Claimed: Next step

[jRuutu 2,496]

 

After playing his first season on the professional level in Finland and in Vaasan Sport, Rauno Palo announced that he will move over to North-America and play in the VHLM next year. It´s believed the main reason behind the move is to get a real feel on the style of play in North-America before getting drafted to VHL. Rauno had a decent year in Liiga, scored five goals and fifteen assists in fifty games, so many have been speculating if the move to VHLM is a good idea when it´s clear that he can play against grown men without too many problems?

 

Rauno himself had this to stay:

 

It´s going to be a big change obviously, I have lived in Finland all of my life, hell - I have not even spent more than a week outside Vaasa at once, but I can speak English quite well and my mom is coming with me to help with everything, at least for the first month or so. What comes down to hockey, I´m not sure exactly where I will be playing in just yet, but my agent told me that couple teams could be interested in adding me into their next years team, so nothing official just yet. I know that does not sound too good, but if for whatever reason things don´t work out, I will play in Vaasa next year, still got one year left in my contract, but decided to use the VHLM option to see if I could find a place to play. However,  I´m 100% focused on playing in VHLM when season starts and will do whatever it takes to find spot in one of the teams. Should hear more news in the next week or so.

 

 

That was a direct quote from Palo´s Youtube video where he was talking about his future last Saturday. Will be interesting to see where Rauno ends up, still has a long way to go before reaching his full potential, but it´s clear that he got unique skill set and real potential be a VHL player. Rauno can hold on to the puck for long periods of time and really keep defenders behind him, just needs to find a way to be slightly more effective, at the moment his game is too much about skating around in corners and behind the net without actually making anything too dangerous happen, teams have started to figure him out and just let him skate around in the corners while defending the slot, there is no way you can realistically expect to score too many goals when opposite team stands in the slot and takes any open space away to shoot from close distance, then whatever shots come from the point is more than likely hitting the mass of people in front of the net, so Rauno really needs to be more aggressive and make plays happen faster.

 

Move to North-America and into VHLM will help with that, they can and will teach him a lot about driving to the net and overall teach everything you need to know about playing in smaller rink. Going to be a real learning experience for Rauno. Stay tuned for more news about Palo, other VHLM players and teams in the future, going to be interesting off-season once again!

 

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

PALO NEXT BURE, IMO.

[jRuutu 2,496]

4 hours ago, DollarAndADream said:

PALO NEXT BURE, IMO.

But a better skater

[Tyler 885]

On ‎5‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 2:16 PM, jRuutu said:

But a better skater

 

the next saku koivu

[diamond_ace 3,114]

I don't have many picks (sold them all off for a cup run, and we're up 2-1 in the final so it might have worked). If you're somehow around when I have a pick, I'd definitely be interested in bringing you on board. Yukon has most of the picks though so I'd say about 60% chance you end up there

[jRuutu 2,496]

9 hours ago, Tyler said:

 

the next saku koivu

Giant version of him!

 

5 hours ago, diamond_ace said:

I don't have many picks (sold them all off for a cup run, and we're up 2-1 in the final so it might have worked). If you're somehow around when I have a pick, I'd definitely be interested in bringing you on board. Yukon has most of the picks though so I'd say about 60% chance you end up there

That sounds good! Never played in Yukon before I believe, so more than open in giving it a go with Palo

[Hybrid1486 577]

S62 ftw