Pajari Feels At Home as Veteran in Malmo

[Devise 4,475]

There was a lot of questions surrounding Mikka Pajari and his ability to help lead a team. He was a quality second line center for Riga for many seasons, but when he was traded to Malmo this past season he was to play first line duties, and take a veterans share of the load on an expansion franchise looking to make a difference.

 

The season thus far has certainly had some highs and lows for the Nighthawks, they have remained a consistent team, fighting for games, fighting in the playoff race, with heavy offense coming from leading rookie goal scorer Teegan Glover and strong games from goaltender JHC. For Pajari, while there has been some struggles early it has been impressive to see him compete with other top line players in the league and hold his own. While sitting under a point per game at the moment with 31 points, Pajari is 2nd in the league in hits with 169 and 6th in faceoff percentage. When asked about hitting just past the halfway point of the season, and how he feels in Malmo Pajari had the following to say.

 

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I like it here, love it in fact. It's tough, every night is tough in the VHL right now. But I've really embraced the veteran role here. Even if I'm not dominating on the scoreboard if I can help keep the other teams top playoffs off the score-sheet I think it opens the door for our depth for that youth movement on the roster to take over games. And they have shown the ability to do that, with guys like Glover and Lynch. I think for us at the end of the day our coach wants us to embody a take no prisoners no easy game attitude. Every win we fight for is one step closer to playoffs, and that is the goal. So I think for me as a veteran my job is to buy into the systems and go out there and fight to win games any way possible. I feel like I'm only growing in my role here and I've really begun pushing myself in practice. I think for me at this point in my career this is where I belong, this is home.