Jonathan Ori's life in Seattle, new city, new teammates, new friends

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Jonathan Ori's life has gone a pretty big change over the last few months, after spending five years in Helsinki he's returned back to north America. While he may not be playing for a team in his home Country of Canada he's pretty dam close to it. Seattle is in Washington which is right under his home province of British Columbia, it's not a far drive either, only taking about two hours to make the trip. "It's really nice honestly, to be this close. Vancouver was one of the teams that reached out to me during free agency and it was tempting, to play for my home team. I'm happy I still ended up playing close to home, it makes it super convenient for visiting family on any kind of break we get." Ori shared with us to that he's had a great time getting familiar to life in Seattle as well. "Being back in North America I feel is doing a lot of good for me, just way more used to the way of life here, the culture and the people. Banana really helped me settle in and all my teammates have been super helpful too. I'm never lost with one of them around."

 

Ori is also playing with two other S79 draftee's, Aj Williams and Sigard Petrenko. While not very familiar with Williams, Petrenko is someone he remembers quite well from the draft. "I remember we sat next together at the draft, it was kind of surprising how much we started chatting while waiting for everything to get started. Him being from Russia I had some questions on what life was like from there and he asked me some of the same questions about life in Canada. It was really fun and something I remember very fondly of that day. We always kept in touch via text messages and the occasional call but now be with him here in Seattle is pretty sweet." Right away Banana put them on the same line in practice, some of them being a scoring winger and the other being a center who focuses on passes makes sense. Ori has even been getting some help from his Russian line mate. "My goal scoring was something I wanted to approve upon, Petrenko has been giving me a few tips on that end although it hasn't quite translated yet to any actual games." He said with a chuckle after

 

It is true, ten games into the season Ori is without a goal but does have eight assists. Sigard has four goals and two assists for six points. Ori had a career high 25 goals in his third VHL season but that total dropped each season after, to 22 and then 20. He's hoping to bounce back a little in that regard and keep above 20 goals for a fourth consecutive season in his career. While Ori sits 15 goals away from 100 total in his career, Petrenko is just one away, we know he'll find that next goal very soon.

 

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