Kiiskinen’s second HPK season looked more like a correction than a collapse. After signing his three-year entry-level contract with Detroit in June 2025, he chose to stay with HPK through the 2025-26 season, then finished the Liiga regular season with 17 goals and 28 points in 54 games.

Kiiskinen finds himself still playing well in Finland’s top league, even though his electric pace has moderated. He sits with a .70 point per game pace with nine goals and eight assists in 25 games. He is shooting more than three and a half pucks on net per game, and loves to fire the puck from between the faceoff dots- scoring most of his goals this season from front and centre. He is a capable distributor as well, currently providing an even mix of primary and secondary assists.

Kiiskinen had himself a season in Finland’s Liiga in 2024-2025. His age 19 season of 14 goals and 30 assists for 44 points in 46 games was the second best offensive season in the Liiga by a 19 year old since 2009. Only Mikael Granlund (1.13 PPG at 19 vs Kiiskinen’s 0.96) ranks ahead of him in that regard. While this doesn’t guarantee the same career outcome as Granlund, it certainly gives us cause to keep our eye on the former third-round pick. That Detroit was able to get their hands on him, and a second round pick as well, in exchange for Andrew Gibson may end up being celebrated for years to come if Kiiskinen can translate his performance playing against men in Finland to North America. He just signed his ELC with Detroit, and appears committed to HPK again next year, but he’s one to watchlist and keep an eye on as the season progresses.

The Detroit Red Wings acquired forward Jesse Kiiskinen and a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft from the Nashville Predators in exchange for defenseman Andrew Gibson.

The Nashville Predators drafted Kiiskinen in the third round (68th overall) in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.

The assist spike from his 2024-25 breakout did not carry over, but the goal scoring held up better than the raw point drop suggests. He remained one of HPK’s top offensive pieces, finishing third on the club in regular-season scoring, and he chipped in three points in six playoff games.

That shifts the read on his toolkit a bit. Last season, he looked like the driver of HPK’s offense. This season, he looked more like a shot-first winger learning how to stay productive when he is not controlling as much of the attack. That is still useful information for Detroit. The release, interior scoring touch, and off-puck timing remain the most bankable pieces of his profile. The next step is proving those habits survive North American pace, where he will have less time to handle and more pressure on each touch. Right now, the middle-six case still rests on whether his playmaking under pressure can rebound closer to where it sat a year ago.

Kiiskinen is the straw stirring the drink in the offensive zone when he is on the ice, and his position at the top of the team’s scoring table solidifies that. The eye-test shows Kiiskinen varying his offensive approach, distributing to team mates after drawing in the opposition, driving the net and attempting wraparounds, getting near the dirty areas for the tap in. He will need to continue to work on all these tools in his tool chest to continue developing towards a middle-six contributor for the Red Wings in the near future.

He is worth a tire kick in your deeper leagues if managers have softened on his value due to the slow down in point pace. Don’t overvalue or over pay, but he’s worth an inquiry and a stash.