Päkkilä got a pair of assists in Kärpät’s 3-4 win over JYP. The New Jersey Devils 7th round pick from the 2018 draft played in his team’s first line and got a lot of power play time. Päkkilä was pretty quiet for the first half of the game and made quite many bad passes. Fortunately for his team, he picked things up in the latter half of the game and started to make good plays with the puck.

Päkkilä is a good skater with some nice puck skills. He is primarily a goal-scorer and has a dangerous wrist shot. Päkkilä also has a powerful slap shot, which he used couple of times on the power play. I have my reservations about him as an NHL prospect, because he seems to lack high-end hockey sense or speed, but he should score a lot this season in the Finnish U20 league.

Eetu Päkkilä played in the second line of Kärpät, when they lost the fourth Junior A league final 5-2. He recorded 13:18 time on ice, of which over half in the third period. He also took three shots that all missed.

Päkkilä got on the scoresheet with one assist for Kärpät’s first goal. After an offensive zone faceoff he passed the puck to a defenceman who scored from the blueline. In the second period Päkkilä set up a fantastic opportunity for his linemate.

Outside these occasiations Päkkilä was quite invisible. He played as a left wing, but played widely around the rink. Quite often he slided to the other side of the rink and left his side unguarded especially in the defensive zone.

Päkkilä is a relatively good skater, and he seems to have good offensive senses. His shot is also above-average. Sometimes Päkkilä is a little bit too eager to go on a rush.

He has a lot of room for improvement when the other team has the puck, and he should also improve his defensive game quite a bit.

Päkkilä made a game-winning goal with really nice shot against KalPa four minutes before the end of regulation. He likes to use his pretty good shot a lot and he registered seven shots during the game.

Päkkilä is a winger who is constantly moving. His skating looks bit heavy, but it is really powerful and he is very quick and agile. His positioning off the puck is above average and thanks to his excellent skating and good positioning, he is really efficient in checking game as he stole the puck and broke the pass several times in the game. However I think he is bit lazy at the own end and that part of his game requires improvement.

The forward has decent but not excellent puck handling skills. He is able to perform effective dangle from time to time but those are successful mostly thanks to his skating. Päkkilä also needs to become more versatile offensively. Carrying the puck seemed to be his only option in even strength, even though he showed that he can play quick passing play in power play. Päkkilä is still very lightweight but physical side should improve when he matures and when it does, he should become even more dangerous player.

Päkkilä is currently second in points at his team and he was selected as the player of the month for October in Finnish U20 league. He wasn’t able to get points against JYP but he recorded eight shots.

Päkkilä was not considered as one of the most potential draft picks before the season but he has constantly improved. Päkkilä has been able to use his good skating abilities. He is fast, agile, accelerates quickly and he knows how to use those abilities. I also liked how much he worked in every shift as he really gave everything he got on ice. He checks well and he knows where he needs to be. He also has pretty good shot compared to other players in league.

The biggest downside to me is that while Päkkilä seems to be good all-round forward, he might lack the assets to become effective offensive player in pro level. However he could become the kind of player you can put on ice in every situation.