Well-traveled Antti Tuomisto ready to begin trip towards Detroit Red Wings

Antti Tuomisto figures all those air miles he has racked up will make him a better prospect for the Detroit Red Wings.

The 22-year-old defenseman is earmarked to begin his North American professional career this fall with the Grand Rapids Griffins. He already boasts size — he's 6 feet 5 and 205 pounds — and he has experience playing on the smaller ice sheets from spending two seasons with the University of Denver. He also has experience playing against men, spending last season playing in his native Finland's top league.

"There’s a lot of skating in Finland, too, with a bigger sheet, and puck battles — with bigger guys, it’s harder," Tuomisto said earlier this summer at development camp. "I think that helped me a lot. Skating is a big thing for me, as a big guy, you have to be able to skate. And if I want to defend good, I have to be good in the battles."

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Tuomisto is part of what projects to be a competitive defense corps in Grand Rapids. Simon Edvinsson, the No. 6 pick in 2021, logged nine games with the Wings last season, and while he did some good things, he also was prone to being caught out of position. Over the summer, general manager Steve Yzerman added defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Holl and Jeff Petry, an indication that the organization does not yet see Edvinsson ready to be a full-timer in the NHL. The Griffins also have Albert Johansson and William Wallinder on the roster.

Tuomisto has reason to be confident he can be a good fit. After winning the NCAA title with Denver (where he was teammates with fellow Wings draft picks Carter Mazur and Shai Buium) in 2022, Tuomisto decided to return to Finland to play for TPS Turku in the SM-liiga, where he produced five goals and 15 assists in 20 games. It was a satisfying outcome and what he had hoped for when he decided playing in the best men's league in Finland was better for his development than staying on the college hockey path.

"I thought about it for a long time, for months, what’s the right decision for my future,” Tuomisto said. “But I think I made a good choice. I got a bigger role maybe than I had in Denver and also play with older guys, a little bigger guys in Finland. After playing two years in college it’s not going to be a completely new thing for me playing in North America. It’s going to be higher than college, so I have to see what that’s going to be like."

Tuomisto also saw time on the power play in Finland, and the chance to have a more offensive role paid off.

"I got more ice time," Tuomisto said. "That really helped me getting those reps. I want to use my shot. That’s something I worked on a lot with Sammy Salo, our D coach in Finland and Niklas Kronwall, we worked a lot on that. I think I got a lot better in that last season."

Dan Cleary, the Wings' assistant director of player development, described Tuomisto as, "a cerebral player, really good first-pass player. This is going to be a big test for him coming over for his first year of pro in North America. We just have to be patient and see how it goes."

The Wings selected Tuomisto at No. 35 in 2019, passing on 6-7 Mads Søgaard, who was the second-highest rated goaltender in the draft. Søgaard, taken at No. 37 by the Ottawa Senators, already has appeared in 21 NHL games (including going 1-0 against the Wings). Tuomisto is just starting his pro career on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, joining a depth chart that just gained Axel Sandin-Pellikka, the No. 17 pick in this summer's draft, who is slated to play another season in his native Sweden.

Tuomisto knows what he has to do to show where he belongs on the depth chart.

"I try to defend good and that is my first priority," Tuomisto said. "I also really take pride in the first pass and getting the puck to the forwards. Those are the two biggest things I can help with."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.

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Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Detroit Red Wings D Antti Tuomisto may be ready to contribute soon