Juuso Välimäki
Carolina Hurricanes Defense #4
A first-round pick, 270 games, and not enough ice to judge him on.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | CGY | 24 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -2 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 3.6 | 15:29 |
| 2020-21 | CGY | 49 | 2 | 9 | 11 | -2 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72 | 2.8 | 15:26 |
| 2021-22 | CGY | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0.0 | 15:42 |
| 2022-23 | ARI | 78 | 4 | 30 | 34 | -10 | 59 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 93 | 4.3 | 18:11 |
| 2023-24 | ARI | 68 | 2 | 15 | 17 | +12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 69 | 2.9 | 19:06 |
| 2024-25 | UTA | 43 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -5 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 5.0 | 16:33 |
| 2026-27 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 271 | 11 | 61 | 72 | -7 | 133 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 313 | 3.5 | 17:20 |
No games in 2025-26. The season above is the last one he played, and everything on this page should be read with that gap in it.
This Season So Far
The 2026-27 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
2024-25
2 goals and 3 assists in 43 games, minus-5, at 16:33 a night. He did not play enough 5-on-5 in one place to register an on-ice record in this edition. He did not appear in the NHL last season.
The Finesse Game
Thin. 40 shots on goal in 43 games and 2 goals; 72 points in 271 career games, most of them assists from the point.
The first pass is fine and the decision-making is slow. He tends to take the extra half-second, which against a hard forecheck is the difference between a breakout and a turnover.
The Physical Game
6-2, 201, and he defends adequately without imposing anything. 14 penalty minutes in 43 games.
A serious knee injury early in his career cost him a season and, by most accounts, a step he never got back.
The Intangibles
The sixteenth pick in 2017, on his fourth organisation, and the minus-5 is the only number on the page with any signal in it.
He is 27. On a Carolina blue line that goes Slavin, Miller, Nikishin, Walker, Chatfield and Gostisbehere, he is the seventh man, and seventh defencemen on good teams do not accumulate evidence.
There is not enough here to write a fair report. That is itself the assessment.