Pitsiturnaus is Rauma’s annual preseason hockey festival that brings six teams together every August in Kivikylän Areena. First held in 1993 as part of the city’s Lace Week celebrations, it has grown into a must-see event where Liiga clubs and invited guests test new lineups and give fans an early look at the season ahead. If you want a deeper dive into the tournament’s history, game results and full analysis, head over to my Substack for history of the tournament and complete team results.
Related: Meet the Newest Mammoths: Dmitri Simashev and Daniil But
On the other side of the pond, the Utah Mammoth are in the middle of their own rebuild. This year, they drafted Reko Alanko 182nd overall and will be tracking his development closely as they look to assemble a core that can challenge for years to come. As the Mammoth stack talent in their system, the performances Alanko turns in at Pitsiturnaus and beyond will help determine how quickly he earns a spot in their American Hockey League (AHL) or ECHL affiliates.
Finding a Mammoth Prospect
Since their inaugural season, the Mammoth have built deliberately from the back end forward. In June, The Hockey Writers projected their 2025-26 roster around a core of established AHL-capable forwards and a blue line anchored by Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino. With more than $20 million in salary cap space, the Mammoth signalled their intention to add top-six talent—names like Mitch Marner or Brock Boeser were floated as realistic free-agent targets to complement budding stars such as Matias Maccelli.
On defense the club locked in its top four by extending Olli Määttä and re-signing Ian Cole, then added first-round pick Dmitri Simashev to bolster depth. In goal, Karel Vejmelka and Connor Ingram form a veteran tandem capable of NHL workloads, with promising prospect Jaxson Stauber ready as an emergency call-up.
Related: Utah Mammoth’s 2025-26 Roster Projection 1.0: Prospect Development Creating Tough Decisions
Beyond roster moves, Utah’s annual development camp in Park City underscores their patient approach. Prospects work on pro-level conditioning, skill translation and “brotherhood” culture over five days of drills and scrimmages. By drafting Alanko 182nd overall this spring, the Mammoth added a long-term project who can grow alongside their young core.
For Mammoth fans, the key benchmarks will be clear: does Alanko push into Jokerit’s top four on a Liiga-bound roster, and does he emerge from that environment with pro-ready habits when he arrives for his first development camp? Meeting those goals would slot him into Utah’s depth chart by age 20 and keep him on track to impact between ages 20 and 23, the window when most NHL defensemen break through.
Alanko spent the bulk of his 2024-25 campaign with Jokerit’s U18 squad before earning a spring promotion to their U20 SM-sarja team. Though he logged just over 30 combined junior appearances, he flashed the kind of poise and puck-handling calm rarely seen in a 6-foot-5 defender, whether patiently waiting out forecheckers in the offensive zone or threading tape-to-tape breakout passes that led directly to scoring chances. Elite Prospects’ Director of European scouting Lassi Alanen noted his “impressive poise with the puck” late in the season, while also flagging areas to tighten up, namely his skating stride.
“The thing that caught my eye the most was his poise with the puck during multiple sequences, both on breakouts and in the OZ. He moved the puck quickly when it was the right play, but had the confidence not to pull the trigger when he didn’t like what he was seeing…”
Source – ‘February 21st, 2025 – Jokerit U20 vs. HPK U20’ – Lassi Alanen – Elite Prospect’s Reko Alanko Scouting Reports – 04/24/2025
Midway through the season, Alanko drew NHL attention as the Mammoth’s sixth-round pick in the 2025 Draft, rewarding him for his intriguing blend of size, vision, and raw defensive upside. With only one pro-level outing before Rauma, Pitsiturnaus XXXII represented his first real test against men’s competition and the stage on which to validate both his junior breakout and late-round draft stock.
Before evaluating a player in a new setting, I review all available scouting reports and key performance indicators to establish a base score. As I watch the preseason game, I adjust that score for the player’s current environment, such as Alanko moving from U20 into Liiga competition.
A one-off game grade provides only a snapshot and requires follow-up in regular-season play, but it still highlights the areas a player must develop. In my system, repeating the same mistake lowers a score more than making a new error. New issues often arise when adapting to a higher level, while pattern errors show a failure to learn.
Player Profile: Reko Alanko
Biographical & Physical Details
Shoots: Right
Position: Defense
Jersey Number: 62
Age: 18 (July 15, 2007)
Height: 6-foot-5 (Liiga Average: 6-foot-1)
Weight: 201 pounds (Mestis Average: 198 pounds)
Grading Breakdown
Grades on a 1–9 scale; D-man weights applied (Skating 20% / Shooting 10% / Passing 15% / Handling 10% / Sense 25% / Physical 20%).
Skating: 5.6
In Rauma’s preseason tilt, Alanko’s first adult-caliber shift revealed both promise and areas to clean up: he showed a strong first-step burst to cut down entry lanes, but his tight-turn chops in the defensive zone occasionally led to feet-tangling and clogging teammates’ lanes. That echoed what we saw at the U20 SM-sarja level, where his shallow stride limited top-end pop despite solid edge-work and balance. Lassi Alanen notes in the Elite Prospects Draft Guide that skating is an area to monitor; his 6-foot-5 frame provides length and reach, but true acceleration and agility will come as he refines that extension and adds functional strength.
“Skating will need to be worked on; quite often, his stride had barely any depth to it, which limits both his power and agility.”
Source – ‘Feb. 1, 2025 – Jokerit U20 vs. Jukurit U20 – U20 SM-sarja’ – Lassi Alanen – Elite Prospects 2025 NHL Draft Guide – 5/27/25
Shooting: 5.9
Against Ässät, Alanko got a clean one-timer off a seam pass, but didn’t threaten the net again; his release remains deliberate. This parallels his U20 output, where he earned a look from the slot on a side-activation, but hasn’t yet turned that into a consistent weapon. On his draft reports, he’s credited with decent shot power and accuracy in open ice, but his wind-up and mechanics under pressure need shortening before he can finish at the men’s level.
Passing: 5.9
His no-look, D-to-D breakout feed in the Pitsiturnaus game was textbook; it was good to see him looking over his shoulder even under pressure and making that connection to his teammate. That built on multiple crisp outlets and zone-entry feeds I logged in three U20 scouted outings, where he routinely threaded seam passes under duress. Lassi Alanen highlights in the Elite Prospect Draft Guide that Alanko’s ability to be patient and make a pass. He’ll need to maintain that calm first pass even as forecheck intensity ratchets up.
“He stepped out of the bench for his first shift, immediately interrupted a breakout pass
in the NDZ, then had the patience to wait for a second, then passed across the ice for his teammate who had an easy task gaining the zone again, dishing the puck to the slot for a goal and netting Alanko a secondary helper.”Source – ‘March 7th, 2025 – Jokerit U20 vs. KalPa U20 – U20 SM-sarja’ – Lassi Alanen – Elite Prospects Reko Alanko Scouting Reports – 5/27/25
Handling: 5.3
Alanko coughed up one zone-exit puck under heavy forecheck in Rauma, and his tight-space retrievals still betray occasional fumbling, clear carry-over from his U20 games, where he misplayed a rim-around pickup and had one turnover on a pressured feed. His size helps shield pucks when he’s aware, but his profile flags that he must improve his stickwork and body positioning to protect the puck consistently against pro competition.
Sense: 6.5
He stood his ground in the shooting lane on an Ässät odd-man rush and read the rebound to clear danger—playmaking instincts that echo his U20 patience on breakouts and zone reads. In junior play, he deceived forecheckers and ran the play with his head on a swivel. Stepping up, he now needs to pair that sense with quicker decision-making to manage the faster pro game.
Physical: 7.0
Alanko brought the heat on four separate board scrums in Pitsiturnaus, winning battles like a lanky Lian Bischel, using reach-poke checks to break up cross-seam feeds, and battling down low on the power play. That raw competitiveness was less on display at U20, where his frame stood out but he didn’t consistently finish checks. During the game he has no hesitation with his willingness to engage; now it’s about translating that into smart checks to hold his ground against wiser players who can avoid the hits.
Overall Assessment & Outlook
Overall Grade: 6.15 | B (Fringe Mestis / Top Junior League)
Average Overall Mestis Grade: 6.45
Average Overall Liiga Grade: 7.95
Average Overall NHL Grade: 8.475
As Alanko sets his sights on getting to North America, his first task is to earn a spot among Jokerit’s top four defensemen and be a part of that Jokerit push to the Liiga. Nights of heavy minutes and tough matchups against veteran pros will teach him more than any practice drill ever could. Every game he must prove he can move the puck cleanly out of his zone under pressure and win those gritty battles along the boards that define a reliable defender.
Off the ice, he will lean on the wisdom of former Liiga stars in Jokerit’s locker room, soaking up tips on positioning in front of the net and how to read plays at full speed. For Utah Mammoth fans, the key to watch for is Alanko becoming comfortable in his size, not just pushing guys out of the way, but increasing handling when pressure and speed are applied when he has the puck. All the pressure we saw in this tournament when he jumped from U20 to here will only be more amplified on a smaller rink in North America and with faster players.
At only 18 years old, Alanko will likely spend two seasons in Finland’s league before making the move overseas. The AHL and ECHL offer great development paths once he is ready to take that next step. With most large NHL defensemen finding their stride between the ages of 21 and 24, his timeline fits perfectly into that window and gives fans a clear roadmap for his journey to the big time.
