Richard Penisson Junior Review

[bluesfan55 103]

Growing up in Iceland, it was hard to get into hockey. We’re not exactly a hockey country, with not a lot of VHL talent floating around besides Grimm Jonsson. So, I turned to soccer first, playing in the youth system of Valúr before going into hockey as well. There’s a small league with 4 teams, and I played for the Bjorninn Junior A team until the age of 14. I’ll be the first to admit, I never really got into the sport fully until I was 13. I played it for fun, nonchalantly, with no real care and a poor attitude. That all changed when Arnor Sigurdsson became the coach. I knew who he was because he’d played in the VHL for a couple seasons as an Icelander, which was rare for someone from our country. He’d just retired and decided to start coaching, and he was quickly named coach of my team. The first practice was hell for me because he made us work, especially me, as I was never the hardest worker. That’s when I realized that I had to start going 110%. Otherwise, I wouldn’t get played and my fledgling career would be over before it really began. Once I did put in the work, I realized that I was a damn fine player. I was a good skater despite being short, and I scored A LOT. In fact, in a 40 game season, I scored 100 points (mostly goals). Arnor was a huge influence on me, and still is. So at 14, when I decided that I wanted to test my luck in a more established league after winning a gold medal with the Iceland U17 team, Arnor put in a call to his old Swedish team, Skelleftea. I flew over to try out, made the U20 team, and played 30 games in the SuperElit, scoring 12 goals and tallying up a total of 19 points. The next season I made the jump forward, scoring over a point per game in the SuperElit with the U20 team before skating in 12 SHL games, scoring 6 points. Playing in Sweden was great for me. I got to play against high-quality opposition and it really taught me that I needed to use my size to my advantage by gliding past taller defenders. After that season, I decided it was time to come to North America and play in the VHL. It always alluded me to try my luck against the best junior players in the world, so I declared the day of the draft. To my surprise, I was chosen 24th by the Ottawa Lynx, where Arnor had played before. I can’t wait to start my first season with the Lynx and progress my career.