Canadiens’ Koivu & Predators’ Floris Getting First Preseason Looks in Liiga’s Pitsiturnaus Tournament – The Hockey Writers – NHL Prospects

The Liiga preseason handed two NHL prospects their first competitive shifts of the 2026-27 season on Friday, Aug. 7. Montreal Canadiens forward Aatos Koivu centered a line for TPS Turku, and Nashville Predators defenseman Jakub Floris lined up on the Lukko blue line, both at the Pitsiturnaus in Rauma.

The one-day tournament is Lukko’s long-running preseason opener, six clubs playing two 15-minute halves at Kivikylän Areena. HPK won this season’s edition, beating Vaasan Sport 4-0 in the final. For anyone tracking NHL pipelines, the reason to watch is a first, low-stakes look at where each prospect sits before the Finnish League starts in full.

Aatos Koivu Needs His Shot to Translate

Koivu is the recognizable name; his father, Saku Koivu, captained the Canadiens for a decade and starred for TPS before crossing the Atlantic, and his uncle, Mikko Koivu, joined the TPS coaching staff last season. Montreal took Aatos Koivu in the third round, 70th overall, in 2024.

He is further along than a preseason cameo suggests. Koivu played 46 Liiga games in 2025-26, close to a full season as a 19-year-old, and made Finland’s World Junior team in December. He led the TPS under-20 team in goals two seasons ago and debuted in the Liiga at 17. The production hasn’t matched the pedigree yet.

His calling card is a heavy shot, a different profile from the two-way, defense-first games his father and uncle built their careers on, and it produced only nine points on a TPS club that spent the season in disarray, from a mid-season coaching-system overhaul to a run of off-ice distractions. One European scout told Habs Eyes on the Prize he would have preferred to see a Canadiens prospect on almost any other Liiga roster.

At the Pitsiturnaus, the right-shot center dressed for both of TPS’s group games, the 3-2 win over Jokerit and the 2-0 loss to Vaasan Sport, and centered a line in each. He sat out the fifth-place game, a 2-1 TPS win over Lukko that left the club fifth in the six-team field. Neither result means much across two 15-minute halves.

The question that follows Koivu into the season is production. He has the frame at 6-foot-1 and a near-full Liiga campaign behind him, so the lineup spot isn’t in doubt. What Montreal wants is a bigger role and more points out of that shot. How much TPS leans on him this season, and whether he starts finishing the chances he creates, will say more than any preseason result.

Jakub Floris Has Options for 2026-27

Floris sits at the opposite end of the timeline. Nashville drafted the right-shot defenseman in the fourth round, 106th overall, in 2026, and he turned up at the Pitsiturnaus as an 18-year-old dressing for the host club. He played all three of Lukko’s games, the 1-1 draw with Ässät, the 2-0 loss to HPK, and the 2-1 fifth-place loss to TPS that left Lukko sixth.

The reason a teenager suits up for a day like this is the competition. Lukko iced a veteran professional roster, including winger Carl Klingberg, a former Atlanta Thrashers second-round pick and brother of NHL defenseman John Klingberg. Three games against that caliber of lineup give Nashville an early read on how Floris handles men’s hockey.

He arrives with a better résumé than most fourth-rounders. Floris put up 18 points in 38 games for Lukko’s under-20 team last season, fourth in scoring among defensemen in the Finnish under-20 league, and the club used him at the bumper on the power play, which helped fuel a 10-goal total from the back end. He also represented Slovakia at the 2026 U18 World Championship, with four points in seven games. Elite Prospects graded him a projectable bottom-pairing NHL defender, with his skating and physical game leading the way.

The bigger question is where he plays next. Days after the draft, the Vancouver Giants took him ninth in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Import Draft, putting a 2026-27 season in the Western Hockey League (WHL) on the table alongside staying in the Lukko system. Elite Prospects reads the WHL as the better classroom for adding strength and rounding out his game. Where a right-shot defenseman with these tools plays this season is the question to track, and it should be answered long before the results in Rauma matter.

For Montreal and Nashville, Koivu is the older, more settled case. He has already earned regular Liiga minutes, so the only thing left to prove is that his shot can turn into points. Floris is younger and less settled, with a decision to make about where he plays this season. The Giants hold his junior rights, so 2026-27 could mean another year at Lukko or a move to the WHL.