“Said to forget about this”

That decision turned out to be the right one in the end.

When Valtteri Puustisinen’s path rose at the age of 17 at the breeding club KalPa, the player’s family made a decision. The pursuit of dreams continues elsewhere.

– Maybe Valtteri didn’t have a home at that point, but he found one in Hämeenlinna, father Jani Puustinen tells.

Play

Valtteri Puustinen has been one of the Finnish surprises in the NHL this season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ seventh-round pick broke into the Penguins’ lineup in December and was able to play 21 games alongside the star players.

Playing was fun for Puustisen even as a child. The toy cars stayed firmly to the side when it was necessary to get to the yard. Ice hockey was already selected as a sport when he was 8–9 years old.

Among other things, Jani Puustinen, who played roller hockey at the championship level, coached hockey juniors for 12 years and acted as his son’s coach at KalPa up to the younger C age group.

A lot of games were accumulated, according to father 100–120 per season.

– That’s quite a lot when you think that the boys were 12 years old. I try to make sure that the teams have as many games as possible. It develops the player.

The road rose up

However, the journey is boring in KalPa.

Puustinen participated in KalPa’s B-team test event in the spring of 2016. He had just won the B2-SM series Finnish championship and was the third best scorer on his team, but did not make it to the 98-year-old B-1st team playing at the SM level.

Puustinen had impressed with his understanding of the game, his passing skills and his skating, but he was told that his athleticism was not enough.

Puustinen had played almost his entire junior career with the 98 age group a year older.

– We wondered about it then. However, Valtteri’s understanding of the game was probably the best of that team, but he was physically a little smaller than the others, the then coach of KalPa’s B2 junior team Mikko Miettinen tells.

– I think that was a pretty lame explanation when we’re talking about people of that age. Yes, the concept of the game should be given much more value. Everyone builds their physique at some point. Many others here have also wondered how it went like that.

Puustisinen’s puberty had not yet started properly, and height growth had not started. The metabolism didn’t work as fast as others, and the muscles hadn’t grown yet.

Everything he ate stayed in his body. The roundness of the child was visible.

– He sometimes wondered why he was so stubborn, Jani Puustinen reveals.

Puustisen also liked candies to some extent. Isä-Puustinen, in the role of coach and father, tried to say that you don’t always need to eat sugar in the form of candy, but it still went some way.

– I certainly could have eaten less of it, Valtteri Puustinen admits.

The boy’s small size surprised even the elementary school nurse in the ninth grade, who invited Puustisinen’s father and mother to discuss the matter.

The doctor asked father Puusti when he had grown taller.

– I told you that I grew up in the army. The doctor said to forget these things for now.

Puberty also included a big change.

Puustisinen’s parents divorced when he was 15 years old. Puustinen lived with his little brother and sister every other week with his father and every other week with his mother. However, the distance was only a good kilometer.

– We were all on good terms, Valtteri Puustinen states.

to HPK

Puustinen immediately left for HPK’s test event when KalPa was told no thanks.

Worked as the head coach of HPK’s B-youths and the leader of the test camp Marko Raita saw Puustisen play for the first time in spring 2016 in the playoffs in Hämeenlinna.

He had received a hint from Kuopio that it would be worth visiting Puustis, but was skeptical after the game.

– Valtteri didn’t ignite in that match yet. I saw that he knew how to play, but he was already quite tired during that game. The physique was not at the level that young players playing in B-SM usually have, says Raita.

In the middle of the four-day test camp, Raita was still in two stages with Puustisinen. On the one hand, Puustisen could see that the sport’s characteristics were fine and that there was potential. On the other hand, the physical essence did not match the physics of the other players.

Still, Puustinen was an interesting player. Thanks to his understanding of the game, he was a step ahead of others and was able to do well in duels and one-on-one situations.

The skillful qualities eventually tipped the scales in favor of the young man moving to Hämeenlinna.

Hämeenlinna

Moving to Hämeenlinna was a big financial investment for the Puustisinen family. Apartments and other expenses had to be paid.

Puustisinen’s father does not bother to reveal how much money was spent. However, they had two children besides Valtter.

– I don’t know if they missed something, but at least they tried not to.

The father told his son that he can always return home, because at the age of 16 or 17, other things usually become interesting.

First you still had to learn to practice.

– At that age, you start to be interested in girls and in gay sex too. I told Valtteri that if things don’t start rolling, come to Kuopio by milk train and then you can take the money. I said it with a little twinkle in my eye.

Closing the KalPa door was a hard place for Puustisen himself. He had lived in Kuopio all his childhood, played in KalPa, and suddenly he couldn’t continue there.

– We went into the unknown. However, Hämeenlinna is quite far away. It was a bit stressful. It was a big place for a young boy, says Valtteri Puustinen.

Breakthrough

HPK started to put the player in shape.

Puustisinen’s training was changed and the attacker started keeping a food diary, but the development was not immediately visible.

Puustisinen’s endurance ran out in the middle of the games. Week by week and month by month, physical endurance improved, but outwardly the changes happened more slowly.

Puustisinen’s nature was not athletic. He himself has stated that he was still round at that time.

– I remember those moments when you could see from the boy’s expression that “oh damn, I still look like this”. It’s just trying to say that you play well and have taken steps forward, that you don’t worry about how you look in front of the mirror, Raita recalls.

It took some time for Raida and the other coaches to realize what was going on. Puustisinen’s biological development trailed behind. His physical age was not at the same level as others of the same age.

Raita thinks that the situation hit Puustinen on top of a little stress.

– We trained him a little too much. The boy exercised terribly and changed his diet, but his weight and external habitus did not change in the direction of athleticism compared to the guy sitting next to him.

The coaches soon realized that they couldn’t ask Puustis for more training – his body wasn’t ready for it.

Training was rationalized, and Puustinen spent one summer as the team’s goalkeeper coach Valtteri Salon by. He taught Puust to eat right.

The print started coming. Physics evolved, freeing up the dexterous striker. Puustinen quickly rose to HPK’s league team and established his place Antti Pennanen in the team. In the end, the road led to the Finnish championship, Leijon and the NHL.

The test camp in Hämeenlinna was the crossroads of Puustisinen’s career. The necessary home was found in Hämeenlinna.

– I don’t know where he would have ended up or if he would have ended up anywhere if he hadn’t made it to our team. We have wondered a few times with the people involved, whether the puck game would have ended at that point, Raita updates.

– I bet I wouldn’t sit here. I’d hardly be here. I probably would have played somewhere else. Now, I wouldn’t say that I was slacking off, but I wasn’t playing at a high level. Maybe I would have focused on something else, Valtteri Puustinen admits.