5 prospects in 2018 NHL Draft who will be big steals
By Nick McAdam
2. Sampo Ranta
Sampo Ranta recently emerged as a scoring winger with the Sioux City Muskateers in the USHL where he contributed 23 goals to his side.
Ranta has been a journeyman in his young career. He started off in his home nation of Finland, then moved to Denmark to play in the RBHS development leagues. Now, Ranta is committed to the United States as he is signed to play with the Wisconsin Badgers next season.
What’s great about Ranta is that he has great size and speed to cover a lot of areas that a winger needs to have down. The Finn can score goals, back-check and contribute to the special teams. Ranta has decent awareness to track where the puck is and needs to be.
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Ranta often jumps up early to look for a spring pass from a defenseman to lead to a breakaway or a two-on-one scenario. This could be a good or bad thing, but most NHL clubs will want prospects to play more conservative until they can make the jump of feeling comfortable.
The Naantali-born left-shot winger has produced eight points with a great development nation in Finland. That’s also a great benefit that tends to be overlooked; Ranta can play on European and North American ice.
Ranta is ranked for the third round of the NHL draft, but chances are that he could go higher. NHL Central Scouting has Ranta ranked as the 15th best skater in the draft among other North American players.