GM: Jukka Tuominen
Coach: Brent Sutter
Last season: 6th overall. In playoffs, lost to London.
Ins and Outs
(Season 14 to Season 15)
In: Jonathan Toews (trade); Frederik Andersen (trade); Tyler Sequin (trade); John Carlson (free agent), Roman Josi (free agent), Daniel Fernholm (free agent), Dillon Dube (trade); Thomas Galimberti (free agent), Kale Clague (free agent), Andre Lee (free agent), Kieffer Bellows (free agent), Rasmus Kupari (free agent),
Out: Sam Bennett (trade); Karri Ramo (trade); Alex Debrincat (trade); Lorenzo Maas (free agent), Jacob Middleton (free agent), Mads Ellen (free agent), Jon Merrill (free agent), Jacob De La Rose (free agent),
Potential Lineup
Kyle Connor/Tyler Seguin/Brendan Gallagher
Taylor Hall/Jonathan Toews/Brock Boeser
Dillon Dube/Anze Kopitar/Charlie Coyle
Austin Wagner/Jesperi Kotkaniemi/John Hayden
Nerius Alisauskas/Henri Jokiharju
Matt Dumba/John Carlson
Daniel Fernholm/Noah Dobson
Frederik Andersen/Alexander Georgiev
Three Questions
1. Is there a lot of anxiety in Helsinki these days? Fans in Helsinki during the Jukka Tuominen era have gotten used to tremendous success dashed at the end by a disappointing defeat. But in Season 14, the team only finished 6th overall and the Jokerits were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round. Compared to what they were used to, that was – well not bad, but more disappointing. The fans want to grab the Cup finally, since they’ve been so close so often. Pretty early in the off season, we found out Touminen felt goaltending, experience and leadership were the keys to getting to that elusive last step. Frederik Andersen is in now as the starting goalie and Jonathan Toews, 37, and Tyler Seguin, 33, are the top 2 centers. Andersen is 35 and he signed a deal that will pay him $7.5 million until he’s 37. In his earlier days, Andersen was the star of Geneva, performing Herculean feats and lifting them from 19th in the overall standings to 4th place in Season 9. He then left for Bratislava and that seemed to kill Geneva. They dropped down to 21st the first year without him. That season, he was voted as the league’s Top Goalie as a Bratislava Eagle. His goals against average slipped to over 3.00 the last two seasons with Gothenburg, but his save percentage was 90.0 last season, convincing Tuominen that the Dane still has the goods. Trading a Finn (Karri Ramo) to get Andersen was a dangerous move in Helsinki, but the GM is hoping Andersen’s play will have resistant fans turned around soon.
2. So wait. They traded the league’s top scorer? Sam Bennett averaged more than an assist per game last season for Helsinki and at age 27, he was the league’s leading point scorer. But this off season, GM Jukka Tuominen sent him flying over Sweden and into Norway in a trade. Bennett is now an Oslo Outlaw making $3.8 million on the last year of his Type 2 contract. He might even return to a wing position and team up with Connor McDavid. Veterans Jonathan Toews and Tyler Seguin came to Helsinki in the deal and they are the key men to watch in the center position now. Sequin scored 90 or more points in five of the last six seasons with Oslo. Last season, he was demoted to the second line behind McDavid, and although his shot total went down 124, his point total only went down 3, to 94. In 2010, he and Taylor Hall were heralded as the top players in the NHL draft and they are now together in Finland and Tyler and Taylor could even be linemates. Toews, the team’s new captain and the best face-off winner in league history, returns to the Jokerit lineup after a year in Norway and he’s a bit fragile at age 37. That’s something the training staff will need to keep an eye on. Likewise for Anze Kopitar, who will center the third line and do a lot of penalty killing.
3. What does their financial situation look like? Helsinki was near the top of all team statistics last season and that won’t surprise anyone. It used to be they would always be at the top on the Penalty Minutes list and not rank high elsewhere. Well, they led the league in PIMs yet again, but thanks to the 7th-best penalty killing efficiency in the league, it didn’t hurt them that much. Their other special teams unit, the power play – was tied for first with Munich. Their offense was the third best in the EURO and their defense was good, but not top tier-ish. The hope this season is that Frederik Andersen will help lift them in that category. If things don’t go as planned early, a fix might not be as easy as signing a new free agent because Helsinki is right up against the salary cap.
Rose’s Focus
“My mother’s father’s aunt’s cousin married a fella who once traveled in Finland, so I fee I have a connection with the people of Finland. We are proud of our Jokerits. Some of us are fans of reindeer meat, but I’m not. Jesperi Kotkaniemi has become a source of national pride recently. GM Jukka Tuominen – on an episode of his weekly TV show “Talk with the Great GM” – once said, “I like Kotkaniemi.” His eloquence stuck with me and I watched for three years as the kid played 82 games a season and scored 12, then 10 and then 14 points. I was trying to see what Tuominen liked but couldn’t identify it. But then this past season, as a 22-year-old, Kotkaniemi burst out for a big season. He dished out passes to teammates like the chef at Baskeri & Basso in Helsinki passes plates of salmon carpaccio to the waitresses. He ended up with 58 points, which if my math is correct, is better than the 36 points he produced in the previous three seasons added together. And he was +50 playing with Charlie Coyle and Alex Debrincat on what turned out to be the team’s best plus/minus unit. Kotkaniemi kind of vanished in the playoffs, but hey, he’s a kid still. We people with Finnish connections can’t wait to see how good he gets. As I always like to say, “Naisten pitaisi olli vastuussa!”
