2024 T25U25: Mikko Kokkonen is #15

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The fifth oldest Maple Leafs prospect is not yet 24, so he has another year as a T25 eligible. He's not, however, the oldest defender. Cade Webber beats him by a few days.

Mikko Kokkonen	Vitals
Age as of July 1	23.45
Position	LD
Height	6'
Weight (lbs)	200
Shoots	L
Draft Year	2019
Draft Number	84

The Player

Drafted in 2019, Kokkonen arrived in the system a year ahead of Topi Niemelä, and has been in the shadow of his younger teammate since. They are very unlike each other, and Kokkonen has none of the flash of Niemelä nor the reputation or expectations. But it was Kokkonen last September who suddenly impressed in training camp and made people give him a second look. The Leafs didn't, though, and he was never given a shot in a real NHL game.

He seems to have been around forever, but last year was Kokkonen's first full Marlies season after some injuries the year before.

The thing to remember about Kokkonen is that he gets little to no power play usage, and is rarely your man when your goal-scoring line is out on the ice. Throughout his career with Jukurit, on the Finnish U20 team, on the Marlies, he is the PK and defensive guy who still understands the offensive zone. The biggest knock against him was that in Finland, he used the dump-in a very great deal, making his play dull and prone to poor shotshare. This could be entirely due to coaching, however.

There are a lot more NHL jobs doing what Kokkonen does than there are playing the power play and zipping around jumping up in the play and getting buzz. Against the lower quality preseason competition that's standard in the NHL, he looked really good. But it was Marshall Rifai who got in two games, Max Lajoie and William Lagesson who got a bit more, and Simon Benoit who broke out of the pack after a terrible preseason and earned a Leafs job and a second contract.

Benoit is more than two years older, so it's not like Kokkonen's chances are used up if he's got something similar to offer – similar in defence, he'll never play like Benoit or with the same emotionalism. Kokkonen is so quiet a player, he seems to recede in your attention, and that's actually good for a defenceman. His play is all about the dog that doesn't bark in the nighttime only this time that's a good thing.

Kokkonen had a notoriously bad start to play in the AHL but he's very obviously gotten things sorted out in his mind. At this point, he's gotten most of what he can get out of the AHL after a year playing top pair all the time. Another season with a better Marlies team and some stability in coaching now with John Gruden in his second season won't hurt him by any means and is what can get him ready if the recall comes.

Preseason is going to be very important again, and I wouldn't be surprised if he thought he'd made the case for a real tryout last year. This year is it for him, in some ways. His contract ends next summer, and the Liiga or SHL or NL beckons if he's not going to get an NHL shot. Patience is a virtue for a player like him at his level. The right opportunity may come, and hopefully he can shine in his unassuming way the same way Benoit burned like a bright fire.

The Votes

My vote predicts he likely won't reach the same pinnacle as Benoit, but he is close. A lot of other people are more pessimistic.

Voter	Vote
Cathy	12
Brian	17
Species	9
Adam	23
Hardev	9
dhammm	14
Cameron S	17
Hound Line	16
brysplace	14
Catch-67	18
Sclodiggity	16
shinson93	10
The Bag	22
Zone Entry	19
Weighted Average	15.43
Highest Vote	9
Lowest Vote	23

I think fatigue sets in with prospects that just don't get the buzz or have fun highlights very, very quickly. It's been years, and Kokkonen hasn't once scored an exciting goal in overtime at the WJC or gone viral with a slick move. No one is jealous that the Leafs drafted him. No one has heard of him. He isn't nifty, and he has no mittens. He is, not just boring, but unpleasantly adult in demeanor and playing style.

So why not consider some just drafted, "could even be a boat" forward prospect over him? Why not indeed.

The Opinions

dhammm: One of the things that's tough about evaluating prospects is evaluating opportunity. At the margins, it often seems like the successes and failures of these tweener players, the difference between a player who plays 202 NHL games and a player who plays 12, is the difference of circumstances largely beyond their control. Questions abound: which organization drafted them, where was the team in the rebuild-contender wheel of fortune, did a coach like the cut of their jib at the right time, and did the dumb luck of injuries combined with noisy variables like on-ice shooting percentage manage to give them runway for more opportunities in the future? Opportunities and experience have a way of snowballing, after all, and anyone in a position of writing and evaluating a resume knows what line items of experience can do when applying for the next job. So Keefe talked up Kokkonen in training camp and even called him up early in the season, but he saw no action. If Keefe and Dubas were still here, I wonder if Kokkonen would feel higher in the depth chart, squeaking into games this season when 4 of our NHL defensemen inevitably get injured in November, but with an organizational (and league-wide) shift away from the kind of depth defender Kokkonen is, he might never see action on the Leafs’ left side, which means he currently has an even more remote chance of seeing NHL action at all versus where he stood last summer. I realize this is a lot to think about for a guy I've said in previous T25U25s would have to get lucky to reach the heights hit by Martin Marincin. He's the lowest in my tier of low-level pro tweener players.

shinson93: Kokkonen is a prospect that just doesn’t seem to struggle with consistency. He’s the same guy every night. Rarely out of position, but also doesn’t just hang back for defense. Some might say the good kind of not being noticeable. Always top pair for the Marlies last year, for a reason. The D talent pool is much deeper this year, but I can see him being an injury call-up at some point this year.

Cameron S: A lot of people (myself included) sometimes overlook Kokkonen since his ‘shininess’ has worn off and we’ve been given lots of newer prospects to watch, yet I have a feeling that he will get his shot this season for at least a few games with the Leafs. Someone to keep your eye out for going into the season.

Hardev: I predict we'll see Kokkonen in the NHL this season, which is more than I was willing to expect from anyone I ranked below him. This is partially because I see some real health-related question marks on the Leafs defense. I see the value in a defenseman like Kokkonen, who is so boring you can't find things to complain about. Seeing that he was on the first pair all season was a good sign and meant he was seeing real competition.

While he might test the notion that NHL defensemen need at least some offensive skills, Kokkonen skates and distributes the puck well, along with his positioning away from the puck. I think that's a good foundation in time for some NHL exposure. I'm curious how his preseason goes.

What's your take?

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