Two Devils Prospects Invited by Finland to World Junior Summer Showcase

This year’s World Junior Summer Showcase is set to begin in just a few days and two New Jersey Devils prospects selected in the 2024 NHL Draft will be participating.

The mini-tournament features Team USA, Canada, Sweden, and Finland and includes international competitions in preparation for the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship.

The two Devils prospects attending will be New Jersey’s 2024 third and fifth-round picks, forward Kasper Pikkarainen and goalie Veeti Louhivaara. Both players will represent Team Finland, vying for a spot on their World Juniors team this winter.

Two #NJDevils prospects and 2024 draft picks, F Kasper Pikkarainen and G Veeti Louhivaara will compete for Team Finland at the World Junior Summer Showcase

Learn a little more about them⬇️https://t.co/B1GO22mFrx https://t.co/c8PohWhECa

— Nick Natale (@NickNatale10) July 23, 2024

At last year’s World Juniors, Devils prospect Lenni Hameenaho was part of a Finnish side that lost in the bronze medal game to Team Czechia.

Pikkarainen, the first of two third-round picks by the Devils this year, is a power forward with nifty hands and a good release on his shot. At the NHL level, he projects as more of a bottom-six complimentary winger, but his role at the international level with players his own age remains to be seen. The Devils lack many high-end prospects that could feature at the World Juniors this winter, so Pikkarainen may be the Devils best chance at representation.

As for fifth-round pick Veeti Louhivaara, he’ll have to battle a pair of Seattle Kraken draft picks; 2024 third-rounder Kim Saarinen and 2023 sixth-rounder Visa Vedenpaa. However, Finnish goalie Eemil Vinni, NHL Central Scouting’s top-rated international goalie, was not named to the team but should be in contention for a spot on their World Juniors team later this year.

The World Junior Summer Showcase runs from July 28th to August 3rd and will be the first chance we’ll get to see some of the top prospects from the past year play.

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