If Ville Husso were to open the 2020-21 season in the American Hockey League, it would be the fourth St. Louis Blues minor-league affiliate he has played for without making his NHL debut.
“Yeah, I know, it’s funny to think about it that way,” Husso said from his home in Finland this week.
The 25-year-old goalie prospect has already suited up for the Missouri Mavericks of the ECHL and the Chicago Wolves and San Antonio Rampage of the AHL. The Blues have left San Antonio, and their new AHL affiliate will be the Springfield (Mass.) Thunderbirds, so it would have meant another stop.
But with Husso signing a one-way NHL contract in January and the Blues
trading Jake Allen to Montreal earlier this month, the plan is for him to be part of the Blues’ tandem with Jordan Binnington next season.
The decision was made, in part, because the club needed to clear salary-cap space — Husso’s $750,000 salary saves $3.6 million after the trade of Allen — but also because it wanted to provide an opportunity for the 2014 fourth-round draft pick.
The arrangement is a little concerning because Binnington, 27, has played in just 83 NHL regular-season games himself, and the league could play a condensed schedule next season, requiring two capable goalies.
Will Husso be able to push Binnington like Allen did? Is he ready?
Those are questions Blues general manager Doug Armstrong asked his staff.
“We had a conference call,” Armstrong said earlier this month. “I talked to the American Hockey League general manager (Kevin McDonald), development coaches … and everyone feels that he’s ready for the opportunity.”
This week,
The Athletic reached out to McDonald and asked why he gave Husso a thumbs-up, and the Blues’ assistant GM since 2009 said, simply, “his readiness.”
“I just think his entire body of work has been leading to this,” McDonald said. “Ville came up (with the Chicago Wolves) and played in a three-goalie system with Binnington and (Pheonix Copley). Then we had a share in San Antonio with (Spencer Martin). He’s been in Chicago and San Antonio long enough. If you look, he’s had good numbers every year, except 2018-19 when he wasn’t healthy, so he’s given us a consistent body of work. He’s paid his dues, and he’s ready to show that he can play at the next level.”
This appeared to be the direction the Blues were heading when they agreed to a two-year, $1.5 million extension with Husso, who would have remained a restricted free agent.
“For me, yeah, when the contract happened, I was happy for that,” he said. “But at the same time, I was still playing games (in San Antonio). I didn’t really think about that too much.”
Husso’s statistics in San Antonio said otherwise. In 30 appearances with the Rampage before signing the deal with the Blues that increases his chances of being in St. Louis in 2020-21, he had a pedestrian .900 save percentage. In 12 appearances afterward, he put together a .944 save percentage.
“I would say his numbers got a good boost from that point on, and gave him a shot in the arm,” McDonald said. “I think the confidence level certainly raised his play.”
The AHL season was put on pause in mid-March because of the pandemic. There was significant doubt it would resume, so a majority of the players left town in a hurry. But not Husso, who is from Helsinki, Finland.
“When the pandemic struck, everybody was figuring out how to get on a plane and get back with their family as quick as possible,” McDonald said. “Ville stayed in San Antonio the whole time. He never left, and part of that was he wanted to make sure he stayed in the United States. He knew there was a possibility of governmental restrictions if he left the country.
“But on top of that, he was in the gym almost every single day with our strength coach (Abe Edson). He had our trainers shooting on him on the ice, putting his time to good use, and that’s with nobody looking over his shoulder and pushing him. To keep working out the rest of March, all of April (through) June, I think it said a lot about Ville’s professionalism.”
That extra effort developed from the Blues’ continued faith in Husso, even though he missed most of the 2018-19 season with injuries; the miraculous story of Binnington, even though there could have been some disappointment when he was passed up on the depth chart; and what he gleaned from prior call-ups to St. Louis, even though they never resulted in playing a game.
The year the Blues won the Stanley Cup, a pair of ankle injuries limited Husso to just 27 games in the AHL, including just four starts after Christmas. But the organization stuck by his side.
“They have believed in me every single time, even last year when I was injured,” Husso said. “They still gave me a chance to play in the AHL and play a lot of games. I feel like the team has believed in me, and that’s a great thing.”
Before Husso’s injuries derailed his season, he was being outplayed by Binnington, who was called up in January 2019 and proceeded to make history.
“I was happy for Binner, how he played in the NHL and how he showed that if you just trust yourself, you can do this,” Husso said. “Everybody goes a different way, but it was nice to see you can do a story like that. That gave me a lot of energy and a boost for practice and workouts. I knew that anything could happen.”
And while Husso has yet to make his official debut with the Blues, he did suit up for 15 games as the backup during the 2017-18 season and against Dallas in the round-robin tournament this year. That opened his eyes to life as a pro.
“I’ve learned how they lose one game and the next game they play their best game and win — just how they do their jobs every day,” Husso said. “Everybody is a pro athlete, so they know what to do.”
Husso went straight from San Antonio to St. Louis in late June for Phase 2 of the NHL’s “Return to Play,” and his commitment in the months leading up to that was evident. The 6-foot-3 goaltender showed up weighing 200 pounds, about 15 pounds less than he was a few years ago.
“When he came to St. Louis (for Phase 2), we saw a lot of the things we normally see out of Ville,” Blues goalie coach David Alexander said. “He’s a pretty hard-working kid, but his fitness has been a huge improvement. I’m not saying it was bad, but what I’m saying is over time, you hope to see growth in that area, and we’ve seen growth there.”
Alexander, who has been with the organization since 2017, has seen a lot of improvement in Husso, in one area in particular.
“His positional game has improved quite a bit,” Alexander said. “I think overall that allows him to play a little bit calmer and in more control. (Blues goalie development coach) Dave Rogalski has done a really good job with him on that in San Antonio.”
Another area has been Husso’s footwork, which Allen helped with before his departure.
“I can move better, like standing up,” Husso said. “Jake is a really good goalie and has really good technique, so there were some little things that he showed me, like how he plays on the post. It’s hard to explain, but it’s just like when you go post to post. I need to get better on those, and I got (tips) from Jake.”
Alexander encouraged Husso to watch Allen.
“Lateral movement is a big part of today’s game,” Alexander said. “If you can’t move laterally, you can’t play in this league — you can’t. The league is too skilled, both on the passing side and pass reception and shooting off the release. So lateral movement is really important, and that was certainly helpful for Husso to have someone to look at going through that stage.”
Just as important was being able to adjust to the shots, especially for a European goalie who was getting acclimated to the smaller ice surface.
“The shots here, especially in the NHL, everybody can shoot the puck pretty well,” Husso said. “And the angles, they come from everywhere in the U.S., so you need to be ready. There are little things that you need to fix coming from Europe, but now when I’m here in Finland, the ice is Olympic ice, so I feel weird here. The U.S. rinks are normal for me now.”
Allen recently joined my podcast at
The Athletic, “We Went Blues,” and I asked him about Husso’s progression.
“It takes time, it really does,” Allen said. “You look at Binner, it takes time. Ville has got a really high-end skill set. He’s a natural in the position, it seems like, just from watching him and understanding his game a little bit. Obviously he hasn’t played yet, and there’s a lot of things he’s going to have to learn, and it’s not going to be easy.
“I was in his shoes before. There’s going to be ups and downs, but he’s going to be a good NHL goalie for a long time. Him and Binner will be a great tandem; they’re both relatively young and could be there for a while together. They know each other, (and) they’ve played together already, so that’s definitely a bonus. It’ll be good for Huss. He’s paid his dues and you need an opportunity, and this is his chance.”
Husso was in Finland when he found out that Allen had been traded to Montreal.
“I saw it on Twitter,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, is it my turn now?’ I didn’t really think too much, but like, it was the feeling that you’re in a good spot. I’m moving forward.”
He doesn’t consider the Blues’ backup job his yet, knowing that he’ll have to continue working hard this offseason and then have a solid training camp, whenever that is.
“Usually it’s the summer time when I’m in the offseason, but now it’s September, so it’s kind of getting cold here,” Husso said. “There’s not much to do other than practice and play some tennis maybe inside. We have (Tali Tennis Center), and there’s like 20 courts. I’ve been playing eight, nine years. It’s good for goalies because of the side-to-side and the hand-eye.”
He plans to go on the ice soon with fellow Finnish NHLers, including Dallas’ Julius Honka, Winnipeg’s Kristian Vesalainen and Carolina’s Teuvo Teravainen.
“There’s lots of guys who play in Europe, too, and they don’t have a team right now,” Husso said. “There’s going to be a lot of guys to skate with, so hopefully get in there next week. It’s going to be good.”
Many skaters get their shot in the NHL at a younger age, and lately goalies are, too. In recent years, the list includes Philadelphia’s Carter Hart (22), New Jersey’s MacKenzie Blackwood (23), Washington’s Ilya Samsonov (23), Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko (24), Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry (24) and Columbus’ Elvis Merzlikins (26).
Of the 87 goalies who played in the NHL in the regular season this year, 28 of them (32 percent) started the season age 25 or under.
“The NHL, in some ways, has been a performance league for a long time, but you’re starting to see a little bit of a trend where we’re developing players at our level, too,” Alexander said. “There are a lot of young guys starting to come in, and with that, there’s a little bit more, I don’t know if ‘comfort’ is the right word, but a little bit more patience.”
Martin Brodeur, the winningest goalie in NHL history who worked in Blues management for three years before leaving in 2018, once said that young goalies like Husso need to play 150 games in the AHL, if possible, to best enhance their development. To date, Husso has played 129 regular-season games and 10 playoff games in that league.
“So he came close,” McDonald said. “You throw in the years that he played in the men’s league in Helsinki and he’s certainly put in his time on the development side.”
Husso would’ve reached that level if not for the injuries, as well as the pause. But he did prove last season that he could handle a significant workload by tying for the most games played by a goalie (42) and leading the league in minutes played (2,437:37) at the position.
“We went from having a prospect who wasn’t healthy to it being another important year for Ville, showing his health and having an excellent season for us,” McDonald said. “Sometimes people look at his stats and don’t realize he did have a strong statistical year, especially for a team that was No. 25 overall in the league in goals for.”
If the NHL plays an 82-game schedule, the Blues believe that 25 starts isn’t out of the question for Husso. But with the number of games uncertain, they’re going into it with the idea of a split — say, 70-30 percent in favor of Binnington — instead of a number of games. And the games Husso does play will likely be carefully scheduled around how the club is playing, the opponent, etc.
As long as it’s with the Blues, Husso is fine with it.
“I would like to play as much as I can,” Husso said. “(But) I just hope whenever the (season) starts, I will be in St. Louis and show what I have. I will prepare as good as I can and try to not think about it too much … just enjoy the game. It’s the same hockey, and I’ve been playing hockey for 20 years. It’s totally on (me), and I will show what I have.”
