- Kraken Selection: 2nd Round, 2024
- Position: Center
- Junior Team & League: Everett, WHL
- Height & Weight: 6-3, 205
- 2023-24 Stats: 66 games, 31 goals, 67 points
Julius Miettinen, from Finland, faced the same daunting obstacles of every youngster coming over from Europe. “The hockey is so different here, the ice is smaller, so you have to be ready all the time and your skating has to be good,” Miettinen told NHL.com. “I think the biggest thing here is that they want more all the time. They’re not good with just, ‘OK.’ You have to be the best of yourself all the time.”
Like any good performer, Miettinen made sure to give people what they wanted. One patron he sold was Kraken general manager Ron Francis. “I saw him in Everett,” Francis said to the Everett Herald. “I was impressed with his size, he thinks the game very well. You get a kid that can find his way to the front of the net, that’s never a bad thing.”
Miettinen credits the Everett Silvertips with accelerating his progress, as you’ll hear in this Kraken Reaction.