Hameenaho Making Most of Opportunity | PROSPECT WATCH

An errant pass bounced loose just outside the Winnipeg blue line. That’s where Devils' rookie forward Lenni Hameenaho collected it, split two Jets defenders and raced in all alone on goal. After the Jets defensemen closed ground, he snapped a quick shot that found its way through the five-hole of reigning NHL MVP and three-time Vezina-winning goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

The Prudential Center crowd erupted in jubilation about the sequence and about the future of the young man who scored.

The excitement surrounding the 21-year-old from Kajaani, Finland has been palpable since last September’s rookie training camp. New Jersey’s second-round pick in 2023 (58^th overall) had just potted 20 goals and added 51 points in 58 games as a 20-year-old with Assat of Liiga and was making to the jump to play in North America for the first time.

Though his name was on the bubble of making the Devils’ 2025 opening day roster, a preseason injury pretty much sealed his fate to start the campaign with Utica of the American Hockey League.

North America would prove to be an adjustment period, both on and off the ice. There is, of course, the smaller ice surface than the European variety that upon which he was used to playing. There is also the different style of play in the American Hockey League, a more grinding and rugged brand of hockey than the open and free flowing leagues in Finland.

The adjustment took some time. But it was a planned adjustment.

Hameenaho went pointless in the first nine games of the season. Again, that was part of his development. The team wanted him to concentrate on learning the defensive side of the game before letting his offensive instincts flourish. Hameenaho put his ego aside and took to the task. In the early going he really honed in on developing his work away from the puck, knowing that his defensive work would eventually lead to creating offense.

And, indeed, that offense came.

After breaking his pointless streak with a goal, Hameenaho would score nine goals and 21 points in his last 24 contests in Utica to become the club’s leading point getter.

“It was just finding my game on the smaller rink,” he said. “I’ve gotten more and more offense. I think that’s been good to start on the defensive side of the game and then just try to build that offense also.”

Before getting called up to New Jersey, Hameenaho had points in 12 of 16 games for the Comets, which included two three-point efforts and 17 total points (6g-11a). At that point, with the Devils needing a forward recall in mid-January, he was the obvious choice to get a shot.

And while accompanying the Devils to Western Canada, on Jan. 19 at Calgary he made his NHL debut.

“It's a dream to play your first NHL game. I feel great,” Hameenaho said before the game.

He skated in 12:38 minutes of ice time with center Cody Glass and fellow winger Arseny Gritsyuk. Hameenaho also recorded two shots on goal as the Devils earned a 2-1 overtime victory.

“It was great,” he said after the game. “You have a lot of things in your mind the whole day. You try not to think really of anything and just go out and play your game. It was a good day. The game went very fast by. I felt pretty good. I had really good linemates. That was a big help for me to play my own game. They were helping me.

“It’s your first game so there are nerves. I think it was a good start and we got the win, that’s the best thing.”

The next best thing would be to get a win and score your first NHL goal. That would come two games later in Vancouver on Jan. 23.

After an offensive zone faceoff win, Hameenaho drove to the net. He was there to pick up a wide shot from defenseman Simon Nemec that caromed off the end boards and right to the rookie's stick. Hameenaho didn’t hesitate to lift it quickly into the vacated net.

“It’s a dream to score your first goal,” said Hameenaho, who also picked up his first NHL assist in the game for a two-point night. “It was a great feeling obviously. You don’t know before that happens (how it feels). It was a great feeling.”

The trio of Gritsyuk-Glass-Hameenaho has combined for six goals and 12 points in five games working together.

“Coming up, I wanted him to play with good players and get a chance to play on offense,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He’s complimented those guys very well, whether it’s him being the shooter, him finding space, him being the passer, he’s been reliable defensively. There’s been a whole lot to like there.”

“Both players are so good, everything they do on the ice,” Hameenaho said of his linemates. “It’s been pretty easy to jump in there with those guys. I’m just trying to do my best and play to my strengths. It’s been pretty good so far.”

While he’s enjoying some early success in his NHL career, the club still wants to keep a keen eye on him as he navigates the ins and outs of the game at this level. That includes both on and off the ice.

“We have to continue to monitor him,” Keefe said, “as the newness of it wears off and the challenges of the league, such as traveling from three time zones away and all of sudden your back playing again, it’s not a weekend league.

“How do you manage that as a young player playing in the league for the first time. That’s what we have to manage with him. Certainly, the early signs have been encouraging.”

The Devils took the slow and patient path to get Hameenaho to this point. They’ll continue doing so in the future knowing that once he eventually establishes himself at the NHL level, it’ll be worth the wait.

“Coming up, we took a patient approach to let him really develop and get some traction at the AHL level,” Keefe said. “For me, for a guy like him, the hope is once he comes that he never goes back.”

Regardless of what the future holds from here, Hameenaho has a simple approach: “I’m trying to enjoy my time and just do my best.”