Born To Play For One Team 

Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson may be Swedish, but appreciates the similarities between his homeland and Nordic neighbor Finland when it comes to loving hockey. 

Larsson grew up in a hockey culture where players start at the youth level with a single club team and keep moving up its various age level ranks into juniors and on to the domestic pro circuit. The system, which Finland also employs, engenders a type of fandom and loyalty beyond just the jersey itself and extends to surrounding communities truly watching hometown players represent them. 

“Hockey was pretty much everything for us,” Larsson said of playing for his hometown Skelleftea team in the pro Swedish Hockey League for two seasons as their youngest player after starting within their youth ranks. “It’s pretty much the only sport we have up there because it’s such a small town. They kind of ride their hometown team.” 

Larsson is eagerly awaiting next week’s Kraken trip to Finland, where they’ll be immersed in Nordic hockey culture and play two games in Helsinki against the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes as part of the annual NHL Global Series. He knows how much the sport means to people there, just as it did to him growing up in Skelleftea and eventually following in the footsteps of his father, Robert, by playing for the SHL squad. 

“I mean, that’s the team I grew up dreaming of playing for,” he said. “You start early, play up through their youth program and then you hope you make it with them as a pro. I knew about Sweden's biggest players in the NHL, and obviously heard about Wayne Gretzky and those guys. But I didn't follow NHL. It was kind of like Skelleftea and that’s all I was tuned into and hoped one day I’d be ready to play for. Up there, that was really all we knew.”

Skelleftea is in remote “Swedish Lapland” fewer than 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Larsson began playing for its youth teams about age 4 and continued until joining Skelleftea’s pro squad at age 16.  

“I think it's good too because if you're from the city and a good program, you can kind of be a kid and stay home with your family,” he said. “I stayed with my mom back until I was 16, or 17. And then my mom had made a decision to get my own apartment to kind of just get used to being by myself. But it was nice.” 

Larsson likened the atmosphere at games in Nordic countries to those of soccer matches, replete with “chanting and songs and stuff like that.” He hasn’t really had an opportunity such as this since leaving Sweden to begin his NHL career with the New Jersey Devils back in 2011. 

“For me, it's more so my friends and family have the time to come watch me play,” Larsson said of the Helsinki games Thursday and Saturday of next week.  “And maybe friends from back home and kids that haven't been over here to North America yet, then they would have a chance to see a game.  

“I mean, it costs a lot of money to get over here and then to buy a ticket. So, people that can't afford going over here to watch NHL, I'm glad the NHL is bringing some games over there.” 

Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer experienced a similar system in his native Germany, playing for the pro Deutsche Eishockey Liga team is his rural dairy farm town of Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria. He’d begun with the Rosenheim Starbulls at age 3, eventually playing at various levels beyond his own age group before joining the pro squad as a 14-year-old.

“It was amazing for me because I learned to skate in that rink and then I could go through every age group and ended up playing professional hockey for the men’s team was I was 14 and 15,” Grubauer said. “So experiencing that and like being able to play in your own town and playing the first pro game there was amazing. 

“Finland kind of takes you back a little bit to where you kind of remember that you grew up skating in Europe and then you made your way over here to North America,” he added. “I’ve visited Finland a couple times with my wife so it's definitely a place we enjoy, and it's yeah, we’re both very excited.” 

Perhaps not as excited as Finnish native Ville Ottavainen, a late addition to the Kraken roster out of training camp returning to his homeland as an NHL player for the first time. The defenseman, just like Larsson in Sweden and Grubauer in Germany, grew up playing for a remote club team in Oulu, a major port city sitting by the Gulf of Bothnia about 370 miles north of Helsinki.  

“In my hometown they call it the ‘Half of Finland team’ because there’s no other Liiga pro team further north of there,” Ottavainen said. “The closest team is about a 3 ½ hour drive away.” 

Liiga in Finland is right up there with the SHL as one of the world’s top pro hockey circuits, below only the NHL and Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League. Ottavainen played for Oulu all the way up through its junior ranks but not for its pro team.

He’d decided to fly over to Canada to spend a season in the major junior Ontario Hockey League learning English and playing on smaller ice surfaces. When he returned to Finland to play pro hockey a year later, it was too late to join the Oulu Karpat squad. So, he instead played three seasons with JyP HT Jyvaskyla. 

But he’d have played for Oulu if he could have. 

“Yeah, that was like my team who I was rooting for growing up and going to games and all that,” Ottavainen said. “It’s kind of away from everyone. So that fan base is very passionate.” 

And playing in front of ultra-passionate Finnish fans as an NHL player is something he’d never imagined possible. 

“You can’t even dream of something like that,” he said. “You can’t even dream of playing NHL games to begin with, let alone me doing it in Finland. So, it’s incredible. It’s obviously going to be super special being in my home country.” 

Even and NHL veteran such as Larsson admits he’s expecting some special memories playing games in Finland, long an arch rival of Sweden when it comes to hockey.  

“They really love their hockey up there – and that’s all the way to the North Pole,” Larsson said. “The rivalry? It’s always on. But, I mean, going to Finland it’s a beautiful country. It’s obviously a dark month but it’s going to be a fun time and a really great team bonding experience.”