Laine is Jets’ Finnish Flash 2.0
Second overall draft pick projected to be heir apparent to Selanne for Winnipeg fans
There is a rock-star thing about Patrik Laine back home.
In Finland, he’s seen as the second coming of the Finnish Flash, Teemu Selanne, who skated with the Winnipeg Jets at the beginning of his 21-year NHL career.
But as longtime scribe Vesa Rantanen said in a Winnipeg Free Press story just before the draft, “There was no Twitter or Instagram or Facebook back then, and now if Laine posts a picture on Instagram, they want to know if he’s got a new haircut or his driver’s licence.”
Here in Winnipeg, they just want to know if he can score on NHL goalies.
The No. 2 pick in the June draft behind Auston Matthews, who went to Toronto, had his NHL coming-out party, albeit in exhibition, Friday night against the Edmonton Oilers, who trotted out their own Finnish youngster Jesse Puljujarvi, the No. 4 selection.
The 18-year-old Laine played in the recent World Cup of Hockey and was sheepish when he got more notice than veteran NHLers such as Mikko Koivu and Pekka Rinne. But that’s how it is when you’re second choice in the draft and everybody expects you’ll break into the NHL with a bang.
“I don’t imagine he’ll get 76 goals like Selanne did as a rookie, though,” a media guy said to Jets captain Blake Wheeler, who played for the U.S. at the World Cup and also saw his first pre-season action Friday.
“Hey, nobody gets 76 goals in a season now,” Wheeler said.
Whether you’re Alex Ovechkin or Steve Stamkos, young or old, 50 goals in a season is a big deal today. This is all new territory for Laine. “Back home, we don’t have training camp — you go there and you are already on the team. You don’t have to compete with other players.”
Laine really doesn’t have to compete at Jets camp, either. Unless he suddenly gets NHL stage fright, spends too much time watching rather than skating or if he finds smaller North American rinks too claustrophobic, he’ll be in the Jets opening night lineup.
Selanne said he thinks Laine should play with right winger Wheeler, their best passing forward.
“You want to have him piggy-bank off some of the experiences I had (as a kid),” Wheeler said. “He’ll go through his own trials and tribulations — every young player does that — but anything you can do to take yourself back to when you were in his shoes, all those things can help.”
“You want to tell him he doesn’t have to score a goal on every shift to make an impact. He’s playing against very good players. It might be tonight. It might be tomorrow. His ability will take over. We just want him to feel part of the group and that’s really important with kids.”
“I know everybody is expecting me to go out there and do something magical,” Laine said, “but I just want to give it my best shot every shift and that will be enough for my team.”
Cliche aside, that’s probably the way he should look at it.
“I don’t think I have to worry about what other people are expecting.” Selanne is a big Laine fan. “His size, his smarts and that shot is something else,” he told the Winnipeg Free Press.
Selanne was 22 as an NHL rookie when he had 76, though. Fellow Finn Jari Kurri was 20 as an Oilers rookie.
Kurri had 23 goals in 33 games in Finland his last year before starting in the NHL with the Oilers in 1980-81, when he scored 32 goals in 75 games. Laine had 17 goals in 46 games Finland last year.
“Those were different times with (Kurri) … Certainly, nobody really knew who (Kurri) was,” said Jets assistant coach Charlie Huddy, a five-time Stanley Cup winner with the Oilers. “Now with all the media, all the fans, all the hype on the first few guys in the draft, watching them at the world juniors, we forget that Laine is still only 18.”