{"id":634060,"date":"2026-05-10T03:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T03:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634060\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T03:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T03:50:12","slug":"topi-niemela-signs-with-if-bjorkloven-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634060\/","title":{"rendered":"Topi Niemela Signs With IF Bjorkloven \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defenseman Topi Niemela<\/a> will continue his career in Sweden. The 24 year old has signed with IF Bjorkloven<\/a> who recently earned promotion to the SHL. Niemela moved to Sweden on a one-year deal with the Malmo Redhawks last summer. The deal marked a return to Europe for the former top Finnish defense prospect. Niemela\u2019s NHL rights are held by the Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

Niemela scored four goals and 18 points in 52 games with Malmo. He ranked second on the team\u2019s blue-line in scoring \u2013 21 points behind former New York Islanders prospect Robin Salo<\/a> in the lead. Niemela fell short of his AHL scoring in his move overseas. He had a promising break into the Toronto Marlies roster in 2023-24, finishing the year with 39 points in 68 games and a solid lineup role. He hit a dip in his attempts to follow it up, scoring just 22 points in 61 games of the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n

After failing to find an offensive boost in the SHL, Niemela will test his talents in a bigger role with Bjorkloven. He shined as an effective puck-mover through a four-season stint in Finland\u2019s Liiga, prior to his first AHL season. Niemela reached 32 points in 48 games of the 2021-22 season, two years after Toronto landed him with the 64th-overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. He fell back to 18 points in 58 games of the 2022-23 season, preluding a move to the Marlies lineup. Niemela would need a big performance to pop back up on the Maple Leafs\u2019 radar, though a strong year in the SHL could be a promising start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defenseman Topi Niemela will continue his career in Sweden. The 24 year old has signed with IF Bjorkloven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[391,385,99,273867,1788],"class_list":["post-634060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ahl","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-topi-niemela","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}