Inside Wheeler’s Shocking Summer 2025 NHL Prospect Rankings: Who’s the True Future Star?
Sandin Pellikka is an individually talented, competitive 5-foot-11 defenseman with natural scoring instincts and the tools to execute. He has really good edges and mobility and has shown improved speed in straight lines to pull away from chasers (with more room for growth there still). He walks the line to get shots through at a high level, wants the puck in the offensive zone and has the skill and shot to make things happen when teammates find him off the point or as the trailer off the rush (which he often activates into). He keeps his head up in the neutral and defensive zones and is a confident puck carrier on exits and entries. Though he’s not big, he’s athletic and he plays hard and physical and engages in battles in the defensive zone with some sneaky strength. He has a good stick. He does a good job maintaining gaps and matching opposing forwards step for step skating backward and times his close-outs and pinches effectively. He can really shoot it with a pinpoint accurate shot, a wrister that comes off hard and an eagerness to put pucks on net from the point. He has comfortable handles. He walks the line looking for his shot and chances to take space off it to attack into better spots, but he’ll find open teammates cross-ice through seams as well and is seeing the ice better and better. There are times when he can wait too long to make his decisions and I wouldn’t call him super creative or a highlight reel type, but he’s very talented, he makes good choices more often than he’s careless and he has progressed really rapidly.
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