{"id":7758,"date":"2017-03-17T17:46:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T21:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=7758"},"modified":"2017-03-17T18:27:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T22:27:22","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-sign-miro-aaltonen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/03\/17\/toronto-maple-leafs-sign-miro-aaltonen\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Miro Aaltonen to Entry-Level Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Maple Leafs have dipped into the European unrestricted free agent pool. They signed\u00a023-year-old Finnish forward <a href=\"https:\/\/widgets.eliteprospects.com\/player.php?player=44162\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Miro Aaltonen<\/strong><\/a> to an entry-level deal on Friday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MapleLeafs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MapleLeafs<\/a> have agreed to terms on an entry-level contract with 23-year old forward Miro Aaltonen <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TMLtalk?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#TMLtalk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeafsPR\/status\/842815375637123075?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Miro Aaltonen to Entry-Level Deal<\/h2>\n<p>Aaltonen was a sixth-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks back in 2013. He has played a\u00a0majority of his career in the SM-Liiga, with the Espoo Blues and Oulun Karpat. In his four seasons in Finland, Aaltonen recorded 119 points in 233 games. He moved to the KHL for the 2016-17 season, signing with Vityaz Podolsk. Aaltonen played on a line with former NHLer <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/a\/afinoma01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maxim Afinogenov<\/a><\/strong>, where he finished third on his team in scoring with 44 points in 59 games, also leading the KHL in under-24 scoring.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Miro Aaltonen first KHL goal\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1TWR8Oiav-E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A versatile player, Aaltonen can play both wings and center, but has primarily played the left wing this season in Podolsk. Size has been a question mark for Aaltonen. Since his draft he has improved from 5&#8217;10&#8221; and 176 pounds to 6&#8217;0&#8243; and 185 pounds according to the Maple Leafs press release. He plays a smart, two-way game with strong playmaking abilities. He likes to shoot the puck, with an impressive quick release. A creative player, Aaltonen projects as a third-line NHL scorer with power-play abilities.<\/p>\n<p>The Toronto Maple Leafs are not afraid to dip into the UFA KHL market. In back-to-back seasons, the Leafs have added <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/soshnni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikita Soshnikov<\/a> <\/strong>(2015) and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/z\/zaitsni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikita Zaitsev<\/a><\/strong> (2016) from the KHL. Both are now lineup regulars and project to be important components for the Leafs going forward.<\/p>\n<p>Because the Maple Leafs sit at 50 contracts, Aaltonen&#8217;s deal doesn&#8217;t begin until the 2017-18 season. This puts the Leafs at 31 contracts currently signed for the upcoming season. He does not need to be protected in the expansion draft this summer either.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/643465406\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 63.131313% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/643465406?et=p6QnMHPER2VfSySX13Uzmw&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=NUG0mYCsOpHbXSviFMXjUPYkzWaCbqoM_O7UjjlR1pE=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"375\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Maple Leafs have dipped into the European free agent pool, signing 23-year old Finn Miro Aaltonen to an entry-level deal on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1858,"featured_media":7779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,34],"tags":[37,517,1417,38,72],"class_list":["post-7758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-news","tag-hockey","tag-khl","tag-miro-aaltonen","tag-nhl","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1858"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}