In my entry from yesterday on Teemu Hartikainen, the hardest working man in the blog business, Jonathan Willis said

this is an interesting chart and some very nice company for young Hartikainen.
Sustain, IMO, is the biggest question.

In that vein, here is a chart of NHL-bound forwards in the 19-year-old seasons in the Finnish Liga.


The bottom three on this chart were 19-year-old rookies in the Liga. If we compare this to the 18-year-old chart in the previous entry, we see that the players that eventually became impact players took significant steps forward and Hartikainen must do the same. I think that in order for the kid to become a legit impact prospect around these parts, he would have to post a minimum in the range of 20 goals and 38 points -- his line in the sand, so to speak. If, at this time next year, Hartikainen comes with numbers in this range, as Lowetide would say, he becomes a "player of interest", regardless of improvements needed in skating. Everything I have been able to translate using google has him at center and left wing -- he could be the only left wing prospect in the org at this point.

Shiny things to look at: below is some media on Hartikainen. I don't have translations available, but if you have any Finnish contacts that can translate for me, let me know.

A video of Hartikainen reviewing his rookie year with Kalpan

Teemu Hartikainen sets the KalPan rookie record for goals.

A Finnish journalist goes one-on-one with Hartikainen