Luukas Lilja - Small town lad

[Retuperkele 21]

In suburban Nokia, Finland, on October 17th 2004 - a promising hockey is born, but nobody knows it yet. Luukas Lilja's passion for hockey began on a very young age, when his father took him out to Tampere to see the two major professional hockey teams meet on his 9th birthday. He had never watched hockey up close, only with his father from the ''18 TV they had at home. This sparked utter joy in his eyes. The constant action, the sound of skate biting into ice, the fans cheering, he was hooked - for life.

 

During his junior years in Nokian Pyry this promising rookie center focused on his two-way game the most. Idolizing NHL stars like Joe Thornton and Henrik Zetterberg, he was more into making plays happen rather than making goals happen. Luukas was not all about offense, some games he was all about defense - being the competitive fella he has always been in hockey. One summer he spent 4 mornings a week just to practice his ability to react to turnovers, giving him extraordinary defensive read. In his last year at his junior team, he had a whopping .7 goals scored against per game him when he was on the ice, for the whole season. He also snatched 13 goals and 33 assists in 36 games during regular season. Playoffs didn't go as planned and cup favorite Nokian Pyry fell down to upcoming stars from KooVee Tampere in semifinals. During the playoffs he played in all of his clubs games scoring 2 goals and assisting in 6 of them. Lilja was approached by Saskatoon Wild scout after the game, and it was crystal clear that his next chapter on his journey would begin in North America.

 

Arriving in North America and to the beautiful city of bridges, he first met the Saskatoon Wild coaching staff, who had been looking for him for a long time. The whole staff knew what to do in order for him to succeed in a smaller rink, and that was his size. Luukas had always been a big guy but he hadn't been able to take advantage of it before. After numerous intense workout sessions, Luukas gained 8lbs (~3.6kgs) of pure muscle. During technical sessions he had improved his puckhandling and passing tremendously. In preseason, he struggled to adapt to Saskatoon’s insanely smaller rinks compared to what they had in Finland.

 

His current strong sides include his playmaking ability, puckhandling and passing. Luukas will certainly never lose control of his puck or miss his passes to one another. He truly will be a force in the offensive end. Nowadays his weak sides include his leadership ability, which he quite never has had. Luukas also will never take his team's penalty shots due to lack of his concentration and scoring ability. His goals in Finland came from managing to take advantage of his opponent's mistakes in their own end, positioning himself well in order to bank one-timers in empty nets.

 

Luukas managed to clinch his spot in the roster on the fourth line, which is acceptable for a guy his age and since he hadn't had much experience in North America's smaller rinks. He is a promising two-way forward with more offensive focus on playmaking. You can't forget about his extraordinary ability to react to turnovers, nevertheless about his skating. He has immense potential and only Saskatoon squad can fulfill it. Luukas Lilja is a promising rookie and is eligible for the upcoming draft, and only time will tell what will come from this insanely promising, huge two-way center.

 

 

 

600 words

Edited October 8, 2020 by Retuperkele

[a_Ferk 766]

Nice work!