Ville Leskinen will play in Kouvola next season.
Ville Leskinen leaves Kärpät behind. Jaakko Stenroos / AOP
SM league club Koovola KooKoo has acquired Ville Leskinen in their ranks, the club informs.
Leskinen, 29, has signed a two-year contract with the club. The second season of the contract includes a foreign option.
Leskinen, who is cool as a striker, moves to Kouvola from Oulu Kärppie.
– Leskinen has been one of the Liiga’s most effective wingers for a long time. He has exceptional attacking skills and an intriguing understanding of the game, KooKoo’s sports director Jarno Kultanen stated in the press release.
– Ville raises our attack and the whole team’s profile at the same time. As a player, he is in his prime, so we are of course very pleased that he wanted to come specifically to Kouvola and KooKoo’s shirt.
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Last season, Leskinen played 51 regular season games for Kärppie, where he scored 14+23=37 power points.
Kärppie’s season was a flop and Leskinen also told Kaleva about Kärppie’s way of playing after the losing HIFK match in March.
– Everything starts to look slow if you have to think about too many things on that field, Leskinen said For Kaleva.
Kärppi’s head coach Lauri Marjamäki took a stand on the words in Petopod, i.e. the Kärpät-themed podcast. However, the widow’s name was not mentioned during the episode.
– I have never heard of such a thing. Now that’s complete bullshit, Marjamäki said.
– It’s quite a strange comment if someone has said something like that. If someone still feels that way, it must be said that that someone is in the yard like a bird’s nest.
Coincidence or not, Leskinen had to watch the next game from the stands. At the time, he commented on the matter as follows to Iltalehti.
– I can’t take a position on that. I haven’t been playing very well lately. I’m not satisfied with my own game, Leskinen stated.
– I am not injured, Leskinen said.
Leskinen, who also played in Leijon, has won the Finnish championship in his career in the 2017–2018 season. Leskinen has also won the under-20 World Championship gold in 2014.
In the SM league, in addition to Kärppie, Leskinen has represented Helsinki IFK, Sport and KalPa. Leskinen also played in the Swedish SHL in the 2019–2020 season, but left the SHL after only 14 games played and joined HIFK.