New Jersey Devils: Aarne Talvitie’s Potential To Play In NHL Soon

The New Jersey Devils have some really good young prospects in the mix. Aarne Talvite is one of them that could make a real impact, maybe sooner rather than later.

The New Jersey Devils have brought in some pretty sweet prospects over the past few seasons.  Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes each came in with the first-overall pick, and guys like Jesper Boqvist, Jesper Bratt, and Ty Smith hold the keys to the future along with them. One prospect who has a chance that doesn’t get the same amount of love is Aarne Talvitie.

Talvitie is a Finnish born forward that took a bit of a different route than most Finnish players. Instead of playing in the Finnish Elite League, KHL, or any other men’s pro league, he chose American College Hockey. He attends Penn State University and just finished his sophomore year there. He is currently unsigned by New Jersey and at 21 years old, it is hard to see when he will turn pro.

Talvitie was a 6th-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. That is very good on the Devils to find a kid like that in the later rounds of the draft. The Devils took Hischier and Bratt in the same draft, so if Talvitie hits that will be one of the better draft years in Devils’ history. He is a really good player that could provide some great depth to this Devils’ team down the line.

In 2018-19, Talvitie had a good year before an injury at the World Junior Championship cut his season short at Penn State. He had five goals and 11 assists for 16 points in 17 games played. He also had four goals and three assists for seven points in seven games as the captain of the Finnish World Juniors team that won the gold medal. Only Aleksi Heponiemi had more points in the tournament for Finland than Talvitie. Talvitie’s knee injury happened in the gold medal game against the United States.

Things are a little bit different in 2019-20, as the points fell off a little bit but are still respectable. He had six goals and 13 assists for 19 points in 30 games this year. He was also coming off of a major injury which takes time to recover. There is no reason to believe that he still can’t be an NHL player for the New Jersey Devils one day. Hopefully, Talvitie continues to develop at the college level and can be an impact player for the New Jersey Devils sooner rather than later.