With their third pick of the second round, the Seattle Kraken went for a player in a much-needed position: goaltending. Niklas Kokko is a 6’3” Finnish goaltender playing for Kärpät of Liiga.
Kokko obviously isn’t going to immediately break out onto the scene and be the fix to the Kraken’s goaltending woes from last season. In fact, goaltending prospects usually take more time in the pipeline to develop before they truly come into their own.
However, Kokko might be set on a path to develop at a faster pace. Time will ultimately tell, but this Finnish goaltender is playing with the main Kärpät team next season instead of their U20 squad. It boasts well for his progression in net.
In 29 games with Kärpät’s U20 team, he posted 2.06 goals against average and a .914 save percentage. He also won bronze with Finland during the U18 World Junior Championship and posted a win in the sole game he played for his country that tournament.
There seem to be no signs of the Kraken trading away any of this stash of picks today, so we’ll keep plugging right along to pick number 61.
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