The Canadian Hockey League’s Import Draft is a strange bit of business. Teams “take a flyer” on European players, making educated guesses as to whether the players might end up joining teams in the QMJHL, OHL and WHL.
Sometimes things work out. Most of the time, things don’t work out. But there’s no shame in making a wild stab in the direction of a good prospect.
Here’s an example thereof: Last year at this time, the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires drafted the rights to Michal Svrcek, a Red Wings prospect and 2025 draft pick who chose to remain with Brynas IF of the SHL. Svrcek, a 5’11,” 199-pound Slovakian playmaker, was expecting to earn the opportunity to play regularly with Brynas’ men’s team at the SHL level.
As it turns out, Svrcek ended up getting bounced around between the SHL, Brynas’ Under-20 team, and Vasteras IK of the HockeyAllsvenskan, the Swedish second division.
As such, Svrcek made the decision this spring to come over to Windsor after all, where he’ll both earn more playing time and he’ll be skating across the river from Little Caesars Arena. In this case, the Spitfires made an educated guess that Svrcek would want to play close to the Red Wings’ amateur scouts and management if things went south with Brynas, and they did, so he’s going to be a Spitfire.
This week, the Erie Otters made a similarly educated guess regarding Red Wings 2026 draft pick Luka Arkko, a Finnish-born 6’3,” 212-pound winger who’s grown up playing in the Pelicans Lahti’s system.
We have selected forward Luka Arkko with the 65th overall selection in the CHL Import Draft!
— Erie Otters 🦦 (@ErieOtters) June 30, 2026
Please join us in welcoming Luka to Erie! 🦦 #ErieOtters #Otters30 pic.twitter.com/BdwnAhuNYY
According to Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith, it’s entirely possible, if not probable, that Arkko will end up skating in North America this upcoming season. Dan Cleary, the Red Wings’ director of player development, happened to suggest as much during this morning’s end-of-Summer-Development-Camp press conference:
Arkko, who turned 18 in March, is a big, physical winger at over 200 pounds, and he isn’t afraid to use that size to help get to the net front for offense. The Red Wings took a swing on the Finn in the sixth round of this year’s draft, hoping that he’ll be able to develop into a more proven scorer.
“My first impression of Arkko would be you know- He’s big, he’s got pretty decent hands.” Director of player development Dan Cleary said.
While no official statement has been made about the young Finnish wingers future, Cleary did let slip at the end of prospect development camp that he expects to be getting to keep a close eye on him in the near future.
Making the jump to the OHL certainly makes keeping an eye on him easier for the organization. In his draft -1 season with the Lahti Pelicans, Arkko had 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) with their U20 team, playing in 42 regular season games. The big winger also had two points in four playoff games, and 10+ points in the international juniors while competing for Finland for the second year in a row, scoring six goals and five assists.
Arkko will be joining an Erie organization that went 25-29-6-8 last year, which was good for third place in their division. The Otters will be hoping that Arkko will inject some scoring into the lineup and help bring a bigger, more physical element to their game. Being a sixth round pick for the Red Wings will only mean so much while he’s making the transition to the North American game though, and he’s still got a long road ahead of him before he sniffs the NHL. Right now, he’s still making his way through the gauntlet of prospect development camp.
“My advice, first thing, would be you look up Emmitt Finnie. That kid, when he got drafted-Right away, he asked you know, ‘What do i got to do? What are we going to do?” Cleary said.
My sense has always been that the Red Wings grew a little tired of trying to convince Dmitri Buchelnikov to come over to North America full-time (Buchelnikov was included in the Justin Faulk trade, and while he took part in their Summer Development Camp this past week, he also signed a contract extension with CSKA Moscow of the KHL this spring).
The Wings would generally leave someone like Arkko alone, because they can at least see him develop in Finland (it’s pretty hard to get into Russia these days), but they would also suggest that playing Major Junior hockey is probably better for his development than skating in the Finnish J18 and J20 leagues, because the OHL is far more physical and competitive.
Sometimes those educated guesses pay off.
