Muhonen’s development camp confirmed the tool that separates him. For such a tall player he is agile and solid on his edges, a confident skater, and it showed from the Day 1 edgework through the game situations. In the closing mini game he started on the top pair and produced the play of the day, forcing a clutch turnover in his own end and hitting Dylan Hryckowian with a perfect neutral-zone pass that became the game’s first goal. That sequence is the projection in miniature, kill the play with reach and timing, then move it north fast. It builds on his second Medicine Hat season, where he posted 12 assists and a plus-27 in an injury-shortened 39 games while sharpening the long outlet passing that showed up repeatedly in Tigers game recaps. His entry-level contract began in 2025-26, so the junior chapter is closed. The offense still projects as secondary, and his fantasy case leans on penalty-kill minutes, hits, and blocks rather than points. The immediate question is his October assignment, whether Dallas starts him in Cedar Park or gives him ECHL minutes in Boise to carry a heavier workload.

Muhonen’s year since December has been more about regaining rhythm than piling up offense. After missing all of November and early December, he returned to Medicine Hat’s lineup in mid-December, then later dealt with another upper-body issue that left him day-to-day again at the start of March. Even with the missed time, he finished the regular season with 39 games, 12 assists, 31 penalty minutes, and a plus-27 on a 50-10-5-3 Tigers club. The offense is still secondary, but the tape and team recaps continue to point to the part of his game Dallas should care about most: he is moving pucks north faster, hitting long outlet passes with more confidence, and using his length to kill plays before they turn into extended-zone chaos. Medicine Hat highlighted him on stretch-pass setups in January and again late in March, and he closed the regular season on a three-game point streak with four points. Through the first three playoff games against Regina, he had one assist and four penalty minutes. The ceiling still looks like a defense-first, penalty-kill leaning second- or third-pair option, with fantasy value tied far more to peripherals than points.

Since the last update, Muhonen has hit the next step in the Dallas pipeline, signing a three-year entry-level contract on July 1, 2025, after his WHL title run and Memorial Cup appearance, which formally locks him in as a long-term project on the Stars’ blue line. He then returned to Frisco for another development camp and a second main camp look before being loaned back to Medicine Hat in late September, a standard path for Dallas’ prospect defenseman.

Muhonen came to North America and spent his rookie season with the Medicine Hat Tigers. The rookie defender put up four goals, 13 assists and 45 penalty minutes in 60 regular-season games before suiting up for the playoffs and a run to the Memorial Cup Semi-Finals. He is a hulking presence on the blueline and likely won’t turn heads offensively. Still, as he adapts to the North American game and develops his defensive game, he could make a terrifying complement to fellow giant Lian Bichsel on Dallas’ blue line.

The Dallas Stars drafted Muhonen in the fifth round (158th overall) in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.

Back with the Tigers, coaches describe both Muhonen and fellow Finn Veeti Väisänen as faster and more confident with the puck in year two, noting how the pair handled the small ice adjustment in the second half of last season and should build on that foundation now. Early returns are solid for a shutdown defender on a defending champion, with four assists and 11 penalty minutes in his first nine games while holding a regular top-four role for Medicine Hat. Local coverage and Stars-focused outlets already talk about him as a potential future partner for Lian Bichsel, which fits his projected lane as a big, physical, mostly defensive piece who can skate pucks out and kill penalties rather than drive power play offense.

For fantasy purposes, he still looks like a peripheral-heavy depth option, with a realistic ceiling in the 20-25 point range if his skating stride and reads keep trending up and he earns a regular second- or third-pair role in Dallas.