CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Joel Blomqvist has made it clear for a while now that he wants to be in North America for the upcoming season.
Blomqvist, one of the Penguins' top goaltending prospects, signed his three-year entry-level contract back in April. He spent the last two seasons playing for Kärpät of the top Finnish league, and had a stellar season in 20 games as a backup in 2021-22 with a 1.32 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage, but his 2022-23 season was marred by injury. Blomqvist suffered two separate concussions throughout the year as a result of collisions, and was limited to 21 games as a result. He was his team's starting goaltender when healthy, and recorded a 2.29 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage in those games.
Blomqvist signing his entry-level deal didn't necessarily mean that it was a given that he would be in North America for the coming season. The Penguins have the option to re-assign him to Kärpät, though that would burn the first year of his entry-level contract. Since he never had a full, healthy season as a No. 1 goaltender in the top Finnish league, giving him one more opportunity to do that wouldn't have been a bad move for his development.
I spoke with Blomqvist after his season ended in Finland in the spring, just days before he signed his entry-level contract. While he didn't yet know what the plan was for him this coming season, he knew what he wanted.
"Oh yeah, I would be interested in coming over," he said without a millisecond of hesitation when I asked. "For sure. Yeah."
After Blomqvist attended development camp last week at the Lemieux Complex, the consensus within the organization is on the same page as Blomqvist: He's ready to come over.
Blomqvist, who is listed at 6 foot 2 and 183 pounds, is a left-catching goaltender who was the Penguins' 2020 second-round pick. The 21-year-old native of Uusikaarlepyy, Finland has Swedish heritage and goes by the nickname "Blomma," which fittingly means "Flower" in Swedish.
Blomqvist said at camp that he's "really excited" about taking the next step in his development and coming to North America. He will almost surely start the year out in the AHL, and he already has a decent idea of what it will be like to play in that league.
Kärpät was eliminated early in the Finnish playoffs in each of the last two seasons. In the 2022 postseason, Blomqvist overtook his team's starter to become the No. 1 goaltender in the playoffs for the best-of-seven quarterfinal round. He carried his team to Game 7 with an outstanding 1.10 goals-against average and .950 save percentage, but the team in front of him just couldn't find a way to put the puck in the back of the other net.
This year, Kärpät made the postseason as a wild card team, and the league has a best-of-three wild-card round that takes place before the quarterfinals. Blomqvist missed the last three months of the regular season as he recovered from his second concussion, and ideally would have taken some more time to get back to his usual form before getting back into game-action. But an injury to Kärpät's No. 2 goaltender at the end of the regular season forced Blomqvist to make his return in Game 1 of the playoffs. He made 24 saves on 26 shots in his first game back to help carry Kärpät to a win to open the playoffs, and fared OK in Game with 22 saves on 25 shots in a loss to even the series. The deciding game was two nights later on the road, and it was a struggle for all involved. Blomqvist allowed four goals on eight shots through the first 28 minutes and was pulled, and Kärpät went on to get shutout 5-0 to be eliminated from the postseason.
Those early exits proved to be bittersweet for Blomqvist. While he obviously would have preferred to make a deep run with Kärpät, the conclusions of his Finnish seasons provided him the opportunity to come to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an amateur tryout contract in each of the last two years, a contract that allowed him to play and practice with the team without eating into an entry-level NHL contract. He was able to get acclimated to the team and living in the city, and he was able to play in one game in each of the last two seasons.
Both of those games were losses -- Wilkes-Barre was out of postseason contention in both cases, and coach J.D. Forrest was dressing a younger, inexperienced lineup to just get players like Blomqvist some valuable experience. Blomqvist stopped 25 of 27 shots in his AHL debut in 2022, then 23 of 27 shots in his one game this season.
Forrest liked what he saw from his future netminder in those games.
"We like his hockey sense for a goaltender," Forrest said last week at development camp. "He's able to read plays and get there. He made some incredible backdoor saves for us. You know, let up a lot of Grade As on him that game that he played (this past season) in Hartford. But he's big in the net. He can react quick to some plays that you think he's out, and all of a sudden he's got a foot on it or stick on it. He's got a nice, calm demeanor, where he doesn't seem to get rattled at all. It feels real confident with him in the net that if you lets one in, you don't think there's going to be any type of falling off a cliff with it. You just think that he'll probably stop the next one. His mentality is strong."
Blomqvist called that game this season "kind of a hard game, but good experience." The biggest thing for him is just adjusting to the style of North American hockey that comes with a smaller ice surface than he's used to playing on in Europe.
"When (the ice) is smaller here, everything just comes at you faster," Blomqvist said. "You have to be a little bit more aware of the situations. And obviously, there's a lot of skilled players. It's a little bit of an adjustment to go from Europe to here, but I think it's fun to learn it."
Forrest has seen a couple of European goaltenders come through Wilkes-Barre and try to make that adjustment. He's also pretty familiar with the European ice and style himself, having played eight years in various European leagues as a defenseman -- including five seasons in the top Finnish league. He's got a good idea of what the adjustment process is going to be like for Blomqvist next season.
"Traffic, usually," Forrest said of the biggest change for goaltenders in North America. "There's just a lot more traffic in North America. Smaller, tighter confines, pucks are getting to the net faster. Bigger bodies around the net. So you've got to be able to battle and find the puck. After a second rebound, the shots are coming from the wall and six feet closer than it would be in your native land. That's usually what we find with the goalies coming over. That's the biggest one."
The Penguins' three-on-three scrimmage to close out development camp isn't exactly a game-like situation and isn't a real evaluation tool, but Blomqvist fared well nonetheless. He posted a shutout in his team's first game, and stopped six attempts in the nine-round shootout that ended the next one. His team won the championship Michel Briere Cup with him in net.
ANDI PERELMAN / PENGUINS
2023 Development camp champions
Penguins director of player development Tom Kostopoulos said that the Penguins' staff is "really happy with where (Blomqvist) is at."
"It was a tough season for him, he went through a couple of injuries," Kostopoulos said. "But I think he's in a good spot. He looks great off the ice and on the ice. He did really well on the fitness testing and I thought he played great in the scrimmages here. So he's in a good spot. We all think it's time for him to come over. He's ready."
Kyle Dubas is big on the need for both competition and insurance in case of injury at the goaltending position. On Day 1 of free agency he had Tristan Jarry, Casey DeSmith, Alex Nedeljkovic, Blomqvist and Taylor Gauthier under contract and said that he'd still like to add one more "solid veteran guy" who ended up being Magnus Hellberg. Dubas said that the plan was to "let everyone come in here in training camp and let it fly."
Blomqvist will start the year out in the minors. But his goal is to play well enough to become the first call if a spot becomes open with the NHL club.
"If I'm given the chance, I feel like I can definitely fight for that spot," he said. "I'm excited about that challenge."
