Waltteri Merelä has not followed the most typical NHL path in his career. Merelä, who plays in the Tampa Bay Lighting organization, will start his season on the NHL side, despite preliminary expectations.
The Finnish sensation of the NHL training season has been a forward Walter Merelä, who has grabbed a spot in Tampa Bay’s lineup. The man is expected to play in the Lightning’s first regular season game against Nashville next night.
Merelä has never been any kind of junior star, nor does he have an NHL reservation. The native of Ylöjärvi, who won two Finnish championships and the CHL championship in Tappara, signed a typical rookie contract with Tampa Bay in the summer: one year, a salary in the NHL of 750,000 to 900,000 dollars per year and in the AHL 90 percent less.
The good moves in the training season have opened up a great opportunity for Merela.
– We are talking about a really hard trick, because he doesn’t have any classic NHL path. Merelä has built his career in an alternative way. He has done a great job first in the league, after which he has risen to the national team and now to a tough NHL team. A fantastic story and a great surprise, commented Urheilu’s NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä.
Coached Merelä in Tappara Tuomas Tuokkola says that the strong attacker has been an extremely alert player since he was young.
– Great guy! He is extremely determined and goal-oriented in terms of what he wants to achieve in his career. He has made choices for that matter, and now that work is bearing fruit. Merelä has not come to the top the straightest way, it has taken its own steps. He first left Tampere for Lahti as a junior player. Positive things happened in Lahti, after which the goal has become clearer.
The 25-year-old Merelä has shown the Tampa management that he is a ready player for the NHL.
– He will probably become a general player in the lower chains, let’s say in the three-four court and the underpowered game. The result may not be so much expected, but good two-way play. He is a versatile player. For example, if you want to look for a little change of rhythm in the game, then he can play in the top chains. The playing time will be approximately 12-14 minutes per match, Seppälä assures.
The forward scored the same number of points in four NHL training games. In his last season in Tappara, he scored a convincing 33 power points in 41 matches. In his best season in the League, Merelä scored 44 points in 57 matches. The successful last season also gave birth to a place in the crew of the World Cup home games.
The beginning in North America has required adaptation
However, the beginning of Merelä in North America has also required adaptation.
– Every day is mentally heavy. New language and lots of new things all the time. When you come here, you have to be ready to learn something new all the time and just be yourself, Merelä comments On the Tampa Bay Times website.
The hard-nosed gambler has been planted in Tampa’s foursome during Monday’s practice By Tanner Jeannot and Luke Glendening alongside.
– In the first practices, I sometimes didn’t understand what we were doing, which is why I started at the back of the queue. However, I have now learned the game, the striker says about his first training sessions with the team.
A poster of Stamkos as a child on the wall
A current teammate decorated the wall of 10-year-old Merelä’s room By Steven Stamkos poster.
– When we were little, we got a magazine about ice hockey once a month. In between was a poster of Steven Stamkos. Now I play with the same guy in the NHL. You can imagine how that feels. It is quite incredible, says Merelä.
Seppälä emphasizes the player’s background. In Tappara, Merelä got used to the tough culture in a successful team.
– In Tappara, he was already part of a superior team, where work is done and sportsmanship is at the center of everything, so now he is in a similar club in the NHL. They are in Tampa Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, Stamkos and others who are top class professionals. That team has a mercilessly hard culture of winning and a level of demands. In that group, he now gets to see how things are done exactly and not almost. Merelä is the right kind of player for that team. A different kind of player might startle Tampa’s level of demands. I believe that this is why he has taken that playing spot, says Seppälä.
– The years have taught me what it takes to make dreams come true. Now one purgatory has been overcome, when there is a place in the NHL, but it is a constant competition in sports, Tuokkola sums up.