NHL players are sometimes like pawns on a board. Club bosses move these pieces purely according to their own interests. However, this is also why player fees are in the millions.
The goalkeeper from Helsinki, playing in North America for the eighth season Kaapo Kähkönen28, has had enough of the dark side of the sports entertainment industry this past fall.
First, Kähkönen remained in Winnipeg as the third goalkeeper, after which the club put the player on the transfer list. From there he was picked up by Colorado, who returned Kähkönen to the transfer list after a month.
The circle closed when Winnipeg took Kähkönen back a good week ago, but not to the NHL, but to the AHL side.
– This autumn has been strange, strange and frustrating. By far the most special start to the season in my career. There have been setbacks in every possible way. It feels like things that I can’t influence, nothing goes well, Kähkönen tells Urheilu.
“This work cannot be done remotely”
The starting points for the season had to be good. Kähkönen signed a one-year contract with Winnipeg as a free agent in the summer. Of course, it was known that the player who was chosen as the best goalkeeper in the series last season would be ahead Connor Hellebuyck.
Perhaps the bigger sadness was that Winnipeg signed a contract with a 29-year-old previously known to them on the same day Eric Comrie with. Comrie returned to Winnipeg from Buffalo.
– I don’t know why it was decided to put me on the transfer list, and I don’t want to guess the reasons. It doesn’t help my mood at all. All the feedback at the training camp was good and positive. I was completely on the same page with the goalkeeper coach.
When Colorado, which had been struggling with goaltending since early autumn, decided to give Kähkönen a chance, the goaltender was excited, but the joy was short-lived even in Denver. One match was added to the account. Tampa scored three hits behind Kähkönen in the first five minutes.
– I was excited, but that also ended when it took eight days to get a visa, and I didn’t even get to train with the new team. It got pretty bad after being off the ice, training and games for a week, Kähkönen’s time.
– This work cannot yet be done remotely.
On the other hand, Kähkönen already emphasizes in the next moment that he understands the NHL’s brutal result sports ethos.
– The beginning of the only game was quite rough, although the end went well. Then no more games were released. The result was raw and that’s all that matters here. And it should mean that. I completely understand that.
Deputy of the deputy
Colorado returned Kähkönen to the transfer list, from where Winnipeg grabbed him back.
The pattern worked excellently for the club, as it was now able to put the Finnish keeper in the farm league without having to use him again on the transfer list. This is what the club was hoping for with the first attempt. If Colorado hadn’t grabbed Kähkö, he would have gone to the AHL.
– I knew they would take me. Already in the fall, they communicated that they liked each of the three goalkeepers, and that they would like to keep all of them, but only two at the top. I am the perfect player for the club in this role. If something happens, they have a goalkeeper on the farm who can play more if needed.
The situation is excellent for Winnipeg, which is at the top of the series. It has one of the best goalkeeper packages in the series. For Kähkönen, who won in the AHL at the weekend, the situation is different personally.
– There’s no need to complain that it’s nice and comfortable here. It’s frustrating to be in the AHL when you feel like you’re an NHL-level player. This eats a man and it should be eaten. It shows ambition. Here we could quote a well-known coach (Petri Matikainen), that let’s eat crap and move on, Kähkönen throws and laughs.
Before joining the AHL club Manitoba Moose by Brad Lambert and Henri Nikkanen as a teammate, Kähkönen screwed his own mind into the right position like a professional.
– When you chew on the matter and accept the situation, you can go to the hall with a good attitude to work and start getting to know new guys. You have to get something out of this too, it’s professionalism. You can always learn something as a player and as a person. No experiences should be thrown away. You can get something out of everything, Kähkönen reasons.
Kähkönen can wait for better times, at least in terms of logistics. In Winnipeg, the NHL and AHL teams play and train in the same arenas, so there is clearly less logistical adjustment at the time of possible NHL commands than in other clubs.
– It’s nice to be able to live in the same room all season. There’s no need to go somewhere else if there’s something like that to come. It is also nice for the wife to be in the same apartment with her belongings, Kähkönen concludes.