Voittu Jannula - Hall of Fame Article

[LucyXpher 1,578]

Voittu Jannula (S14 - S21)
User: @McNeil
January, 2010 - May, 2011
TPE: 743
Position: C/RW (S14-S15), D (S15-S21)
Nationality: Finnish 
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 195 Lbs
VHL Draft: Undrafted GM Player
Teams:  Seattle Bears (S14-16),  Davos Dynamo (S17-20),  Toronto Legion (S21)
International Play: (S14, S16, S18, S20) World Championships - Sweden 
 

Trophy Cabinet: 

 

 

S20 Continental Cup - Davos

S21 Continental Cup - Toronto

S20 Victory Cup - Davos

S21 Victory Cup - Toronto

S21 Sterling Labatte Trophy - Top Defenseman

S21 Messier Trophy - Leadership

 
S14 WC Gold Medal - Sweden (RW) 

S16 WC Silver Medal - Sweden (D) 

S18 WC Bronze Medal - Sweden (D) 

S20 WC Gold Medal - Sweden (D) 

 

Individual Honors:

1x All-VHL First Team 

3x All-VHL Second Team 

Team Captain - S17-S19 Davos 

Assistant Captain - S20 Davos, S21 Toronto

 

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A Name Obscured:

You would be forgiven for not recognizing the name of the most recent player inducted into the VHL Hall of Fame, Voittu Jannula.  In fact, I'd be willing to bet a handful of current VHL players had not even been born yet when Jannula was playing his best hockey.  Time, however, is not the only reason why the name might seem obscure.  Being the word-nerd that I am and, frankly, scraping the bottom of the barrell for anything of relevance to this player who retired over 13 real years ago, I decided to begin my research by diving into the player name-- who is Voittu Jannula?

 

While his player records show that Jannula hailed from the great hockey nation of Finland, his name is certainly a puzzling one.  Beginning with the surname first-- Jannula-- there are only 33 people in the entire world to currently bear this name, and only 10 of them are of Finnish descent.  It is certainly not a common name!  I consulted with @Snussu, a forum member who is actually from Finland, and he suggested that perhaps the name Jannula was simply created from a more common surname, Jannu.  In any case, the name "Voittu" is more perplexing.  In Finnish, Voitto is a boy's name which can be translated as win or victory-- which would make sense as this is, after all, the Victory Hockey League.  That the name would have been altered from Voitto to Voittu, however, is strange.  My gracious Finnish expert suggested here that perhaps it was meant as some kind of wordplay or alteration of either Voitto (win) or Vittu (a vulgar Finnish term).  It could be that Voittu Jannula's parents were simply intrepid linguists and puzzled together a clever and unique name for their hockey-playing son-- or they just made something up that sounded okay and kind of Finnish.  Regardless of where the name came from, you've likely never heard this player's name before and you're not likely to hear the same name again outside of the VHL context as I highly doubt there are any other Voittu Jannulas running around out there.

 

Creative Finnish name notwithstanding, the 13 years and 73 seasons that have passed since Jannula's retirement from the VHL have not done his name recognition any favors.  The fact that nearly half of his career stats are lost makes his induction at this late date practically miraculous.  It must be said that his recognition after all this time is owed in large part to @Gustav  who has been banging the Jannula drum for some time and his most recent Hall of Not Bad article is likely what swayed voters this time around after over a decade of waffling-- er, deliberating.  Finally getting the Hall of Fame nod at the beginning of Season 94, Jannula's induction comes 71 seasons after he was first included on the HoF ballot-- an unfortunate record that may never be broken.  And while we'd be forgiven for not recognizing the name, we'd be remiss to suggest that the Hall of Fame induction is any less deserving after all these years.  Jannula was one of the top players of his era, an important contributor and leader on all three teams he played for, a two-time Continental and Victory Cup champion, and a player whose legacy holds up favorably in comparison to the many greats that came before and after.  

 

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

 

 

The Lost Seasons - S14-S17:

 

Jannula began his player career in January of 2010 at the start of Season 14-- 80 seasons ago, which is well before most of us had any notion of the VHL, perhaps even before some users were born. Jannula was the GM Player of user @McNeil.  As per the VHL rules around GM players at the time, Jannula was not subject to the VHL draft and was added directly to HoF GM Alex McNeil's team, the Seattle Bears, at the beginning of Season 14.  Starting his career as a forward, records show that Jannula played at both the center and right-wing positions during his first season and a half in the VHL before making the switch to defense at some point in Season 15.  The exact point during the season when this switch occurred remains unclear, however we do know that the positional change was made to accommodate the team need for defenders.  Jannula would remain a defender in the VHL from this unknown point in Season 15 through to his retirement after Season 21.  

 

It must be noted, unfortunately, because the indexes of Seasons 1-17 were lost, the records of the first four seasons of Jannula's career are no longer available in full detail.  We do, however, still have his total career stats and the records of the final four seasons of his career which make it possible to at least imagine what his first seasons in the VHL might have looked like.  Gustav breaks all of this down well with great visual aids in the aforementioned Hall of Not Bad piece, though in writing this HoF article, I took it upon myself to recreate his stat lines as best I could using whatever information I could find.  Because the rebuilt stat lines from these first four seasons only represent averages of the points uncounted in his final four seasons, they don't give us a full picture of his development from VHL rookie forward to All-Star defenseman, however they do give us a glimpse into what kinds of numbers he would have been producing on a seasonal average basis.  As such, I can really only speak about his first four seasons as a whole since it would be impossible to know exactly how he performed in each individually and inaccurate to simply speculate.  

 

Early in his career, Jannula spent three seasons with the Seattle Bears under the aforementioned General Manager Alex McNeil.  When McNeil retired from his position as GM after Season 16, Jannula was dealt to HC Davos Dynamo by the newly appointed Seattle GM, Sandro Desaulniers. 
 

S16-17 Offseason Trade

-->To Davos : Voittu Jannula + S18 SEA 1st (LW Peyton Nydroj @Bushito) 

HC Davos Dynamo GM: Chad Murphy (@RawEnergy)

 

-->To Seattle : S17 DAV 1st (C Markus Strauss @gregreg), S17 NYA 2nd (RW Cam Fowler @CoachReilly), S19 DAV 2nd (D Sigmund Olofsson)

Seattle Bears GM: Sandro Desaulniers @Sandro

 

With Jannula off to join Davos, Seattle would go on to win the Continental Cup in their first season under their new General Manager.  Jannula and Davos, in the midst of a rebuild, would miss the playoffs in both S17 and S18. While being traded away from the eventual Continental Cup champions was surely a gut punch for Jannula, he would settle into a leadership role with his new team as Davos' captain from S17-S19.  In those four early seasons with Seattle and Davos, Jannula would average an impressive 22 goals and 48 assists for 70 points-per-season.  While it's reasonable to assume that he likely incrementally increased his point totals in the seasons following his rookie debut, it remains the subject of speculation.  Regardless, 70 points-per-season in the first half of his career is certainly still impressive when compared with his latter four seasons where he would average 92 points seasonally.  Below are Jannula's total points for those first four seasons followed by the average estimating his production in each season divided evenly.

 

Regular Season:

S14-S17 Total - Seattle/Davos: 288 GP, 89 G, 190 A, 279 P, +32, 469 PIM, 538 HIT, 379 SB, 11 GW

*S14-17 Estimated Seasonal Average: 72 GP, 22 G, 48 A, 70 P, +8, 118 PIM, 135 HIT, 95 SB, 3 GW*

 

Jannula would only make the playoffs in two out of his first four VHL seasons with his playoff debut taking place in S15 for Seattle.  The Season 15 Seattle Bears would make a convincing run to the Continental Cup Finals where they would fall to the Helsinki Titans who claimed their second ever VHL Championship.  In Season 16, the Bears, with Jannula, would return to the playoffs though they would be bounced in the first round this time.  Again, because the records of these seasons are lost, we can only estimate Jannula's production in each of those two playoff appearances.  Below, I've provided an estimate of how those seasons might have looked dividing his stats evenly across the two playoff appearances and four rounds.  

 

Playoffs:

S14-S17 Total - Seattle/Davos: 20 GP, 1 G, 17 A, -1, 93 PIM, 25 HIT, 41 SHT, 27 SB, 1 GW

 

By Season:

S14 - Seattle DNQ

S15 - Seattle - Eliminated in Finals

*S15 Estimated - 15 GP, 1 G, 13 A, -0.5, 70 PIM, 19 HIT, 31 SHT, 20 SB, 1 GW *

S16 - Seattle Eliminated in Round 1

*S16 Estimated - 5 GP, 0 G, 4 A, -0.5, 23 PIM, 6 HIT, 10 SHT, 7 SB, 0 GW *

S17 - Davos DNQ 

 

So what can we really say about Jannula's first 4 seasons in the VHL?  He was certainly a productive player, contributing just under a point-per-game in both the regular season and playoffs, which is impressive considering he would still have been a raw talent for at least two of those seasons.  An run to the Continental Cup finals in his second season gave him an early chance to claim VHL glory, though he would ultimately have to wait until later in his career to achieve that ultimate goal. 

 

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

 

The Prime Seasons - S18-S21: 

 

The latter half of Jannula's career can be spoken about with a greater degree of certainty because the records of those seasons are more or less preserved.  Season 18 with Davos saw Jannula score an impressive 40 goals-- a presumed career high-- to go along with 55 assists for 95 points.  Season 19 would see a slight regression in points for Jannula as he reached the 29 goal mark with 54 assists for 83 points.  He would, however, record a presumed career high in shots blocked that season with 141.  His total penalty minutes in Season 19 would also see a drastic reduction to only 74-- nearly 100 less than Season 18.  After missing out on the playoffs in Season 18, Jannula and Davos would qualify in Season 19, reaching Continental Cup Finals where they would lose to the Calgary Wranglers who claimed the 2nd of back-to-back championships.  In those playoffs, Jannula would record 8 points in 10 games, notching 2 important game winning goals for his team and finishing 5th on the team in scoring.  

 

Seasons 20 and 21 are the only seasons of Jannula's career that are fully documented by a conventional index and are the seasons that are arguably most important to his long-awaited Hall of Fame induction.  In Season 20, Jannula would have what is likely his best offensive season with 122 points total, scoring 35 goals and another presumed high of 87 assists.  This incredible season was rounded out by an imressive 138 shots blocked and 138 hits, demonstrating his effectiveness in all areas of the ice.  As an assistant captain for the team and one of the most productive defensemen in the VHL, Jannula was most certainly a huge factor in Davos claiming the Victory Cup, qualifying for the playoffs with the league's best record.  Jannula would finish Season 20 with the 3rd most points in the league by a defender, ranked only behind Davos teammate, Patrick Bergqvist (30-114-144) and Toronto's Frans Spelman (28-106-134).  In the Season 20 playoffs, Jannula scored 13 points in 14 games en route to Davos clinching the Continental Cup against the Toronto Legion-- the first Cup of Jannula's career in his third trip to the finals.  In that title run with Davos, Jannula finished 2nd in the league in scoring behind only his teammate and fellow defender, Geno Esposito (4-12-16).  Notably, that Davos team would feature a trio of the league's best defenders in Jannula, Bergqvist, and Esposito who supported legendary Davos netminder, Daisuke Kanou, to a .937 SV% in that run with 2 shutouts in 14 games.

 

In the offseason following their Continental Cup Victory, Davos would ship Jannula off to the Toronto Legion as Hall of Fame GM David Knight would acquire him to play the final season of his career.  

 

S20-21 Offseason Trade

-->To Toronto : Voittu Jannula, S22 DAV 3rd (D Johnny Blaze)

Toronto Legion GM: David Knight @Knight

 

-->To Davos : S21 TOR 1st (RW Pavel Koradek @Koradek)

HC Davos Dynamo GM: Harvey Singh @DGFX.

 

In that final season with Toronto, Jannula would record 92 points-- good for 2nd on the team in overall scoring-- as well as 22 goals and an impressive 70 assists.  Jannula finished 3rd in league scoring for defensemen that season, only 2 points behind former Davos teammates Bergqvist (20-74-94) and Esposito (31-63-94) who were both now playing for the Seattle Bears.  As an assistant captain on his latest team, the Toronto Legion, Jannula would earn the Sterling Labatte Trophy as the league's top defenseman, as well as the Messier Trophy for leadership.  Jannula and the Legion would claim the Victory Cup in S21, and won the Continental Cup in a rematch with Jannula's former Davos squad.  In those playoffs, Jannula recorded 13 points in 12 games, ranking 1st on his team in scoring and 2nd in the league.  In his final season, Jannula really solidified his Hall of Fame bid as he claimed the Labatte and Messier Tropies to go along with back-to-back Victory and Continental Cups with two different teams-- leaving his mark as a top player for his team and one of the best defenders in the VHL.

 

Regular Seasons:

S18 Davos: 72 GP, 40 G, 55 A, 95 P, -1, 172 PIM, 145 HIT, 297 SHT, 104 SB, 5 GW

S19 Davos: 72 GP, 29 G, 54 A, 83 P, +15, 74 PIM, 131 HIT, 268 SHT, 141 SB, 7 GW
S20 Davos: 72 GP, 35 G, 87 A, 122 P, +45, 144 PIM, 138 HIT, 274 SHT, 138 SB, 8 GW

(3rd in team scoring, Victory Cup)

S21 Toronto: 72 GP, 22 G, 70 A, 92 P, +26, 124 PIM, 182 HIT, 214 SHT, 108 SB, 4 GW 

(2nd in team scoring, Victory Cup)

 

Playoffs:

S18 - Davos DNQ

S19 Davos: 10 GP, 2 G, 6 A, 8 P, -1, 16 PIM, 8 HIT, 36 SHT, 15 SB, 2 GW (5th on team)

S20 Davos: 14 GP, 4 G, 9 A, 13 P, +3, 71 PIM, 40 HIT, 52 SHT, 21 SB, 0 GW

(2nd on team,2nd in playoff scoring, Continental Cup)

S21 Toronto: 12 GP, 4 G, 9 A, 13 P, +4, 48 PIM, 29 HIT, 37 SHT, 16 SB, 1 GW

(1st on team, 2nd in playoff scoring, Continental Cup)

 

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

 

Legacy:

 

In the time since Jannula retired in S21, the VHL has changed drastically-- generations of players have come and gone, legends of the game have retired and moved on, others have returned after years away on hiatus.  Jannula played in an era where TPE was much harder to come by with a 9 TPE weekly cap and fewer uncapped options.  Finishing his career with 743 TPE actually ranked Jannula among the highest earners in his era-- though that number certainly doesn't hold up by the VHL's modern standards of earning with a higher weekly cap of 12 TPE and a plethora of uncapped opportunities.  Since Jannula's final season, the Messier Trophy was renamed to the Grimm Johnson Trophy and was eventually retired from use after Season 58.  And while some might downplay the significance of the trophy, it was at very least an opportunity to recognize a player who built up the community around them and contributed positively to the VHL and team culture. By all accounts, Jannula-- but more importantly, McNeil-- was an ideal teammate and quality person in the VHL community, even if time has blurred memory and some of his records are no longer accessible.  

 

In writing this article, I reached out to a few individuals who have been around the VHL since those early seasons. Most, unfortunately, due to the sheer amount of time that has elapsed since Jannula's retirement, couldn't say much about the player, though a few spoke highly of McNeil. 

 

One such was @Phil whose first real season in the league was S19.  I asked him if he had any recollection of playing with or against Jannula: "Oh jeez, not really. Don’t remember playing with McNeil much-- maybe at a World Cup or a VHL season? I do remember he was very chill on the boards and seemed like a genuinely nice guy. In terms of Jannula, if you were playing against him, you kinda knew you’d have your hands full. If VHFL or the GM fantasy were around back then, you know he’d be going first round almost through his career."

 

That assessment checks out as @Gustav  wrote in his January article (linked above), "At the time Jannula finished his career, he was third in points among all players who had played defense up to that point".  Gustav notes further that the only defensemen who ranked ahead of Jannula at the time of his retirement were Hall of Famers Sterling Labatte (who played 9 seasons to Jannula's 8) and Matt Bailey (who spent 4 seasons of his career as a top VHL forward).  Though Jannula himself spent parts of two seasons as a forward, the fact that his prime seasons were spent as a defenseman really cements his place place among the great offensive-defenders of his era.  

 

Even after all these years and the hundreds of players that come through the league, Jannula is 52nd all-time in assists. Among defenders all-time, Jannula ranks 10th in goals, 27th in assists, 9th in total points, and 2nd all-time with 115 power-play goals.  Those marks alone place him among the greatest defenders to ever play in the VHL and highlight the deservedness of his induction nearly 13 years after he retired from the league.  That he still ranks so highly in those key statistics after all this time is a testament to his impressive career.

As General Manager of the S21 Toronto Legion the season Jannula won both the Labatte and Messier Trophies, @Knight (David Knight) had this to say about the acquisition and impact of Jannula-- the player and the person: "McNeil was a dream player as a General Manager. I remember I specifically wanted him on the Toronto Legion because I knew he'd raise the morale of the locker room and also attract other star free agents to the team. He was respected and well-liked around the league,  produced some great players, and Toronto was better off for his presence. Members just wanted to be around him so he really brought up the pedigree of our team. He was one of the last pieces added for the S21 Continental Cup and was a key reason why we won. Whilst he may not be active anymore, his impact is still being positively felt to this day."

 

While it's a shame @McNeil isn't around to see it after all these years, congratulations, nonetheless, on Jannula's fantastic career and a well-deserved induction into the VHL's Hall of Fame!

 

Career Regular Season:

576 GP, 215 G, 456 A, 671 P, +117, 983 PIM, 1,134 HIT, 870 SB, 35 GW

Career Playoffs:

56 GP, 11 G, 41 A, 52 P, +5, 228 PIM, 102, HIT, 79 SB, 4 GW

 

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

 

Special thanks to @Gustav  @Victor @Beketov @Knight @Phil @Snussu for their contributions to this article.

LucyXpher 06/25/2024

Edited December 2 by LucyXpher

[tcookie 927]

This is great! Not easy to write an HoF article for a player with half his career wiped from the records but you handled it perfectly. The name stuff is interesting, nice touch!

[Phil 5,129]

1 hour ago, LucyXpher said:

S16-17 Offseason Trade

-->To Davos : Voittu Jannula + S18 SEA 1st (LW Peyton Nydroj) 

HC Davos Dynamo GM: Chad Murphy (@RawEnergy)

 

-->To Seattle : S17 DAV 1st (C Markus Strauss), S17 NYA 2nd (RW Cam Fowler), S19 DAV 2nd (D Sigmund Olofsson)

Seattle Bears GM: Sandro Desaulniers

Nydroj was @Bushito’s player

Strauss was @gregreg’s player

Fowler was @CoachReilly’s player 

Can’t quite remember Olofsson’s user 

[LucyXpher 1,578]

2 minutes ago, Phil said:

Nydroj was @Bushito’s player

Strauss was @gregreg’s player

Fowler was @CoachReilly’s player 

Can’t quite remember Olofsson’s user 

Thank you!  I will update that when I get a minute! 

[Phil 5,129]

Fantastic article @LucyXpher!! Very well done. Loved reading this. Took me back to a simpler time  
 

oh also Koradek was @Koradek’s first player haha 

[Phil 5,129]

What was crazy about the trade between Seattle and Davos was that Davos got Bushito, who went on to GM the team, and Seattle got Strauss, who went on to Gm that team haha

[LucyXpher 1,578]

3 minutes ago, Phil said:

Fantastic article @LucyXpher!! Very well done. Loved reading this. Took me back to a simpler time  
 

oh also Koradek was @Koradek’s first player haha 

Thanks so much!  It was a fun project but took me a while to put together… definitely worth it though and a fun way to connect with the league history a bit

[Gustav 6,469]

Awesome—exactly the type of article that Jannula deserves after all this time. I also always appreciate my work being recognized  and I’m glad you were the one to write this up. Justice finally served (and really well)!

[LucyXpher 1,578]

10 hours ago, Gustav said:

Awesome—exactly the type of article that Jannula deserves after all this time. I also always appreciate my work being recognized  and I’m glad you were the one to write this up. Justice finally served (and really well)!

Thank you!  Your article was a huge help when writing this so you deserve alot of credit for that and for all the attention you brought to Jannula to get into the HoF after so many years. 

[diacope 1,696]

Seems like these flashback articles may be your forte, gave me ghost story vibes also, your wordplay is off the wall, made it a lot easier to keep scrolling  

Edited June 26 by diacope

[LucyXpher 1,578]

54 minutes ago, diacope said:

Seems like these flashback articles may be your forte, gave me ghost story vibes also, your wordplay is off the wall, made it a lot easier to keep scrolling  

Thank you so much!  Tbh I might need to take a break from the history and research— maybe I’ll write something light and fluffy next time

[animal74 1,855]

On 6/25/2024 at 9:06 PM, Phil said:

Nydroj was @Bushito’s player

Strauss was @gregreg’s player

Fowler was @CoachReilly’s player 

Can’t quite remember Olofsson’s user 

Ah, thanks! I've been trying to figure out who belonged to Nydroj for my Legion all-time stats!

[animal74 1,855]

Great article @LucyXpher! My first player retired in S12 so I didn't play with Jannula but I won a Cup with @McNeil's previous player Zacky Vengeance in S12 with the Bears.