Lahtinen had two points even though Peliitat lost to Espoo United with numbers 6-3. He made his team’s first goal after carrying the puck to the offensive zone and after his pass was intercepted, he was able to get to the puck first and he made a quick shot which passed the goalie. He also got secondary assist later in a game while his team was in power play. During this goal Lahtinen made excellent job blocking the goalie’s view.

He was very much the same player I saw while watching the junior game. He has astonishing hands, he is able to make crafty dekes and he carries the puck with a lot of confidence. He is able to give really good and precise passes and he was one of the best skaters in this game. He is also physically mature and it was extremely hard to knock the puck away from him while he was next to board. However while he isn’t lazy, he occasionally didn’t come to help defense as quickly as he could. Also when his team was trailing, he didn’t really play efficient game. Instead he relied solely on his stickhandling skills, tried to make things happen all by himself and eventually tried to make too fancy moves.

Despite the negatives because Lahtinen has so much skill and he has couple of great assets, I wouldn’t be too surprised if some team would draft Lahtinen in the later rounds.

Severi Lahtinen has been in excellent form this season gathering over one point per game in Mestis, the second best league in Finland. This was his first junior game of the season and he matched the expectations with two assists against Lukko.

As expected, Lahtinen was dominant force at the offensive end. He showed excellent skill with stick, showed some fine moves, deked efficiently and was able to play quick and creative passing game. He showed that he is too good player for this league and partially because of that he tried to make too fancy moves instead of focusing of efficient play all the time. I would also like to see him going directly to the net more often.

Lahtinen is also quick player for this level even though he makes way too wide turns. Also his defensive game requires some more work as he often seems somewhat uninterested if there isn’t immediate chance to get the puck. However he is ready for pro game. He is physically mature, won majority of the board battles, intercepted the passes and made multiple takeaways. He has some holes in his game but those are easiest to fix by playing against grown-up men. Proper assessment regarding his current abilities should be made in pro game.