Fine time in Finland

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This article was published 11/03/2021 (1666 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the darkest days of the pandemic last fall, Carson Lambos had a dilemma.

Should he wait it out at home, hoping there would be a WHL season with nothing guaranteed, or should he call an audible and attempt an outside-the-box solution?

Risk was associated with both options, but as we found out, Lambos wasn’t content to watch a season of development circle down the drain, especially as a probable first-round NHL draft pick in 2021.

Instead, with the help of agent Mark Mackay’s European connections, he hopped on a plane for Finland in October to begin almost four months of training and playing for the JYP club in Jyväskylä. His stay included a promotion to JYP’s squad in Liiga, the country’s top pro league.

The 18-year-old Winnipeg Ice defenceman is back in Canada now, preparing for Saturday’s season-opening game against the Brandon Wheat Kings at the WHL’s East Division hub in Regina.

Lambos admitted his interactions with members of JYP’s Liiga squad, which included some players more than twice his age, provided the most memorable lessons of his stay.

“I learned a lot just being there… but if I just say one takeaway it was just kind of elevating my game,” said Lambos. “… As I was (playing with the Liiga team) at the end, I got to see what it takes day in and day out at that level. I think it really gave me a new perspective on hard work and what it takes — just putting in the extra work to prepare myself.”

In Jyväskylä, Lambos first found his footing with the U20 team as he transitioned to the larger ice surface while billeting at the home of JYP’s sport manager, Mikko Viitanen. A skill set already blessed with superior mobility and a pro-ready snapshot served him well. Lambos’ fierce competitiveness also made an impression on his Finnish hosts.

“I think he adapted to the game pretty fast because he’s a pretty solid player, makes good decisions with the puck or without the puck,” said Viitanen by phone from Jyväskylä. “And he never gives up. When he makes a mistake he battles to fix it. And skill-wise, I don’t think he had any issues playing with the under-20s and he played a few games with the men’s team.

“He played pretty well there — if you think about how young he is and how little experience he had practising or playing against men.”

Viitanen said Lambos compared favourably to a pair of 2003-born Finnish defencemen currently playing in Liiga: JYP’s Aleksi Malinen and Topias Vilén of Pelicans.

“Sometimes I think it would be better to play European hockey and maybe get some experience playing against men every night instead of playing against like junior-age players,” said Viitanen. “It’s hard to say what’s the better way of development.”

In Regina, the left-shooting Lambos has been teamed in practice with third-year man Nolan Orzeck, a righty, to form the club’s likely No. 1 defence pairing.

A strong showing in the hub could also solidify Lambos’ draft ranking, which has been all over the map in recent months. It has ranged from second overall to 28th, according to various independent scouting services.

Lambos was also exposed to another element of the Finnish-Canadian divide: practice time.

“In the Finnish hockey culture we practise a lot,” said Viitanen. “Our under-20s, they have pre-morning ice sessions for an hour, they usually have off-ice (workouts) before the morning ice and they have something after that. They also have afternoon ice on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday — usually they have Wednesday night off — and then they play Friday, Saturday or Saturday, Sunday. So, they practise a lot. That’s something our hockey system believes — that we play a little bit less but we practise a little bit more.”

Added Lambos: “It’s a lot more dense schedule (in the WHL) in terms of games. So we practise a little bit less here than we would there. It’s more of a college schedule there, so Friday, Saturday game, you’re able to practise really hard throughout the week. In our schedule, it doesn’t really allow for that.”

Viitanen hopes Lambos can serve as an example for others to follow in a non-pandemic season.

“Let’s put it this way — instead of Finnish guys going to North America to play their junior hockey, I would love to say that maybe some Canadian- or U.S.A.-born players would come to (Europe),” he said. “Auston Matthews had a pretty good pre-draft year in Switzerland.”

Lambos said his time in Finland will have lasting benefits.

“It’s a life experience I will never forget,” he said. “It had its ups and downs, for sure, but I’m definitely glad it went and I will never forget my time there and always be grateful for it.”

SLAPSHOTS: The MJHL’s Winnipeg Freeze has hired Harry Mahesh as its new GM and head coach.

Mahesh, a 32-year-old product of Vanderhoof, B.C., was most recently an assistant coach with the Winkler Flyers. He replaces Josh Green who filled both roles for the club’s inaugural season.

Green recently returned to the WHL’s Winnipeg Ice as an assistant coach, a vacancy created when longtime associate coach Jon Klemm took a leave to pursue a business opportunity.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14