Vaasa Sport’s Mestis team at the age of 16. U20 World Cup. League hockey in HPK, Jokipoji and SaiPa. Playing career abroad in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic.
If you Emil, Oscar and By Jonathan Hemming is the father of a solid hockey background, it is more the rule than the exception that you yourself will be seen on the ice sooner or later. Even though the parents have offered plenty of alternatives.
– They have always been allowed to do what they want, but it was clear early on that hockey was closest to their hearts, father Jonas Hemming says in the Sportliv program and remembers how the boys as children sat at home in full gear waiting to enter the ice rink.
The family lived in Vaasa, where, like Jonas’ father, the boys received an early puck education at Sport. When Emil was twelve and Oscar was ten, the boys had the opportunity to train with boys of the same age in Kiekko-Espoo during the skiing holiday week spent at their grandparents’ house.
– The boys praised how skilled the players from Espoo were – and realized that they themselves still had a lot of work to do, Jonas recalls.
At that point, the family wasn’t thinking about moving yet, but already at the start of the summer vacation, the moving load left for Espoo.
Emil Hemming remembers how the family discussed a possible change.
– Mother and father asked why we want to grow up. I said that at least I want to be a hockey player like my father.
Leaving the circle of friends felt difficult, but Emil’s goal is clear.
– I want to be one of the best in the world.
The decision to move was made easier by the fact that both parents were able to continue in their old jobs despite the move.
– We knew what we had to win, and in the end we didn’t think too much about what we might lose, says Jonas.
– You can always return home.
The family kept their house in Vaasa in case the children did not enjoy themselves in Espoo.
– But pretty soon they said that the house can be sold, we will stay here.
At the same time, the family stresses that the move should not be seen as a criticism of Sport’s player development, which Jonas has also been developing. However, Kiekko-Espoo offered their family something they couldn’t refuse.
– We thought that we left a little too early, but in Espoo they said that we came quite late.
After three years have passed since the move, the Hemming family knows that the decision to move was the right one.
Emil, who turned 16 this year, has grown from C-junior to A-junior in three years and has played in both U16 and U17 national teams, while 14-year-old Oscar is playing in the senior championship series in Kiekko-Espoo’s U16 team this season.
8-year-old Jonathan’s passion for the puck has only really ignited this year, and unlike his attacker brothers, he is fascinated by the role of goalkeeper.
When the hockey pledge turns fifteen
Last fall, Emil Hemming attended ninth grade at Mattliden school in Espoo. Around that time, discussions began about where he would continue his studies after middle school – and above all, what would be the next step in his sports career.
In Finland, player agents are not allowed to contact the player or the player hires an agent before he has reached the age of 15. Agent activities are regulated by strict regulations and agents must be registered. There are currently around fifty hockey player agents in Finland.
The competition for the most promising players is fierce. When the player turns 15, contacts may come from several agents. The same happened to Emil Hemming, whose family met and talked with several candidates.
The choice fell on a person living in Canada Petteri Lehto, who has almost thirty years of experience in the field. He currently has around fifteen players in his team, among whom are superstars such as Patrick Laine, Mikko Rantanen and Kaapo Kako.
Lehto found Hemming by chance last fall.
– I was at the Pohjola camp in Forssa to see my new client Aron Kiviharjua and there I noticed Emil. I heard that several agents had already contacted him, so I contacted his father and after a long discussion, Emil together with his family chose me.
But the initiative can also come from the player. Petteri Lehto receives both phone calls and e-mails from parents who have big plans for their hockey-playing sons.
– Then you have to be honest. If I don’t see enough potential, I refuse. I choose who I want as clients, and the competition for the best players is fierce. The choices don’t always go right, but that’s what I strive for.
For a player to interest Lehto, he must have NHL potential.
The fact that Emil has played in the U16 and U17 national teams and scored goals there has a lot of weight. Likewise, the fact that he has grown up in a good environment and received good advice along the way. In addition, he is big and ready to do hard work.
– Emil has the qualities required to build a professional career, Lehto states.
From a player’s point of view, the year you turn fifteen is an important turning point in your career.
– When I turned fifteen and the agent came into the picture, hockey changed from a hobby to something else. If you want to be a top player, you have to make your decision accordingly and start investing properly, Emil Hemming tells about his thoughts a year ago.
Last spring, he won SM gold with Kiekko-Espoo’s U18 team. But since the club doesn’t have a league team, the Hemming family began to wonder if Emil should move elsewhere to develop into the hockey professional he wants to become.
– Many other teams were involved in the discussions, but we think Turku and TPS was the best option. It is quite close and they know how to grow professional players there. Many good players have come from there, Emil says.
At the same time, two of Emil’s teammates from Kiekko-Espoo also moved to the TPS U20 team. Emily, Tuomas Suoniemi and Petteri Rimpinen have been living in their own apartments in the same building in the center of Turku since the summer. All three are studying business administration at the Turku Vocational Institute, which has a separate class for students for whom sport is currently the number one priority.
They all have the same goal: the NHL.
– It takes a lot to get to the NHL, but that’s where I want to be, Emil says.
Emil’s coach in the TPS U20 team is a former national team coach Fredrik Norrena. He sees in Emil a very promising hockey player on the way to a bright future.
During the important developmental years when Norrena is responsible for the players, they develop both as athletes and as people.
– It’s about self-discipline regarding sleep, nutrition, school, training and teammates. Our juniors wake up early, train early, go to school and train again after school. If you don’t take care of yourself, you’re burning the candle at both ends.
According to Norrena, it will come as a shock to many that the amount of training is increasing year by year.
– But when you clear it up, it hardly gets any worse, he says with a laugh.
When moving to the professional level, the amount of training can even decrease.
– Instead, there will be mental pressure to always perform well, Norrena warns her young players.
It is obvious that Norrena enjoys her job as a coach of young boys.
– The younger, but promising enough boys who make it to the U20 team, come to us as rebellious teenagers who know and can do everything. You have to be patient as a trainer, but they develop incredibly fast and suddenly they are grown men who are moving on with their lives.
Thus, his role as a coach is a bit different than if he were coaching an adult team.
– The primary goal is to teach them to play hockey. As well as teaching them what it takes to become a professional, teaching them to take care of their bodies, teaching them to train outside the ice as well. And when there are boys from other places, you also have to make sure that they are all right and that they enjoy themselves in the group.
According to agent Lehto, 15-year-old players already have a lot of skill and game intelligence. What remains is the development of physics. With the increased power, the shot becomes harder and the balance on the skates improves.
In the summer, Emil Hemming got to experience what the pace of training is like at the top level, when he trained together with NHL professionals Mikko Rantanen and Kaapo Kako with in Turku.
– Emil adapted well to the pace. Of course, nothing is certain at this point, but he is on the right track, says Lehto.
Although for Emil Hemming, hockey has changed from a hobby to a future profession, at the age of 16 the goal is just to enjoy the game. After all, there are still two years to the 18th anniversary and with it to the NHL booking event.
At the same time, however, speculations about the 2024 booking event are already in full swing.
On Elite Prospect’s list of players born in 2006, Emil Hemming is one of eight players currently ranked as a Top Prospect. Betting site Lines goes a step further and predicts Hemming will be booked ninth overall to the Anaheim Ducks.
However, the hottest Finnish name in the preliminary speculations of 2024 is Emil’s teammate Aron Kiviharju, who is at the top of almost all lists. Defender Kiviharju made his debut at TPS this fall at only 16 years old. Like Emil, Kiviharju is one of agent Lehto’s clients.
– Those lists have no meaning, says Lehto. The only list that matters is the one presented before the booking event two years from now and it is secret until then.
Since everything has gone well for Emil in TPS so far, the player and the agent do not need to be in constant contact right now. If problems arise, you can even be in touch every day.
– Most of the problems are ones that others have had, and I can then support, encourage and tell how others have overcome difficulties, says Lehto, who has had time to experience almost everything during his career.
If the player is a minor, Lehto initially keeps in closer contact with the parents as well. However, the player is the agent’s employer and decides how he wants things handled.
– Sometimes players don’t want to stress their parents with decisions or possible problems, but if I were the parent of a minor player myself, I would want to know what the plans are for my child.
What if everything doesn’t go according to plan?
– Statistically, the risk is high that after the U20 age group you won’t progress to the next level, to become a professional hockey player, says coach Fredrik Norrena.
When a dozen players grow out of the team every year and only two or three of them get a contract with either TPS or another league team, there remains a large group that has to accept that the big dream will hardly come true.
– Players are at that age when they develop as people and realize that there can be more to life. Many people have wanted to come and talk to me, and it has often been quite painless.
– I know that they will do well in life thanks to their discipline, so I really only see happy endings.
The Hemming family is also well aware of the realities and has decided to approach the betting as a long journey that should be enjoyed, says the mother Carolina Hemming.
– If the boys one day achieve their dreams, then they will, but we have not become obsessed with it. They are still our children. What happens in a sports career is another matter.
At the beginning of November, the World U17 Hockey Challenge tournament will be played in Canada, where Finland will face the USA, Sweden and the Czech Republic, as well as three Canadian teams. Both Emil Hemming and his former Kiekko-Espoo and current TPS teammates Tuomas Suoniemi and Petteri Rimpinen are part of the Finnish team.