George Richards, FHN Publisher
Of the four players the Florida Panthers got back when they traded Vincent Trocheck to the Carolina Hurricanes, Eetu Luostarinen was by far the most overlooked.
As pundits broke down a deal where one of the most popular Florida players was traded away, the other three players got all the love.
Erik Haula, of course, was the biggest name coming back to the Panthers, a known commodity who scored 29 goals for the expansion Golden Knights just two seasons prior.
Lucas Wallmark was a rookie center, but one who had a lot of upside and was going to slide with in and take over Florida’s third line.
Defenseman Chase Priskie was in his first year out of Quinnipiac and was a highly sought after free agent the previous summer. He is also a South Florida native. Good player, better story.
Then came Eetu Luostarinen.
Sure, he had played in eight games for the Hurricanes that season but was in the minors and not exactly lighting it up, scoring eight goals in 44 games with the Charlotte Checkers.
Truth is, not a lot of people knew about him. Still don’t.
Yet the Panthers are thrilled to have him.
Coach Joel Quenneville said Monday that his play from the start of camp has been exceptional and that has “been a surprise.”
“Talking to people when we made the acquisition, people told us he has a lot of ability that you’re going to like,” Quenneville said.
“One of them is that is he keeps himself in the play on both sides of the puck. He has a real good instinct of coming up with pucks. The puck seems to follow him around.
“His hockey sense in high-end and he really has a patience with the puck. When I look back to the first day of camp, he has been as good as anyone on the ice every single day. I like that consistency.”
Sunday night, Luostarinen made his debut with the Panthers after joining the team for summer camp but not seeing any game action.
Luostarinen’s strong play in training camp earned him the third-line center position, the same spot which was supposed to belong to Wallmark — a player Florida did not make a qualifying offer to this offseason allowing him to become a free agent and sign with, coincidentally, Chicago.
It was an impressive debut.
“Those first few shifts,” he said, “I was pretty excited.”
Luostarinen, playing with Frank Vatrano and Owen Tippett, played 13:21 off 20 shifts and scored his first NHL goal as he charged the net and one-timed a pretty pass from Carter Verhaeghe in a 4-on-4 situation to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead.
He also had the secondary assist on Keith Yandle’s goal in the second period.
Not too shabby.
“Obviously I felt good out there and this was a good win for us, a good way to start off the season,” Luostarinen said following Florida’s 5-2 win over the Blackhawks.
It should also be noted, of the four players who came over in the Trocheck deal, only Luostarinen is currently with the Panthers.
Priskie is with the shared AHL team in Syracuse (but could be with the Panthers later this season) while Haula and Wallmark were allowed to leave as free agents.
While many of the Panthers worked out in their home rinks or gathered in South Florida for informal workouts, Luostarinen was actually playing in real hockey games as we waited for the NHL to get back on the ice.
After the Panthers were knocked out of the Toronto bubble by the Islanders, Luostarinen returned to his native Finland and joined KalPa, the organization he grew up with.
Playing in the top Finnish league, Luostarinen got some good experience and came to South Florida with some confidence in his game as he scored five goals with 15 points in 17 games.
“I got some games in before camp in Finland, got a lot of ice time and that was a huge deal for me, Luostarinen said.
“It just kept going. That first game, it felt good.”
When he got to the Panthers, he was ready to go. Although it was thought Juho Lammikko would compete for that center spot, he had yet to see the ice after leaving the KHL to re-sign with the Panthers.
Luostarinen took the ball and ran all over town with it.
In the team’s big scrimmage on Jan. 7, he was one of the stars, scoring a goal off a feed from Anthony Duclair while assisting on Tippett’s two goals.
“I am feeling pretty good chemistry with Tippett and Verhaeghe and was feeling good. I hope that’s a good thing,” he said following the scrimmage.
“It was a good thing for me to get to know the guys, the coaches and the staff (during the summer). That was a pretty good thing. I want to be an all-around good player, be good on both ends and make some scoring chances too.”
At that point, it looked like Luostarinen was not only going to start the season with the Panthers, but play a decent-sized role for the team.
How big a role is still to be determined.
But he’s off to one heck of a nice start.
“You have a young centerman who looks like, down the road, could be a regular NHL center,” Quenneville said.
“He’s a very useful kid and that’s a big piece for an organization. I know it’s early, I don’t want to put too many expectations on his shoulders, but we like the way he is, like his approach.
“He’s a happy kid, a hard-working kid as well. His success along with his line, we have been relying on them and getting a lot of good results from them in a short amount of time.”