Raimo Tuominen is Ready! - Biography

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Right Winger - Raimo "Right Trigger" Tuominen

 

Jukka Tuominen hung up the skates playing in the SM-Liiga for TPS Turku. While he could not make the jump to North American hockey, he had a lengthy hockey career in Finland. Retiring at the age of 39 was nothing short of an accomplishment. He was no star but was a solid player that always found his way back in the lineup. While stars his age deprecated greatly, he maintained his second-line role up until his final season. Now it was time for him to settle down with his figure skating wife, Sofia.

 

Born in Tampere, Raimo is a part of a new wave of young Finnish hockey players ready to jump into the pro world. His parents, Jukka and Sofia Tuominen, put Raimo in ice skates at the age of 3. Ever since that first “skate”, Raimo has lived on the ice. Determined to be a professional hockey player, Raimo put everything he had into hockey. Raimo trained hard, with the help of his father and his mother, developing his skating and basic skills. Sofia helped develop his smooth skating while Jukka taught Raimo the basics of scoring. Raimo developed his game from a young age and learned the value of hard work. This work ethic, as well as his developed skillset, led him to join Tappara Tampere’s Junior C SM-sarja team at the age of 14. Playing in the best U16 league in Finland at such a young age posed a big challenge for the youngster, yet he managed to find his place and continue to develop. He did not last there long. Not because he wasn’t good enough but because of the opposite. He ended up getting called up to Tappara Tampere’s Junior B SM-sarja team at the age of 15.

 

 

“Getting chosen by Tappara to join their team was a big deal. They have a great history in Finnish hockey and have won the most championships. I told myself even if I couldn’t fit in the club, I’d try my hardest to let that championship winning pedigree rub off on me. They win for a reason.”

 

Scoring has always been Raimo’s favourite part of the game. He grew up, like many Finns, watching Teemu Selanne highlight reels, hearing the stories of Jari Kurri, and watching young current NHL players like his country’s very own Patrik Laine, America’s Auston Matthews, and Germany’s Leon Draisaitl score and do it often. It’s in his instinct: score first, ask questions later. That isn’t to say he is a selfish player, far from it. Winning is always the focus of each and every game. But man, does Raimo love to score. On a two-on-one, Raimo is known to shoot the puck with no questions. Sometimes, he shoots from impossible angles and takes every single shot attempt he can muster up. Luckily, he tends to succeed but this does lead to some criticism as people believe he should try to make a pass to an open teammate instead of being trigger happy. He wants to be a player that can score in all different kinds of ways, although sometimes his critics are right in saying he needs to make the extra pass to an open teammate. This shoot-first instinct has helped Raimo succeed in terms of goals.

 

Going into the age of 16, Raimo got the nod onto Tappara’s Liiga team. Raimo adjusted to the pace now that he was going against players with way more experience than him. Being in a league with such experienced veterans as well as other young players helped him realize how hard he would have to compete to succeed in such a league. At the age of 16, Raimo put up a respectable 6 goals and 5 assists in his first season in the top league in 22 games of action. 

 

“It was a new experience, definitely. I wasn’t going against fresh young faces like mine. I went from a league of boys to a league of men. They weren’t afraid to hit, weren’t afraid to drive hard to the net, and could easily overpower me if I wasn’t careful. I had to reinvent my play. I couldn’t rely on being the fastest 16-year old in Finland, not that I was anyway. I had to rely on being the most complete player I could be at the age of 16.”

 

Now having had a taste of life in the top Finnish league, Raimo made it a goal to get used to the pace and become more productive for his team. Raimo continued to prioritize scoring and utilized his skating ability but he learned how to deal with the tough playstyles of older players. He put effort into making sure he could evade them but if he couldn’t, he learned how to manage it. At the age of 17, Raimo became more active with the team, getting 53 games of action with Tappara. Raimo scored 46 points, two short of the most points scored by a 17-year old in the Liiga. (That record is held by Aleksander Barkov.) He scored 26 goals and 20 assists, 6 of those goals being on the power play. Then, in the playoffs, he scored 8 goals and 6 assists in 18 games. Unfortunately, Tappara lost that final to HIFK. Raimo proved to be a dependent scorer in the playoffs. This is where he gained the affectionate nickname, "Right Trigger", a reference to FPS games using the right trigger button in order to shoot weapons as well as a clever nickname based on Raimo Tuominen's initials.

 

“Brutal way to end it. Especially if this is my last season in the Liiga. Regardless, I am proud of our team for how we played and thankful for my two years here.”

 

At the age of 18, Raimo has made it clear he intends on making the jump to the top tier of professional hockey. One of his Liiga teammates told him of the path he personally recommends to take in order to make it pro.

 

“I was fishing with some teammates in Espoo. One of those teammates was Sigard Petrenko. He had heard that I wanted to play the best of the best and he made a suggestion. I should try to join the VHLM.”

 

"I am ready."