Niku’s forte is finesse, not force

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This article was published 04/02/2020 (2042 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You’ll likely never see Sami Niku rag-doll two players at once like a certain someone who used to man the blue line for the Winnipeg Jets, but that’s OK.

The 23-year-old smooth-skating, puck-moving defenceman from Finland brings other qualities to the ice. Niku clearly displayed his offensive ability in Saturday’s 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues as he picked up two assists in the second multi-point game of his NHL career.

That doesn’t mean he’s excused from becoming a more physical player.

“I think it’s more brain work, like experience,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice after Monday’s practice, on how Niku can improve defensively. “He’s never going to be dropping guys. We’re not asking Sami to go in the corner, put a guy on his ass, grab the puck and go. That’s not going to be his game. There are bigger men that can do that, so that’s what we ask them to do. You make sure you’re heavy in those corners.”

With 11 NHL games under his belt this season, Niku said he’s starting to get into a rhythm offensively. He does, however, realize his defensive game can get better.

“I’m not that small, so I could be more physical and like, angry,” said Niku, who has three assists this season. “I just need to be closer, like my gap could be a little bit closer. I need to trust my skating. I can play defence a lot with my skating. I just need to be closer.”

Mistakes are going to be made by every young defenceman, especially one who only has 42 NHL games on his resumé. But with Niku’s offensive upside, Maurice said you can live with him not being a shutdown defenceman.

“It takes time to learn that… I’m not looking for excellence in that department in this part of his game. What buys him time for our hockey club to continually put him on the ice when those things are happening is that he’s got to be able to move the puck (which is) what he’s good at… He can do that in the offensive zone. As long as that’s there, we will be patient in the time it takes him,” Maurice said.

“He’s not going to (always) get it right. He’s got lots of room to physically mature, as all the young guys do. But he can get stronger. He can become more fit. A big chunk of it is he can learn to go hard in practice because we don’t practise long. These are all things that they would’ve never done before and now they have to.”

Niku’s most recent crucial mistake, if you can call it that, came Friday night when he was called for slashing after turning the puck over in the third period against the Boston Bruins with the game tied 1-1. Jake Debrusk capitalized on Niku’s misfortune by scoring the game-winning goal on the power play.

The next night against the St. Louis Blues, Niku served two minutes for holding. According to Maurice, when you’re 6-1 and under 180 pounds like Niku, it can be difficult to avoid holding penalties.

“The free-hand penalty is something that you would have seen Josh Morrissey and even Toby Enstrom, those two guys led our team in holding penalties just like that and one of them is a veteran. So, that’s a real challenge for a smaller man to take on a bigger man and it’s totally about experience,” Maurice said.

“Now, there also is some strength and there is some experience. How many times can you keep that event from happening? Go back and get it first. Use that speed and your hand skills, so that one-on-one doesn’t happen as often. That’s a big part of it. And when you get into that, how do you handle it? It’s the first thing you see the smaller guy do is get his hands out into here and that’s a tell, right? The refs are looking for that. So, (you’ve got to) teach those guys to keep their free hand off their hip and not wrap around, and then the reach in can’t be as big.”

While Maurice concerns himself with Niku’s development as a player, some people are more interested in talking about Niku’s flowing hair, which covers the name on his jersey. It’s the longest it has ever been and whether you love it or not, it’s not going anywhere — at least not this season.

“I’ll probably cut it this summer,” Niku said. “We’ll see how long it is by then.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31