The Finn Wins: Stars add Emil Hemming to strong Finnish arsenal 

The Finnish Mafia lives.

Not that there was ever any doubt.

The Stars on Friday drafted Finnish forward Emil Hemming 29^th overall, and GM Jim Nill said the versatile 18-year-old will go a long way in continuing the tradition of strong Finnish players in Dallas.

“We really like him,” Nill said Friday from Sphere in Las Vegas. “We play a certain way, and he plays the way we play. He can join our Finnish Mafia here, and we’ve got a good group of those guys. It’s just a good fit. He’s a good two-way player, he’s got a shoot-first mentality, he just plays the game the right way.”

Listed as a right-handed right wing, Hemming has a lot of the same characteristics of Stars center Roope Hintz. He has size (6-1, 201) and skill, but he also has a very good defensive mindset. That allows him to get into a position to score by playing strong defense. In 22 games with the Finnish Junior League two seasons ago, he had 16 points (7 goals, 9 assists). Last season in the Finnish Elite League, he played 40 games against grown men and had 11 points (7 goals, 4 assists).

Scouting reports call him a natural scorer who loves to shoot the puck, but both Nill and Hemming say that doesn’t mean he will cheat when the other team has the puck.

“I would say hard-working with a good shot,” Hemming said when asked to describe his game. “Can play two-way, but the goal-scoring is one of my strengths.”

That falls in line with what Finnish players have done for the Stars. Jere Lehtinen was a similar player in his 875 games with the Stars. He’s now retired and running Finland’s international team, so Dallas has a good set of eyes on Hemming. Add that to veteran Stars scout Kari Takko, and the evidence is overwhelming.

That’s one of the reasons Dallas keeps unearthing gems in Finland.

“We’re very fortunate that way. We’ve got some great connections there,” Nill said. “Jere Lehtinen wears the Dallas Stars logo on his heart, so we always have him to fall back on. He does a lot of background checks for us. And our scouting staff does a good job there. Kari Takko is imbedded in Finland there and Rickard Öquist does a great job, and Jiří Hrdina. Those scouts do a great job of digging into those areas and we like everything we saw.”

Hemming said he understands the Finnish history in Dallas and is excited to go to the Stars. While he has one more year under his contract in Finland, he said he’s excited to get to Dallas and be around the “Finnish Mafia.”

“Obviously, they have a lot of Finns there, so super proud to be a Dallas Star,” Hemming said. “I think it’s going to be easier to move in there.”

Hemming will get a chance to see those new teammates at training camp and when the Stars play in Finland as part of the NHL’s international series in November. In a lot of ways, the timing of this pick couldn’t be better. That said, Nill knows there is the normal development needed for a player taken 29^th.

“You’re judging these players on whether they’re playing with their own age or they’re playing with older players,” Nill said. “He adapted very well to playing with older players, and usually that transitions to being successful.”

In addition to maturing, Hemming will also have to adjust from the bigger rinks in Finland to a faster, tighter game in North America. And that’s how the draft goes. Dallas has the fifth and seventh round picks on Saturday, so Nill and Co. are juggling a lot of things right now. Dallas announced the buyout of defenseman Ryan Suter on Saturday. Suter would have cost $3.4 million against the salary cap, and the buyout will save Dallas about $2.6 million in cap hit this year.

That space will help the Stars pay for a potential raise for Thomas Harley, and potentially re-sign defenseman Chris Tanev.

“We’re very tight against the cap, we had overage bonuses, and we needed some flexibility,” Nill said. “We’re looking at different options. Were still looking to re-sign Chris Tanev and we’ll see where that goes, and there are other options out there. There are some internal options, as well. We’re going to have to have some young kids fit in here, just because of our cap situation.”

Nill said the team will have to rely on improvements from young defensemen such as Nils Lundkvist and Lian Bichsel. He said the team will miss Suter’s contributions but will have to move on from the 39-year-old.

“He’s been a big part of our success, and this is just a tough part of the business,” Nill said. “We’ve got a lot of respect for Ryan, he’s a Hall of Famer, and what he brought to our team meant so much.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.