– There are stories, but they can’t be published.
Divarine Society The former and current hockey players sitting in the Northeast Pirkka Home Hall café will laugh. Mänttä’s raised and the most talked -about case of the league has risen to talk Atro Leppänen. Or, indeed, his wins.
The Ice Hall is running a KPK junior camp, whose participants have one favorite above the others.
– You see that game? The little junior coming in the hall’s corridor asks excitedly.
No need to think twice what the game is about. On February 23, Leppänen, representing Vaasa Sport, made history when he became the most power points who made the most power points during one SM league season.
The previous record, 53 power points, was Pekka “Rocky” of Pori in the name of the 1978-79 season in the name of Rautakallio.
Leppänen passed a number of defensemen in the record books, such as Brian Rafalsk, the winner of the Stanley Cup winner. Rafalski scored 53 points in the SM League in 1998-99.
The record was not the only one of the season. Leppänen won the first defender throughout the time in the SM League regular season (63 points in 60 matches) and set a one-season lead for defenders.
In March, other league players only chose the best player in the regular season of the second season.
The achievements are also special for the piston, the urban area of about 6,000 inhabitants on the border of Pirkanmaa and Central Finland.
There is now an Atro drug, as Leppänen’s rise to the top of the domestic hockey has been hit by the toughest class of species.
Just over six years ago, a small player played at the fourth highest league level and was working as an assistant to the Mänttäläinen tire movement. Now 26-year-old Leppänen is a leading defender in the Finnish Champions League, a national teamer who is interesting for the NHL clubs and the Finnish Championship League in one season.
How did he succeed? Let’s let people who have followed Leppänen’s development from junior times to the present day.
They all emphasize the same thing. Every junior is worth knowing this story.
Atro Leppänen has always loved winning. Whether it is a school exercise class or a family board game evening, loss has not been an option for Mänttä.
As a primary school age, Leppänen watched the Finnish EHT match on television, whose lions lost to Sweden. Nassikka, who was tired of the hard game, took the loss so heavily that the mother had to come to comfort the pearing boy.
– Especially when I was younger, losing has been a big place. It seems to be in my character. If you play, it’s hard to play halfway, Leppänen now tells Sports.
The same image is Sami on Päivärinnafor the tire keeper in Mänttälä. His son started hockey at KPK in the first grade, at the same time as Leppänen.
Päivärinta remembers Little Atro as an extremely enthusiastic junior who could be critical to others but above all for himself.
– In every game and every workout, I always had to pull it full. I should always have succeeded and be the best.
Mänttä offered children a natural life and a variety of sports facilities. Leppänen and his circle of friends spent different ball games from football to badminton. They developed an enthusiastic gambler game eye, which became one of his biggest tribes at the top of Finnish hockey.
Taklaus changed the direction of a career
Leppänen’s career path seemed to be similar to that of countless professional players. A talented junior moved to Tampere at high school and played Tappara under the age of 17. Then his collarbone broke in the tackle and the doors to the Tappara U18 team fell.
Returning home was a disappointment, but at the same time a relief. The young young person did not enjoy the city and it was not easy to get used to independent life.
– For example, cooking didn’t go. Subways had to visit quite often, Leppänen recalls.
In the home frogs, everyday life changed radically. Tappara’s top junior mill was practiced every day, and there were three times a week in the Northeast Pirka reel. Leppänen went to high school, sometimes worked and applied for studying at university. Ice hockey was a hobby that, however, was taken by a fiery racing character.
Game buddies in the Northeast Pirkka reel showed four seasons by the side of how a skilled and very skating defender did in the second diva what he wanted.
– It was easy to forget how young he was. Atro was able to take the role. He was able to carry the reel, serve it to others and score goals, with Leppänen in the same chain Matias Huhtala tells you.
– I don’t remember who was the first to talk about Atron to go try elsewhere. We emphasized that he was obviously going to leave.
The teammates told Leppä to contact KeuPa, a Keuru Mestis club in Keuru, but it took time before the defender dared to grab the phone in the summer of 2019.
– I got feedback from friends all the time, but there was insecurity and fear of failure. I hadn’t even played in the Suomi series. Eventually I worked for a moment’s whim and I called.
“I made him noted right away”
Leppänen call to KeuPa’s then player coordinator Tomas for Westerlund It was a turning point. Westerlund gave the talented raw to be the opportunity to be worth it.
Keeper Samuli Tervo Continue to remember Leppänen’s first Mestis match in the fall of 2019. Tervo played in that game in the opponent’s Imatra Ketterä.
– I noticed him right away. I thought I wouldn’t let it go at least. Then he shot the reel through our pack, Tervo says.
According to Tervo, Leppänen already showed “the same insane potential” at the beginning of the Mestis career that everyone is now noticeable. The third season in Keuruu was a breakthrough, and Leppänen’s journey continued with Westerlund to Kiekko-Espoo for 2022-2023.
Long -line coach Risto Dufva wonders how no other league club hit the edges when Vaasan Sport offered Leppänen a contract. In the fall of 2022, Dufva heard from Mänttälän -based pilot From Kari Savolainen From a hockey player in his twenties, he watched a couple of Kiekko-Espoo matches and convinced that Sport should recruit the defender in his ranks.
– Ice hockey is the timing business, and atro this worked exceptionally well. He made timely decisions and easily found the right place, says Dufva.
The contract offer came to Leppänen from behind the tree. Despite the peak season of Espoo, he had not been able to imagine himself in the league circles. The self -critical nature worked before his first main season, carefully analyzed workouts and training matches, and fetched a benchmark for more experienced players. The coaching team rewarded the defender in the early part of the season.
– Atro was a self -taught player. No such boy can be handled except by giving him a good chance, Dufva says.
Dufva and Sport’s current head coach Juuso Hahl Leppänen’s abilities quickly noticed, but they couldn’t foresee how explosive would be. Only two league seasons became a record-breaking NHL club.
The coaches do not hesitate when asked what the secret to Leppänen’s success is.
– Whether it is a single exercise or self -development, Atron’s desire to win is infinite. It has led him to this point and will take him much higher, says Juuso Hahl.
-He is not a Jesus man, but rather a tune. But that’s just a good thing, Dufva says.
Northeast-Pirkka reel representative team guiding Ville Nurminen remembers that the defender demanded a lot from himself in the diva years.
– Sometimes Atro’s self -critical had to be curbed. That accept the errors, they hurt.
“Even a small village can reach anywhere”
Would Atro Leppänen’s success be the same if his junior trail in Tappara had gone as planned? Hardly, says Sports Hockey Specialist Ismo Lehkonen. According to Lehkonen, there is creativity and fearlessness in Leppänen, which comes from the diva times spent in Mänttä.
– Such an artist would never have come if he had been in a big club junior mill. There the players are put in a similar mold and they play as in a Stiga game.
Leppänen found more than a game joy in Mänttä. From the homeowner, he received a down to earth attitude and a partner whose support has been invaluable in the last two years, especially in the last two years.
– my girlfriend Ninni is my most important support. We can talk about everything. My family, relatives and friends have also helped a lot. Although there has been little success here, our interaction is quite the same as before. It’s important, says Leppänen.
The tremendous development leap in recent years is taking Leppä from next season abroad. The defender doesn’t want to talk about his upcoming address yet but he told at the end of February For MTVthat NHL clubs have shown their interest.
It took the road anywhere, Leppänen’s story already has a huge importance to the piston. It is a story of the opportunities offered by a small community and the fact that the top does not always have to take the same route.
– These are great indications that even a small village can reach anywhere. Examples like Atro are needed to prevent small clubs from dies, says Ville Nurminen, coach of Northeast Pirkka reel.
Above all, Leppänen’s example shows that sometimes you should face your own uncertainties. The “Mänttä Bobby Orr,” Mänttä’s Bobby Orr, admits that playing KeuPa was one of the best decisions in his life.
– You should dare and make that one call. Does it change so much life? Not necessarily, but if you don’t call, nothing can happen.