Top 20 Detroit Red Wings Prospects To Watch In 2019-20

Antti Tuomisto, Assät U20, 35 points in 2018-19

The 2019 NHL Entry Draft class is well represented in this top twenty prospects list, and Antti Tuomisto is another name from that class. Tuomisto was selected with the Detroit Red Wings first selection of three in the second round out of Finland.

Tuomisto played his last season with the Assät U20 Junior A hockey club in the Finnish leagues. Tuomisto was a part of the NHL class that featured a lot of talent from overseas, especially Finland and Sweden.

Last season, Tuomisto scored nine goals and twenty-six assists for thirty-five points on the year in forty-five games. This season he will make the jump over to the North American leagues playing for the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL.

The Detroit Red Wings will look for a steady transition of his game as a prominent mobile defenseman. Tuomisto stands 6-foot-5, 193 pounds and is a big-bodied defenseman who can be mobile and pose an offensive threat with his tools.

Tuomisto’s offensive threat is most clearly identified as his booming shot from the point. His shot is not his only offensive asset, and he has phenomenal hands to accompany his shooting abilities. Being a bigger-bodied defenseman allows Tuomisto to be keen on the puck and play great defense. Tuomisto looks to become an offensively gifted, shooting defenseman for the Red Wings future.

With a plethora of Wings prospect defenseman, Tuomisto can be an offensive asset for the future. Breeding defenseman for the future will only allow the Detroit Red Wings to remain a competitive threat for the coming future.

If Yzerman has more assets at his disposal, if the need arises a trade can be completed much more comfortable if the Red Wings have prospect assets whom can be traded. That’s not to say Tuomisto needs to be traded, but with a plethora of defenseman, it’ll be easier to make the moves.

Early Expectation: The Detroit Red Wings are hoping that Tuomisto’s transition to North American hockey will be smooth so that he can be dumped into the Detroit Red Wings system and get his chance to develop.

If Tuomisto can grow and develop into an offensive threat for the Red Wings organization, he can easily be slotted into the same level of talent as Gustav Lindstrom or possibly even Oliwer Kaski. Tuomisto’s expertise will be prevalent early if it translates as expected. The only question will be if his talent can endure the jumps from the Finnish League, to the USHL, to the AHL, and then to the NHL.