Rob Ramage warned us on Wednesday: “He didn’t just come here to leave with a jersey. He came here to carve out a position.” “He” being Oliver Kapanen, the Canadiens’ forward who is taking part in his first training camp in Montreal, three years after the team drafted him in the second round.
Nobody wins a job after a mundane intrasquad game in mid-September. Let’s just say the Finn did everything he could to earn points by starting.
In any case, he won in the Tricolore locker room, after the duel between the Reds and the Whites, Thursday.
“Guys were talking about him after the game, he looked good, he’s lively and he’s making plays,” said Nick Suzuki, his teammate on the Reds. “The guys on the other team thought he looked good. We were watching him from the bench. He’s played games and that helps. He showed what he’s capable of today.”
Suzuki raises an important point. Because he played games with Timra IK in the SHL (Swedish top flight), Kapanen had a head start on the others in terms of fitness.
This is how he scored two goals, including one by cutting towards the net before performing a nice maneuver.
A man of few words in the press scrum, Kapanen was content to say of his first day of camp that “it’s fun to play hockey. A lot of fun.” Who are we to disagree?
Sweden or the NHL
He is a rather slender forward, 6 ft. and 178 lbs., who arrives in Brossard in search of a position. The one who describes himself as “a reliable, complete center, capable of playing offense and defense,” had an interesting season in Kuopio, in SM-liiga (Finnish first division) last season. With 34 points in 51 games, he took third place on his club, before leading his team in the playoffs with 14 points in 13 outings.
The most attentive readers will notice here that he changed leagues during the off-season, leaving home in Finland to follow his compatriot Olli Jokinen, who was appointed head coach at Timra.
“It’s a better league with better players, if I’m perfectly honest. It’s also the chance to live in a new country, a new city, so I’m going to learn,” he said.
It was when it was pointed out to him that it was strange for a Finn to praise the professional league in rival Sweden so much that he let out his only smile of the interview. “It’s the truth! Swedish hockey is very good right now. It’s fast, it’s skill-based,” pleaded the nephew of former player Sami Kapanen.
It remains to be seen whether he will actually play for Timra. His chances are good, however, since there will be no middle ground for him. It will be either the Canadiens or Sweden. Under his contract, he will not be able to play in the American League.
This camp begins with 13 forwards on one-way NHL contracts, including the injured Rafael Harvey-Pinard, as well as Juraj Slafkovsky and Joshua Roy, who are still on rookie contracts. Kapanen will essentially have to double Roy in the hierarchy and ideally another forward would need to get injured. Unless his level of play convinces Kent Hughes to trade an established player, but a lot of water has to flow under the bridge before we get to that point.
I have two good options for the upcoming season. But I’m here to win a position, I’ve always dreamed of playing in the NHL.
Oliver Kapanen
Adding to his challenge, he must also try to adapt as quickly as possible to North American rinks. Slafkovsky is well-placed to talk about this, having also made the jump from Finland to the NHL two years ago.
“He’s excellent, I followed him last year in Liiga,” mentioned the Slovak. “Finding your comfort level takes time for some, like me. For others, it’s quicker. These games allow you to learn a little more about (the level of play), but it’s really in the preparatory games that you see where you are and what you need to improve.”
Kapanen is another piece of the Canadiens’ 2021 draft – the last of the Bergevin-Timmins duo – that could be a relative success. The club’s first-round pick, Logan Mailloux, will be knocking on the door this fall, while Joshua Roy exceeded expectations in his 23-game audition last year.