Win As A Wrangler - Raimo Tuominen

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

CALGARY - If you were to tell 18 year old Raimo Tuominen that he would be competing in the world’s best hockey league, he would say…

 

“I know that. I bet on myself for a reason.” Raimo answered with a chuckle.

 

“But I bet he wouldn’t be able to point out Calgary on a map. Now? I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

 

Approaching his fifth season, the Liiga winger turned VHL pro has experienced quite a bit of what the Victory Hockey League world has to offer. And he is looking to experience more. But before Raimo Tuominen, a Calgary Wrangler, came to be, he was a young man from Finland’s Liiga looking to make a jump to the VHLM.

 

“I remember being so confident going in. I thought it would be similar to playing in the Liiga. Wasn’t even close. It was a wake-up call. I was saying in my head I would score 40. Then I got to the point where I wondered if I would even score 20.”

 

Raimo smiled. “Regardless, I will always be thankful for my time in Houston. I learned about North American hockey there. I made good friends there. It was my first NA home. Then I ended up going back to Europe anyway.”

 

It was there in Oslo he would meet a linemate that would end up being his biggest booster in the VHL. Catia Goncalves was drafted right after Raimo Tuominen but they met as Oslo teammates.

 

“Oslo, to be very frank, was struggling a lot. However, Catia was the winger I wanted to be and much more. She was severely underrated in the VHLE and is underrated now. I mean, when Rome came to trade with Oslo, they traded for me and not her! Yet she was the one boosting my stats. She made the transition to the center so much easier for me. Look at my stats in Rome, I was horrible without her! Then we meet again in the JST and it’s just like old times.” 

 

Raimo Tuominen, Center for the Calgary Wranglers

 

Raimo saw Catia go to the Reign right after he became a Wrangler. “I remember thinking throughout the entirety of the VHLE season that it was such a shame we weren’t going to be teammates in the VHL. I even found myself hoping she would get traded to the Wranglers in the future. I only had to wait one season. Nobody had ever known that I wanted that and yet somehow, Catia got traded to Calgary. Imagine that! I was wishing that she would be a linemate of mine when I was in the twilight of my career just for fun. Now we have been competing together for our 4 seasons in the VHL.”

 

Calgary selected Raimo as he was willing to become a center for the team. It was an adjustment, going from winger to center, but Raimo believes it was the right one.

 

“Center opened up a lot of possibilities for me. Being a world class winger is excellent. But… center just felt a lot more right. I never played it before. But Randy Bobandy did an excellent job of teaching me how to play center.”

 

Elaborating on Randy’s mentorship, “This guy is a legend. Taught me how to play hockey as a center. Taught me how to get around here in North America. Gave me a place to stay when I was a rookie and taught me about life. I couldn’t have made it this far without him and I look forward to our matches every single time they happen.”

 

Now looking to start his fifth season, Raimo credits all these things to where he is now.

 

“Everything that happened in my career has gotten me to this point. Now what I want to do is to win as a Wrangler. I want to bring a cup to the city that has given me so much.”