Congrats for everyone who got drafted or awarded

Hi everyone!

Midsummer is now over and the summer starts to be at its best. It was great to see in the NHL draft that more Finns were drafted than in recent years. Congratulations to everyone who got drafted! Great that also 2nd generation player was drafted. Christian Ruuttu’s son Alex was drafted to Phoenix. Finnish hockey is fine, and focus needs to be on juniors – the future is there like Pikku G (finnish "rapper" who had couple of hits when he was a teen. horrible music) sings.

NHL award show is over too. It was great that my team mate and this season’s top scorer Corey Perry won the league MVP title – deservedly. Nice homage to young Canuck.

Two good of friend of mine announced retirement from hockey: Todd Marchant, who played last 6 years in the same team and my line mate of many years, Paul Kariya. Both of them played long and amazing career. Marchant played way over 1000 games in NHL, it’s amazing achievement for a hockey player. We experienced great moments with Todd and won Stanley Cup together. You won’t often meet a family with that much passion for hockey. All of Todd’s 4 children play hockey and also his wife plays and coaches juniors. No wonder that Todd will continue in the Ducks’ player development department.

I knew about Paul’s decision for a long time. Kariya’s career was fantastic. You will run out of superlatives when describing this guy. Unbelievable player, the kind you rarely see. Unselfish player and teammate, on ice super fast skater, with rare talent to read the game. Excellent shot, gretzky-like passing skills. Among Joe Sakic the highest work moral I’ve seen during my career. Paul did always everything to a T. I’ve learnt a lot from him.

The way he devoted to hockey was admirable. Unfortunately Paul’s career ended too early. The superstar, who had suffered from multiply concussions, still wanted to play. Last summer we had a clear plan that the career would continue with Ducks and we could get to play together a year or two. I predict that the co-operation with Paul and Saku would’ve worked well. Paul’s decision was however completely right, one more hit to head and rest of his life would’ve been in danger. Even hockey is not worth of that risk. And the hits to head have worrying increased in NHL. You can’t get them all away, but stricter suspensions probably could help with decreasing them.

About my own situation – my left knee was examined (tähystää) this week. The operation went well but the decision of my career is postponed till we see how the knee will be. So we’ll get back to that later. I will tell when the time comes. Until that, have a great summer everyone!

things in italics are mine

I can’t wait until we draft this Pikku G kid!