( Photo Credit: Finnish Junior Hockey @FINjrhockey )
By: Mark Allred | Follow Me On Twitter @BlackAndGold277
Per RinksideRhodeIsland.com reporter Mark Divver and the AHL.com’s website transactions page, the Boston Bruins have assigned forward Joona Koppanen to the ECHL Atlanta Gladiators. The 21-year-old 6′-5″ 195-pound forward has only appeared in one game this season for the NHL Bruins top minor-pro affiliate Providence Bruins registering zero points and in Mark’s tweet below was in rotation for fourth-line centering duties where he was obviously overpassed by players earning more time.
Providence Bruins assign Joona Koppanen to Atlanta where he’ll get playing time. He has scratched for first 3 games in Prov, but centered 4th line on Sunday
— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) October 15, 2019
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Koppanen, a Finnish born left shooting forward, has the ability to be a big presence either up the middle or on the left side but hasn’t exactly brought it offensively to the American Hockey League. Joona was selected in the fifth round of the 2016 National Hockey League Entry Draft and spent some time developing his skillset back home after being selected in the draft from Buffalo, New York. He spent two full seasons playing for the IIves organization with one season in the Jr. A SM-liiga and his second year in the higher Liiga Pro League. With the junior club, he posted 23-31-54 in 38 games playing with talent around his own age, but when he moved up to the pro league netted 2-12-14 numbers in 45 games. He left his llves club after his contract expired and joined the Providence Bruins team at the end of their 2017-18 campaign appearing in ten games and posting 2-0-2 numbers.
#NHLBruins sign forward Joona Koppanen to a 3-year entry-level contract, beginning with the 2017-18 season: https://t.co/wcMX5C2N1Z
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 13, 2017
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Joona’s no stranger to the ECHL Atlanta club as he started the 2018-19 season appearing in seven games where he and former Boston Bruins prospect Jesse Gabrielle were assigned. Joona would eventually get the call back up to Providence after a one-point stint with the Gladiators and finished the season with 2-0-2 totals in 45 games in the higher AHL. As mentioned in Mark Divver’s Tweet above, this is a sold move to keep him game time fresh and paraphrasing here but could be given a bigger role with top 12 minutes that he might need to find a spark offensively. You have to learn to crawl before you walk, so if he gets on a roll and works hard, there’s no reason he couldn’t return to PVD after point streaking in the Coast.
Bruins prospect Joona Koppanen with the snipe pic.twitter.com/Djxb6w5fLE
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) December 31, 2017
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Finland out-battles Slovakia and Bruins prospect Joona Koppanen gets the goal pic.twitter.com/eiZzoKTAvv
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) December 30, 2017
Check out the new Black N’ Gold Prospect Podcast episode 002 that we recorded on 10-8-19 below! You can find our show on many worldwide platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Stitcher.
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