Junior teams warm up to European ‘flavour’ in goal

Sabres pick Luukkonen leads wave of imports

The Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves didn’t wait long to pounce once the ban on foreign goaltenders was lifted for the 2018-19 season.

Sudbury selected Finnish netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with the third-overall pick in the 2018 Canadian Hockey League import draft after a four-year restriction on selecting goalies was removed, mak- ing the Buffalo Sabres prospect the first European keeper chosen since 2013.

“Given the rules at the time he wasn’t an option until this year, so when they made the rule change you go back through your notes and memory bank and he was top of mind,” said Wolves general manager Rob Papineau, who first had an interest in Luukkonen after watching him win gold while getting named an all-star at the under-18 world championship in 2016.

“From a scouting standpoint I don’t think I was alone in think- ing he was a very good goalie … Buffalo took him high in the NHL draft.”

Goalies born outside North America became ineligible for the CHL import draft in 2014. The ban was implemented in part to benefit the development of up-and-coming Canadian goaltenders. CHL president David Branch said at the time the decision was made after discussions with Hockey Canada.

The CHL changed its tune after talks in the spring, and the governing body making up the 60 team-league including the OHL, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Western Hockey League told teams about the change for the June 28 import draft in the weeks leading up to it.

“If we’re going to be the best development league in the world, that includes goalies,” Saginaw Spirit head coach Troy Smith said. “We have to be open to everybody.”

Luukkonen, who was selected 54th overall by the Sabres in the 2017 NHL draft, was the first of seven goalies taken amongst the 57 Europeans picked at the 2018 CHL import draft. He played the previous season in Finland’s second-best league as an 18-year-old after making his pro debut a year earlier. No QMJHL team took an import netminder, with four going to OHL teams and three to the WHL.

Smith, whose club went with Russian Ivan Prosvetov at No. 15, thought there could have been more.

“I actually anticipated a few more just because it was a new flavour, but seven is good number,” Smith said. CHL teams are allowed to have a maximum of two import players on their