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G Ukko Pekka Luukkonen - Rochester Americans, AHL (2017, 54th, BUF)

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I think it is absolute madness to go from elite level goaltending coaching and great chance to play professional games at men's level to coniferous forests. Especially given that Luukkonen's background would have opened doors all around SM-liiga.

Perhaps this is another sympton of the 2010's madness in Finnish ice hockey in which players are part of star cult from a young age. Was it Ukko-Pekka's or his agent hubris which lead into this move.
 
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Ruudukkopupuset said:
I think it is absolute madness to go from elite level goaltending coaching and great chance to play professional games at men's level to coniferous forests. Especially given that Luukkonen's background would have opened doors all around SM-liiga.

Perhaps this is another sympton of the 2010's madness in Finnish ice hockey in which players are part of star cult from a young age. Was it Ukko-Pekka's or his agent hubris which lead into this move.
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I could maybe understand it if he was going to a top CHL team, but Sudbury has been a death sentence for everyone going through there.

Possibly the worst program in the entire CHL at developing NHLers.
 
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Ruudukkopupuset said:
I think it is absolute madness to go from elite level goaltending coaching and great chance to play professional games at men's level to coniferous forests. Especially given that Luukkonen's background would have opened doors all around SM-liiga.

Perhaps this is another sympton of the 2010's madness in Finnish ice hockey in which players are part of star cult from a young age. Was it Ukko-Pekka's or his agent hubris which lead into this move.
Click to expand...

Decision to go CHL was made by Luukkonen's agent, Luukkonen himself
Sudbury wolves GM and head coach and Buffalo Sabres.

Luukkonen is now Sabres player ( signed his ELC this summer).
So Buffalo Sabres decides where he plays and HPK can't do nothing on that decision
except to deal with it and move on.

And who has said Luukkonen would have get liiga games in HPK's liiga team this season.
Ukko Pekka has been HPK's 3rd goalie since last season so he's now OHL player like it or not.
It's too late to whine when milk is already on the floor.
 
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He wouldn't be the first goaltender in Finland to move in order to secure playing time. I'm certain a transfer could have been arranged since it ain't in anyone's benefit to limit a second round draft pick's ice time. The list of suspects you mention do not necessarily take in consideration what is the best career route or trajectory for the player to take. Contract-wise it might be the safe decision but language, learning and tradition plus the chance of playing professional games heavily favours Finland over continued junior route in a foreign environment.

The Sudbury goaltending coach in example is listed as having one season of goaltending coaching experience at his very first job which was at Sudbury. In comparison modern goaltending coaching was basically invented in Finland by giving the goaltending coaches and goaltenders a proper education. I believe there is greater respect for goaltending coaching's importance even given the recent phenomenon of Finnish NHL goaltenders. This seems more like a life style choice for the player to take, given the trend of recent World Junior Championship's becoming increasingly hype-minded tournaments in Finland.

Are there many Eurasian goaltenders who made the jump to NHL through Northern American junior leagues? Given the generally high level goaltending coaching set-up in Scandinavia, I do not exactly see why you should risk this vital part your development if we speak of ice level development and not the outer stuff where you begin to have greater pull in various forms to deviate from the path of pure ice hockey.
 
Ruudukkopupuset said:
He wouldn't be the first goaltender in Finland to move in order to secure playing time. I'm certain a transfer could have been arranged since it ain't in anyone's benefit to limit a second round draft pick's ice time. The list of suspects you mention do not necessarily take in consideration what is the best career route or trajectory for the player to take. Contract-wise it might be the safe decision but language, learning and tradition plus the chance of playing professional games heavily favours Finland over continued junior route in a foreign environment.

The Sudbury goaltending coach in example is listed as having one season of goaltending coaching experience at his very first job which was at Sudbury. In comparison modern goaltending coaching was basically invented in Finland by giving the goaltending coaches and goaltenders a proper education. I believe there is greater respect for goaltending coaching's importance even given the recent phenomenon of Finnish NHL goaltenders. This seems more like a life style choice for the player to take, given the trend of recent World Junior Championship's becoming increasingly hype-minded tournaments in Finland.

Are there many Eurasian goaltenders who made the jump to NHL through Northern American junior leagues? Given the generally high level goaltending coaching set-up in Scandinavia, I do not exactly see why you should risk this vital part your development if we speak of ice level development and not the outer stuff where you begin to have greater pull in various forms to deviate from the path of pure ice hockey.
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Now sometimes change of scenary might help in development. And I have seen Luukkonen play in Hämeenlinna quite many times. And maybe he is bit stuck in his develooment in last year and half...

But else than that there are many things that I agree with you. Luukkonen has lot of raw talent (I mean at the end I believe he is the best thing since Saros and better than Annunen). He is big goalie with rather good movement and athleticism. Now the question is really is Sudburry good enviroment for him. Hämeenlinnna and HPK has been good for goalies last few years. I´m not sure how KooVee getting in to Mestis will change the farm team situation. But nevertheless even Mestis playing time would be good for him.. And even without that I can see if Luukkonen does well Karjalainen would be again loaned to some other team.

I do see lot of things that he needs to improve in his game. I´m not entairly certain if CHL is good place to improve that (Not a lot of Finnish success as goalies in CHL and McDNicks doensn´t paint a good picture of their past success.) And I like Ruudukkopupuset I also checked their goaltending development coach. And their past history of goaltending.

I don´t know but I certainly hope that Luukkonen and his crew knows what they are doing.

And about modern goaltending coaching developed in Finland.. well I don´t know, but I could talk ages about it :)
 
McDNicks17 said:
I could maybe understand it if he was going to a top CHL team, but Sudbury has been a death sentence for everyone going through there.

Possibly the worst program in the entire CHL at developing NHLers.
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Worst at developing pro goalies? Probably near there. Worst at NHLers? Definitely not, Sudbury actually does a pretty good job developing we'd just had terrible ownership decisions for about a 5 year stretch but that's gone, and we even put a few in during that time.
 
hockeynorth said:
Worst at developing pro goalies? Probably near there. Worst at NHLers? Definitely not, Sudbury actually does a pretty good job developing we'd just had terrible ownership decisions for about a 5 year stretch but that's gone, and we even put a few in during that time.
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Yeah. I should have said more recently. They had some good years before, but the last decade has been basically Marcus Foligno and that's it.

Hopefully Byfield turns it around for them.
 
McDNicks17 said:
Yeah. I should have said more recently. They had some good years before, but the last decade has been basically Marcus Foligno and that's it.

Hopefully Byfield turns it around for them.
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Ya, tbh Blake Murray is the one who isn’t done that for us already. We’ve got several great young guys in the system now. Capobianco and Baptiste have done Alright as well.
 
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