Kraken winger Eeli Tolvanen came to Seattle with somewhat high expectations. Not the type he had thrown on his shoulders when the Nashville Predators selected him late in the 1st-round of the 2017 NHL Draft, but bounce-back expectations.
He’s lived up to them for the most part, but with much more to give.
Tolvanen was a bit of a teenage phenom in his native Finland before he arrived in North America to play two seasons in the USHL junior circuit. He was a point-a-game player as a 17-year-old with the Sioux City Musketeers before the Pred’s took him at 30th-overall, two months after his 18th birthday.
Maybe due to those original expectations for a player most scouts saw as an elite sniper, maybe because of a logjam on the wing in Nashville, or maybe because of his own lack of maturity, Tolvanen didn’t exactly fit in, to the point where the club finally waived him on December 12th, 2022 after just 135 games of NHL experience over five years.
The Kraken were happy to pick him up, thus beginning the progression.
Tolvanen scored 23 goals last season, a career high, in his second full campaign in Seattle, and followed it up with an outstanding performance at the World Championships in Sweden in May. Likely motivated by not being picked for Finland’s roster for February’s marquee Four-Nations Cup, Tolvanen sent a strong message with seven goals and nine points in eight games for the Finns at the Worlds.
Finland lost to the eventual champions, Team USA, 5-2 in the quarterfinals.
Three months earlier, without Tolvanen, with a roster that failed to produce any offense and included Kraken teammate Kaapo Kakko, the Finns finished fourth out of four at the Four Nations.
Oddly enough, “Tolvy” was an Olympic All-Star for his country back in 2018. While the NHL didn’t participate in Gangneung, South Korea, Tolvanen was part of his country’s roster while playing most of that season in Russia as a teenager.
Two things remain to be seen in 2025-’26, both items very much worth watching. Will the left-shot marksman be back in the mix for his country when the Olympics get cranking in Italy, and more importantly to Kraken fans, will he turn that apparent chip on his shoulder into more goals and more points for Seattle? He showed good chemistry with Shane Wright last season and both twenty-somethings could be a part of the 2nd power play unit.
Oh, and it’s a contract year, always a big motivation for NHL’ers. Tolvanen enters the 2nd-year of a two-year deal that will pay him $3.475-million. He’s eligible to be an unrestricted free agent for the first time next July. Almost everything is pointing up.
