The Edmonton Oilers have selected forward Joel Määttä as the 222nd overall in the NHL 2022 entry draft.
The 6’2 and 201-pound center is currently playing NCAA hockey for the University of Vermont. Last season, he participated in 32 games scoring three goals and six points.
Määttä spent the previous two years with the USHL Sioux City Musketeers, where in 95 games he scored 20 goals and 45 points. He played in three games with Finland in the 2022 Junior World Cup, where he scored one goal and two assists in two games.
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The Oilers would know a lot about Määttä, given that the Oilers ’head coach’s brother, Jay Woodcroft, Todd, is the University’s head coach. The Oilers drafted another University of Vermont product last year with German defender Luca Münzenberger.
@Musketeerhockey Alum @joel_maatta writing down where he is..net ahead! #NHLDraft #Matty pic.twitter.com/m1lyIB0SOD
– Luke Strand (@strand_luke) December 26, 2021
Here is a summary of the University of Vermont season, as well as an exploration report on the striker:
Määttä played 32 games with the Catamounts scoring three goals and three assists for six points … He scored his first goal of his career on February 19 at Merrimack … His first multi-point game of his career arrived at UConn on March 4, with one goal and one assist … Five of his six points came in the last 10 games of the season … Määttä represented Finland at the abbreviated IIHF 2022 Junior World Championships in Alberta … In two games, Määttä had a goal and two assists for Finland, including the winner of the match on December 26 against Germany and his UVM teammate Luca Münzenberger … He made a 15:18 average ice time for the Finns 2-0-0 … Määttä was third in the tournament in percentage of matches winning 74.2 percent of their draws … Won 23 of their draws . 31 clashes he took. – University of Vermont
It is Määttä’s defensive ability that generates value. He’s so hard on the record, so relentless in defensive zone recoveries, and he’s not afraid to get physically involved when the time requires it. Diadi, put a Black Hawks player in the ass a few seconds after losing the initial confrontation. He hit another Black Hawks player upside down in the second. It is robust. Maybe a little too resilient. – EliteProspects
It is Määttä’s presence in front of the network and the two-way reliability in the middle that creates a higher value than its pedestrian statistics line suggests. However, the wagons are starting to look better if you consider the environment offered by the Musketeers as the worst team in the Eastern Conference, a scenario worsened by the deadline, as they dedicated the most of his complementary talent to begin his reconstruction. –Joey Padmanabhan, EP Rinkside, 2020
Zach Laing is the news director and senior columnist for the Nation Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @zjlaingor contacted by email at [email protected]
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