Long scouting report of Joni Ikonen
Ikonen played 12:58 as KalPa’s fourth-line center in their 2-1 loss against Ilves 28th of October. He didn’t get on the scoresheet and was -1 and took five shots on goal.
Ikonen has still yet to score his first goal in men’s games. He has only one assist in 18 games so far this season.
However, friday night was his best game I’ve seen him this season so far. He had three scoring chances and was partly just bad luck that he couldn’t convert from those.
He’s still a bit shy when it comes to physical play and he stays away from the boards and scrimmages, although he is not that weak when he ends up playing physically.
Ikonen’s skating is good and he has no trouble keeping up with the skating pace in Liiga play.
While his offensive game hasn’t yet been what everyone was hoping for, he hasn’t been very impressive defensively either.
His positioning in the own zone is quite good, but he sometimes appears a bit lazy when forechecking.
It would probably be good for him to play a short stint in lower level either in the Junior A or second-tier Mestis, but according to KalPa’s head coach Sami Kapanen nothing like that has been considered so far.
Kapanen says Ikonen’s potential is obvious, and that big part of his problems are because of lack of confidence that has developed because of his lengthy slump.
Joni Ikonen