Five of the Most Notable Finnish Players in CBJ History
The Blue Jackets will get a much needed chance to reset this week and will not have any games until Friday and Saturday, to be played in Finland as part of the NHL’s Global Series. Still looking to get on track this season, they’ll have a tough test as both games will be played against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche.
We’ll have to hope they can find their game; but in the meantime we’ll focus our coverage away from the current state of the team. Today we’ll take a look at five of the most notable Finnish players to ever wear a Blue Jackets jersey.
There have been just 15 Finnish-born players in the history of the club, including one on the opening night roster in 2000: Petteri Nummelin. It feels like there have been more for some reason, but perhaps it’s just because a few of them have been so memorable; such as goaltender Frederik Norrena, who spent parts of three seasons in Columbus.
If you were a fan in the 2000s-era, you probably remember Lasse Pirjeta, Tomi Kallio, Hannes Hyvonen, and Sami Lepisto. If we get into the 2010s, we had Markus Hannikainen and Lauri Korpikoski. The Jackets drafted a goaltender who would suit up for one game (Veini Vehvilainen); and gave Mikko Lehtonen a stint with the team in the 2020s.
All of these players are memorable for different reasons. Nummelin was an early standout for the expansion Jackets, giving them a viable defender right out of the gate. Norrena spent an entire season as the de facto starter due to injuries to Pascal Leclaire, and did a pretty nice job. Pirjeta was a 5th round pick of the club who would go on to score 11 goals and 21 points as a rookie – a rare early draft success for a team that struggled so hard to find talent.
But there are five players who hail from Finland in our history, who stand out for different reasons. Some spent most of their careers with other teams, but it’s important to include them on this list because of their contributions to hockey. This is not a ranking of their careers or how they performed with the Blue Jackets. In fact, these players are in no particular order, we just wanted to recognize them individually.
…his career looked like it would be strong until some untimely injuries kept him out of the lineup for long stretches of time.
The 2015 draft for the Blue Jackets is probably the best in their history. GM Jarmo Kekalainen hit on 6 of his 9 picks that day, coming away with four players who have spent significant time in the NHL. Two other players selected that day (Kevin Stenlund and Gabriel Carlsson), became AHL regulars who have seen their share of NHL ice as well.
The club landed three future top-six defensemen: Zach Werenski at #8 overall, Vladislav Gavrikov in the sixth round … and with their seventh round pick, overage defenseman Markus Nutivaara out of Oulu, Finland.
Nutivaara surprised everyone by winning a spot at camp just over a year later. He never really stood out as a rookie, scoring just 2 goals and 7 points in 66 games for the 2016-17 season – but that’s honestly a compliment to his game.
A quiet two-way defender who just went about his business, Nutivaara became a fixture on the Tortorella-era Blue Jackets, and his career looked like it would be strong until some untimely injuries kept him out of the lineup for long stretches of time. Still, his second season with the club was memorable, as he scored 7 times and added 16 assists for a career-high 23 points in 61 games played.
But, he’s a solid two-way player who skates well, can chip in offensively, and is an underrated defender who doesn’t make many glaring mistakes. To date, he’s skated in 275 NHL games and has 15 goals and 71 points, while never being a minus player. He’s still poking around the NHL, currently signed with the San Jose Sharks, but sitting on IR.
Nutivaara is one of those players who just came out of nowhere, does his job, and settles into a depth role wherever he goes. A solid find by the scouting staff of the Blue Jackets.
For a team that needed depth down the middle and quality leadership around, it seemed like an obvious fit.
The next player on our list played just 7 games with the Blue Jackets, and most people will probably honestly look back and be surprised to remember that even happening. A lot of us spent much of his career wishing we could have a player like him – especially in his prime.
We would embarrass ourselves not to include Mikko Koivu on the list of greatest Finns to ever play in Columbus. He spent 15 years with the Minnesota Wild, racking up 1028 games, 205 goals, and 709 points – all while being a dominant two-way center and serving as captain for 11 seasons.
He signed a one-year deal with the Blue Jackets for the 2020-21 season, but unfortunately things really fell apart for that team. He would skate in just 7 games, scoring 1 goal and 1 assist, before announcing his retirement after being named a healthy scratch.
By that point in his career, Koivu was 37 years old and just hoping for one last run as a depth player. But the league is always becoming quicker, and father time catches up with everyone. The Blue Jackets were quickly falling apart that season, and in search of sparking the lineup, John Tortorella was trying to change things up.
We all wish it would have gone better for Mikko here. He was beloved by his teammates and respected around the league. For a team that needed depth down the middle and quality leadership around, it seemed like an obvious fit. But, things aren’t always perfect in action, and it just didn’t work out.
Koivu saw his number 9 raised to the rafters for the Minnesota Wild this past March, and as such will always be fondly remembered as one of the premier two-way forwards in the NHL in his era.
…he’ll probably be remembered best as one of the league’s premier shootout specialists.
Jussi Jokinen played with four teams during the 2017-18 season: including the Blue Jackets. While he played in 14 mostly forgettable games here, scoring just one assist, he had a long NHL career; with 951 games played over 13 seasons.
He had a solid career as a middle-six scoring winger, scoring 191 goals and 563 points in the NHL. But he’ll probably be remembered best as one of the league’s premier shootout specialists. He skated for 9 different franchises in the NHL, and was almost always one of the first players to get a chance in the shootout wherever he landed.
A lot of people consider the shootout a gimmick, so it’s hard to dig up full statistics for them over the years, but a quick glance here shows that Jussi scored on 38.5% of his attempts over his entire career.
His best season in the NHL was with Carolina during the 2009-10 season. He posted 30 goals and 65 points in 81 games for the Canes, finishing second on their team in scoring. He reached 60 points just one other time in his career (2015-16, FLA), but was consistently reliable for 40-50 points in any given season.
His time with the Blue Jackets was cut short – claimed off of waivers in January of 2018, he spent just over a month with the club before being dealt on February 26th, along with Tyler Motte to the Vancouver Canucks, in exchange for forward Tomas Vanek. But like Koivu, he’s a notable long-time NHLer who simply had to be included on this list.
He was part of the magical Calder Cup winning Lake Erie Monsters team that season, backstopping a team loaded with future Jackets to an AHL championship…
The 2012 draft is memorable to Blue Jackets fans for a variety of reasons. It all started with the worst record in the NHL for the 2011-12 season, with the Jackets finishing a full 9 points behind the next closest team in the league. This gave them the best odds to win the 2012 draft lottery, which a lot of us watched with great interest.
But the Edmonton Oilers spoiled the party, winning the first pick and giving them the chance to select Russian sniper Nail Yakupov from the OHL. The Jackets got a nice consolation prize in Ryan Murray, whose career projected very nicely until injuries derailed his development. The next two picks made by then-GM Scott Howson were both goaltenders: Swede Oscar Dansk in the second round, and the next player on our list in the early third round: Joonas Korpisalo.
Korpi has spent his entire career with the Blue Jackets thus far, totaling 182 games (4th most in CBJ history), with 76 wins (also 4th all time); a career 90.2% save percentage, and 3.04 goals against average. Read: 2022 Season Preview: Joonas Korpisalo
He developed slowly, not making his debut in the NHL until 2015-16 when the team was in dire need of help due to injuries. He played in 31 games and was stellar, with a career-high 92.0% save percentage that season, giving the team a steady presence on a lot of nights when they should have been well out of things.
He was also part of the magical Calder Cup winning Lake Erie Monsters team that season, backstopping a team loaded with future Jackets to an AHL championship. He would serve as backup with the big squad for the next few seasons, before eventually taking over as one of the two starters (alongside Elvis Merzlikins), after the famed mass-exodus of the 2019 squad.
Injuries over the past few seasons have stunted his play, but he’s given this team quality goaltending for most of his career. We’ll likely always remember his heroics in the 2020 playoff bubble, when he made an NHL-record 85 saves against the Tampa Bay Lightning. For this reason alone, Joonas Korpisalo will be held in high regards of CBJ folklore.
He’s a true superstar in the NHL, a talented goal scorer…
The Blue Jackets are the only team in the NHL with a cannon in their arena, as has been the case since 2007. But in this instance, we’re not talking about the 1857 Howitzer that sits atop the concourse and fires off after each goal – we’re talking about the Finnish cannon that the team acquired from the Winnipeg Jets: Patrik Laine.
Originally the 2nd overall pick at the 2016 NHL Draft, Laine has become one of the premier snipers in the NHL – one of a rare breed that can actually score goals on NHL goaltenders from a distance, without screens or deflections.
We all know the story by now: Laine and Jack Roslovic were acquired from the Jets for disgruntled center Pierre-Luc Dubois and a third round pick. It’s safe to say the Jackets made out like bandits in this deal. Both Roslovic and Laine have become key contributors with the Jackets, while Dubois continues his antics in Winnipeg and looks to be on his way out there.
Since coming to Columbus, Laine has skated in 105 games, scoring 37 goals and 78 points in that time. He was on pace to challenge the franchise’s single season scoring record last year, falling short due to injuries. He’s a true superstar in the NHL, a talented goal scorer with a laid back personality, whose play is outmatched only by his flashy style and universally recognizable face.
Signed for four more years with the Blue Jackets, I think it’s only inevitable that he’ll set some records with the club and move well up the list of all-time leading scorers. Laine is one of the most talented players to ever wear a Blue Jacket jersey.
With the team already in Finland, it’s exciting to be able to take the time to appreciate some old names and faces – as well as two current Finnish players on the roster. Aside from the roster, we have a lot to thank Finland for, and should definitely mention Tampere’s own Jarmo Kekalainen, our own GM. While the team is struggling at the moment, he’s helped bring relevancy to our franchise and has made them more competitive in his time here.
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