Seems that the Edmonton Oilers have found a useful player from the 2011 NHL Entry Draft—it’s just that he isn’t one of their draft picks. Iiro Pakarinen is from the booming metropolis of Loviisa, Finland—the home of two of Finland’s nuclear reactors—and was founded in 1745 as a border fortress against Russia. After watching Iiro Pakarinen play hockey, I think ‘border fortress’ and ‘nuclear reactor’ should be included in his scouting report. He is back for another year.

When things work out on a player, I think it is important to give credit. Back in 2014, Craig MacTavish was the GM and Matti Virmanen was pushing for the Finn. In year one, he was effective (in a very short time frame) with Anton Lander, and in year two he was effective with Lander. I think we can agree that Anton Lander was not the easiest fellow to play with this past season, but Pakarinen did pretty well in possession and even scored three goals in 152 minutes. Maybe it was all those Swedish speaking people in his home town growing up.

Pakarinen is an enjoyable player to watch. He is rambunctious, aggressive and has all kinds of energy. If the home team is lollygagging a shift from Pakarinen gets the blood flowing and rattles those boards. Plus he is excited to be here;

Iiro’s boxcars and underlying numbers are not grand, but compared to the other bottom 6Fs last season, he looks positively solid. He was unlucky in shooting percentage (he should have cashed 7-8 goals with normal luck) and he was 1.19 and over 50 percent with Anton Lander. You know folks, that is like finding water in Death Valley, or was this past season.

I saw a quote today (does not matter where) that suggested that the Oilers signed Iiro Pakarinen because he would be a good mentor for new hire Jesse Puljujarvi. While I think that may we be true (Bob says they have the same agent), I think he is a fine young player in his own right. Iiro Pakarinen earned today’s contract, and I will tell you there are a bunch of bottom 6Fs on this Oilers team who trailed this fellow in performance last season. 

The only bottom 6F with a blue bubble (JJ Khaira) has earned a look this fall, and I think Pakarinen—whose bubble is in the Hendricks hue, better than the Klink and Korp shades—has earned an opportunity to grab an NHL job and run with it. Pleased to see the Edmonton Oilers agree, based on the news today. Pakarinen photo above by Mark Williams