Kasper Halttunen’s spring goal streak in the North American junior league OHL has been wild. However, the season ended in disappointment in the Memorial Cup final.
Finnish striker Kasper Halttunen spring has been exceptionally hard. The Finn, who plays in the North American junior league OHL, scored 17 goals and a total of 17+9=26 power points in 18 games for the London Knights in the spring playoffs.
Halttunen’s point production in the spring playoffs can also be compared to the former London superstar and Stanley Cup winner To Patrick Kane. In his last OHL season in the playoffs, the American star produced 10+21=31 power points in 16 games.
Halttunen is a second-generation hockey player, because his father Niko Halttunen played a couple of hundred matches in the SM league in his time.
– Kasper told me during the playoffs that it’s cool, there’s a feeling again that the game is going. Scoring goals is Kasper’s big strength. It’s good to have some strength when you strive for the big lights, Isä-Halttunen told Urheilu.
In the finals of the series, Halttunen was strongly featured. The 18-year-old completed the hat trick in the second and third matches. In the decisive final game, Halttunen’s stage produced 2+1 performances. The London Knights finally celebrated the OHL championship after an eight-year hiatus.
After the victory celebration, there was the Memorial Cup tournament, where the champions of the best junior leagues in North America (OHL, QMJHL and WHL) and the host team of the CHL play each year.
Halttunen finished the Memorial Cup with 3+1=4 performances in the three preliminary series matches. In the final match Finnish time on Monday morning, London lost to Saginaw Spirit with 3–4 goals. Halttunen scored one goal in the final.
Urheilu caught up with the Finnish striker after the Memorial Cup final match.
– Feeling quite speechless at the moment. I feel like we deserved more, but this is hockey. In this tournament, it’s one game and that’s it, Haltunen said from the seat of the bus.
Halttunen says that he is at his best when the stakes get tougher.
– I like spring games and I feel that in games with a harder stake, I always get a bigger gear on. It also took some time to come here from Europe and get used to the style of play.
The pace of the 18-year-old Halttunen in the spring matches was therefore dizzying, especially in the field of scoring. In the regular season of the OHL, Vuosaari’s Viikinkien played in 57 games and scored an impressive 32+29=61 points.
Next to the Sharks rookie camp
The summer continues for Halttunen at the rookie camp of the NHL team San Jose Sharks, who booked him. He is the Sharks’ 2nd round selection (36th pick) from last summer’s draft. However, the young goalscorer still has no information about next season’s address.
– We’ll see later what happens next season. Let’s chew this loss out of the bottom first. There are nothing but good options here, and San Jose helps with that as well.
Father Niko Halttunen mentions that, for young players, the rookie camp is still mostly about getting to know the organization of the NHL team.
– Last year, Kasper was already at San Jose’s rookie camp. The actual NHL camp is then where the big screens have to be given.
There is already one Finn playing puck in shark shirts – Mikael Granlund32, will begin his second season on the California coast next fall.
Granlund’s San Jose was the NHL’s worst team in the regular season and won only 14 out of 82 games in regular time. Granlund, who played in the Spring World Cup, was the Sharks’ best scorer with 60 power points. If the goal-hungry Halttunen plays in the NHL next season, his place could very well be found on the right wing of Granlund, who plays as a center.