Riku Helenius

[MrMcGz]

Anyone think he'll get signed and come back over? Cheapest option as far as goalie situation is concerned.

SM-Iiiga champion with JYP.

Playoff totals: 13 GP, 11-2-0, 0 SO, 1.73 GAA, .947 sv%
Regular season totals: 33 GP, 21-9-1, 7 SO, 1.64 GAA, .936 sv%

Nasty stats but not too sure about the competition level in Finland.

I've always had a soft spot for the former Feaster first rounder.

Thoughts?

Click to read more...

 

[Yzlamic Preacher*]

I don't know enough to comment, but the only thing that has been proven recently is that goalies moving from european leagues haven't faired well recently. If he can live up to the stats here I'm all for it. To gamble with a lower chance of success, I'm not a fan of.

 

[MrMcGz]

Pekka :cough cough: Rinne? Need a shot to have a chance to excel. Riku wasn't really in the best circumstances under the cowboys tocchet and b. lawton as norfolks gm last time he was over here.

Plus was injured first couple years in NA.

 

[TBLHoser]

If I remember correctly, his stats may be great, but I don't believe he's playing in the top tier league is he? I thought he started out there and was demoted to the lower tier....

 

[MrMcGz]

He plays and won the championship of the top professional Finnish hockey league.

Maybe you're thinking about when he played in the SEL?

According to Wikipedia SM-Iiiga is the top European hockey league...

 

[chasespace]

He was a tandem goalie for Södertälje last year and they were relegated. This past summer he signed for JYP of SM-Liiga(Finland's top league) and cleaned house.

If he has an out clause in his contract(I heard it was a 2-year deal) then he may come over. No one is sure though.

 

[TBLbrian]

he should come over and let him take a shot. all of the scouting reports say he's ready, might as well let him come give it a show IMO

 

[Marshal Rochambeau]

Would he accept a two-way deal?

If not it's not like we have a choice. The spot has to be filled.

 

[Fruits and Roots]

He plays and won the championship of the top professional Finnish hockey league.

Maybe you're thinking about when he played in the SEL?

According to Wikipedia SM-Iiiga is the top European hockey league...

That's completely wrong.

If you look at both skill level and wage budgets, this is pretty much the order:

KHL, Russia
Elitserien (SEL), Sweden
NLA, Switzerland
SM-liiga, Finland
DEL, Germany

 

[TurboBrick]

Well, you figure that every Finnish goalie in the NHL started out in SM-Liiga. Tim Thomas really bloomed over there winning the championship and best goalie award with HIFK in '98. In the past 10 years there's been some pretty good goalies coming out of that league. "Coming out" is the key part here, you play there to get noticed, you go to KHL or Switzerland to make money.

As an intresting side note, former bolt Eric Perrin scored the OT game winner for JYP.

 

[SemireliableSource]

SM-Liiga is crazy good at producing goalies.

 

[MrMcGz]

Does anyone know his actual contract status? I know there's no transfer agreement between leagues but if he was offered a $900k one way deal maybe he'd be obligated to give it a go to win the starting job over Garon? Then it wouldn't be all that bad if he started in AHL w that money.

 

[TurboBrick]

Helenius signed a 2+1 year contract last May. None of the articles I found specified if there was an NHL escape clause in there.

 

[chasespace]

Helenius signed a 2+1 year contract last May. None of the articles I found specified if there was an NHL escape clause in there.

Are NHL teams allowed to "buy-out" contracts from other leagues?

 

[TBLHoser]

He plays and won the championship of the top professional Finnish hockey league.

Maybe you're thinking about when he played in the SEL?

According to Wikipedia SM-Iiiga is the top European hockey league...

I knew he was demoted at some point....nice to hear he's in the top tier.

BTW, according to DC of the Times, Fasth was offered a 2-way last year and rejected it. Can understand that he wouldn't want to go to the AHL if he doesn't make the big club, but why not send these guys back to their homeland if they don't make it instead of Norfolk? Granted, they wouldn't get the NHL experience, but you'll never know if you can't get them over here to begin with.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

I would love for him to come back and give it 1 more try in training camp, but I don't think he'll do it. He's already a starter in another professional league like Koshechkin, and ex-bolt Ramo, so I think it comes down to how badly he wants to be in the NHL.

 

[Felonious Python]

Are NHL teams allowed to "buy-out" contracts from other leagues?

No. (4th character)

 

[TBLHoser]

Another website has his status as "on loan" back in 2011....Not sure whether that means we have an option to bring him back or not.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Another website has his status as "on loan" back in 2011....Not sure whether that means we have an option to bring him back or not.

I saw that too on eliteprospects. I know he was originally loaned over seas to get more playing time when he was the 3rd string behind Janus and Tic but I'm not sure how that works now 2 years later or if it's still in effect. Since then he has switched leagues from the SEL to the SM-liiga, signed another contract, and his ELC ended with us.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

We still hold his rights. When going to Europe like that, contracts are frozen iirc.

http://www.sm-liiga.fi/videot.html?file=120423_peljyp.mp4

Congrats to Eric Perrin for a dart in OT to win the title, too.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

We still hold his rights. When going to Europe like that, contracts are frozen iirc.

http://www.sm-liiga.fi/videot.html?file=120423_peljyp.mp4

Congrats to Eric Perrin for a dart in OT to win the title, too.

What do you mean by frozen? Like the loan is indefinite until we, Riku, and his agent agree that Riku is ready to come back to the NHL? That would be good since there probably is no out-clause on his contract with his Finnish club.

My guess is that there are certain agreements laid down in the begging of a loan such as this player will play here for this amount of time, but l don't know if that holds up this long now that he has switched leagues, teams, signed a pro contract in Europe. We still hold his NHL rights because Yzerman made a qualifying offer but the loan may be over since he never re-signed.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

What do you mean by frozen? Like the loan is indefinite until we, Riku, and his agent agree that Riku is ready to come back to the NHL? That would be good since there probably is no out-clause on his contract with his Finnish club.

My guess is that there are certain agreements laid down in the begging of a loan such as this player will play here for this amount of time, but l don't know if that holds up this long now that he has switched leagues, teams, signed a pro contract in Europe. We still hold his NHL rights because Yzerman made a qualifying offer but the loan may be over since he never re-signed.

Since there was no transfer agreement fully agreed upon between the NHL and euro clubs, contract status is frozen. Thats why Radulov is still on his ELC when he came back to Nashville.

At least, thats how I remember it.

 

[grimesy]

Since there was no transfer agreement fully agreed upon between the NHL and euro clubs, contract status is frozen. Thats why Radulov is still on his ELC when he came back to Nashville.

At least, thats how I remember it.

Yeah He has one year left on his entry contract which will kick in when he comes back.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Since there was no transfer agreement fully agreed upon between the NHL and euro clubs, contract status is frozen. Thats why Radulov is still on his ELC when he came back to Nashville.

At least, thats how I remember it.

Radulov was never loaned. He violated his contract and just left, so his situation is a little different.

Riku's ELC is done. He was an RFA last summer which is why Yzerman had to give him a qualifying offer to retain his rights.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/light...-offers-ds-mike-lundin-and-matt-smaby-updated

The Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday sent out qualifying offers to restricted free agents for whom it wanted to retain negotiating rights.

Received qualifying offers from the Lightning:

...

Riku Helenius, G

 

[TurboBrick]

JYP and Bruins have a partnership agreement with eachother. I wonder if it were possible to do a three-way deal here where Tampa trades his rights to Boston, they use their agreement to get him out of JYP, and then trade him back to Tampa for an 8th round pick and a bag of hockey pucks.

That's the legal part, then there's the part of how much does Helenius want to play in the NHL and is the management team in Jyväskylä more interested in money or keeping their goalie.