JUHA
UOTILA
Nebraska-Omaha
Jr. | D | Espoo, Finland
Uotila scored five goals and added 18 assists in
40 games for Nebraska-Omaha last season.
Key Statistics: Uotila
(pronounced OOH-ahh-TEE-lah) scored a total of 38 points
in his first two seasons with the Mavericks. During
that span, only eight CCHA defensemen totaled more points.
Of those eight, only one (Alaska's Tyler Eckford) returns
this season.
What He Does: In a word,
everything. Uotila is an excellent skater — not
surprising for a guy whose mother is a former Olympic
figure skater and whose sister was a member of Finland's
national figure skating team — who covers a lot
of area. As evidenced by his career point total, he
has a knack for captializing on scoring opportunities,
but not at the expense of his defense. He's also made
the adjustment from playing from playing on the Olympic-sized
ice sheets favored in Europe to the smaller, North American
rink where things happen quicker and reaction time is
shorter.
The Bigger Picture: Nebraska-Omaha
coach Mike Kemp says Uotila has the potential to be
one of the premier defensemen in the CCHA if he can
improve his play in his own end and become more consistent
offensively — of his 23 points last season, nine
came in the Mavs' first six games and another seven
were scored in a seven-game span between Nov. 21-Dec.
10. That consistency will be an important factor for
a UNO team that returns most of its key components from
last season but must replace its two top forwards, Scott
Parse and Alex Nikiforuk.
Nebraska-Omaha coach Mike Kemp
on Uotila: “He is a little bit streaky,
but putting him in situations where he has a chance
to be more consistent offensively is up to us as coaches.”
