Smooth movement, sharp turns in a small space, constant scanning of the environment and finally precise hard passes into open spaces. As a result of all this, the red light has often been on and for the 22-year-old from Arizona For Matias Maccelli one assist point has been recorded again.
On Monday, there were 37 of them from the current season.
And not just any inputs. Maccelli, who is from Turku, Finland, has recorded 1.36 number one assists per hour he has played.
The reading is the 13th highest in the entire NHL. The readings and ranking are flattering to say the least for a player playing his first full NHL season.
Even in Finland, people have been asking over the course of the season who this Maccelli is.
When Finns were drafted into the NHL in the summer of 2019, Maccelli, drafted by Arizona in the fourth round, did not garner headlines. Kaapo Kako was the Finnish star of the event. Maccell’s reservation number was 98.
The rise since then has been quite considerable, as the winger from Turku is currently ranked 11th in the NHL points market for his age group. In other words, Maccelli has passed more than 80 players.
Transferring from TuTo to Ässie’s coaching team Hermanni Vidman knows Maccelli well. Vidman coached the talented Turku player for two years in Tepsi B-junnu. In the NHL bowls, Vidman has seen a familiar player.
– As a player, he has not changed at all. He is really brave with the puck and often does extraordinary things. The best part is that he’s doing the same things there that he’s always done. He has clearly taken a place there for himself with his own strengths, says Vidman.
– Many young people have to modify their game, but he has not done so.
At the same time, Vidman serves a perfect donkey bridge to Maccelli’s personality, which the general public so far has little contact with.
– As a top player in his age group, he has always had his own stories and tricks. Sometimes we got together pretty hard in our teenage years, when we were learning what it’s like to be a team player. That there is more to the game than cool tricks and points. He is a strong and stubborn guy, those teenage years were not easy, Vidman recalls.
Through the Yankees to Tampere
Turku people could probably be characterized as some kind of traveler of their own way. In the middle of the difficult 2017-2018 A junior season, Maccelli unexpectedly headed to the American USHL junior league, where he played for the Dubuque Fighting Saints Santeri Virtanen had recommended his old teammate to the club’s Swedish GM For Kalle Larsson.
– From there they asked who they could book and I threw out Matias’s name. I guess there were some differences of opinion in Turku’s head with the coaching, when he called in the middle of the season to ask if he should come there. I said hey come and he did. We lived in the same family and went everywhere together because I had a car, Virtanen says.
– I was like a big brother, I had to be taken under my wing a bit, recalls Virtanen, who currently plays in Ilves.
Maccelli quickly adapted to the North American game and in the second season he already won the team’s internal point exchange with 22 points. 72 (31+41) power points were created in 62 matches.
– I left for SaiPa after one season, but Matias was the next God in his second season there, Virtanen laughs.
– His path required going there. It was good for him because it forced him to grow up and take responsibility. When you think about the NHL, the USHL certainly helped with that as well. As a small player in the NHL, it was certainly easier to adopt the game after that, Vidman sees.
During the USHL, Finns were also attracted to universities, and they visited, for example, the University of Wisconsin, but Maccelli’s path also eventually led to Finland – not Tepsi, however, but Ilves.
– It was a local match of the autumn Tampere Cup, where he scored four goals. You could see right away that he is now a different player than anyone else, how he spins in a small space and so on. After the first week, we were “Tillun” (GM Timo Koskela) with that morjes, this guy starts with first superiority, the Ilves pilot of that time Karri Kivi remembers.
In my own style
One theme repeats itself in Maccelli’s interesting journey: wherever the winger, who is profiled as a fluid skill player, has gone, he has always been able to break through through his own strengths, even through a little artistic skill play.
At the SM league level, this meant 69 (28+31) power points during two Ilves seasons.
– The relaxed environment in Tampere suited him well and the most important thing during his time at Ilves was that he got a decent opportunity and a good role there. Bunch of Myrrh during Ilves still played a slightly different hockey. Matias’s strengths don’t necessarily come out in the best way if we always start with a delay and stand in the trap, says Vidman.
Now the same has been seen in the NHL in a way that has even elevated Maccelli to the Rookie of the Year debate as a candidate to be taken seriously.
– It’s not surprising at all that he has gone to the NHL without even bowing down. We are talking about a carefree and creative child of nature, who has built-in self-confidence at a high level. Even if he lost the puck five times with blue, he would still try to get away with playing the sixth time, Virtanen laughs.
– He has a strong will of his own and a way of acting, and even the authorities don’t always have a say in that. That’s a really good trait in him, Virtanen, who also played together with Maccelli in Ilves, continues.
Two themes explain Maccelli’s 0.8 points per game scoring rate
– Matias is a player for whom the game has always been fun. He has always been able to fulfill himself in the game. The playing position is good, the head is up and there is so much skill that he does not have to look at the puck. He is always able to observe what is happening around him. Something young Saku Koivua he has, a fast guy who is really hard to tackle, Vidman begins.
– His game has always been based on natural talent on the blade. There is skill with the stick, but in today’s ice hockey you cannot create space and time for yourself if you are not good with skates. Even the best need that little moment during which magic starts to happen. He is very agile on skates, Virtanen can see.
So it’s about the fast translations mentioned at the beginning and the very entertaining and insightful circular solutions that follow them.
In the end, the only question left is where is the ceiling of the only 22-year-old player.
– Nothing will ever be caught from the game, says Virtanen.
– Professionalism is of great importance. How far will he take it. Arizona is a nice place, the sun shines and there are swimming pools, but how does a jogging track, a gym, ice training taste and how do you stay hungry. The last stoutness and hardness come from there, because there is still a long way to go from being a 60-point player to when we start playing seriously as a pitcher, Virtanen’s line.
Too bad, Maccelli will hardly be seen at the World Cup home games, because his NHL contract expires this season.