his vision to that mix, the Devils might have a great third-line playmaker on their hands.
12:15 update: Tim might want to call him “Van Halen” (and I’m seconding that nickname there for fan consideration as well), and the Devils have selected someone who should fit in well with the style of play that guys like Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt play. Maybe there’s a bit of Arseny Gritsyuk in his game without the range shot. He does not tend to shoot very far from the net, as you might see in his goal package, but he moves so quickly with the puck and has an eye for those scoring areas, whether he’s on or off puck.
I would project him as a rush threat given his transition skill, and he should be paired with goal scorers to maximize his potential. While Timo Meier has been a solid winger for Nico Hischier, I can see Vanhanen being a good option on that line in a year or two. Nico works best when he creates odd-man rushes, but how often have the Devils been able to get a guy who passes well in those situations over the last couple of years? On two-on-ones, plays where a pass is successfully made lead to incredibly high percentage shots, and the CHL tracking above shows that Vanhanen is exceptional at creating chances for his teammates in transition. But he does not need to pass into the zone: he is perfectly capable of skating it in without turning it over, which will help whichever puck-dominant center he is lined up with avoid counterattacks. Timo Meier and Arseny Gritsyuk should also appreciate his ability to set up one-timers.
He does have work to do in the offensive zone, but maybe that improves as he builds some mass. I do think he is probably too good for the WHL right now, so maybe a move to the NCAA in the near future would be in his best interest. Either way, Vanhanen’s ability to come over to North America and dominate a league like the WHL (which is apparently the strongest CHL league at the moment) while being a highly valued player for Finland in international competitions should give Devils fans a lot of reasons to have some excitement for his future.