Pyyhtia's dependability has helped his hockey dream come true

When Mikael Pyyhtia was a kid growing up in Turku, Finland, the highlight of his week was hockey.

His father, Tomi, played the sport himself, and the family had season tickets for TPS, the local team in Finland’s top-level Liiga. Each week, Tomi would take his sons Mikael and Tuomas to see games, much to Mikael’s delight.

“We would go every time to my hometown games,” Mikael said. “We had the season tickets. I still remember, I was like 6 or 7 or so and we’d go to watch the games. That was the biggest thing of the week.”

Tomi had his sons on skates at an early age, and they started playing hockey on the same youth teams. Growing up, it was Mikael’s dream to skate for TPS, the second-most successful team in Finland, which has been playing hockey for nearly a century and won 11 championships.

Playing a major time difference and a world away, the NHL was but a pipe dream.

“My first time I played hockey, I was like, ‘This is so nice. I want to play hockey all my life,’” Mikael said. “That was so funny when I started playing. I think the biggest thing when I was young was to play in the Finnish League.

“I think the (NHL) was the dream that every kid has. Maybe it was the dream for me, too, but it was a long way. It wasn’t like close because it was on the other side of the world. I never watched that much like live. But yeah, when I became older and older, I realized that can be the goal some day and could be real.”

Of course, it certainly was real, as Pyyhtia has made it to the NHL and is in his third season with Columbus. A fourth-round draft pick of the Blue Jackets in 2020, Pyyhtia actually has lived both of his dreams, playing three full seasons with TPS before coming to North America.

The 23-year-old wing made his NHL debut two seasons ago with the Blue Jackets, skated in 17 games at the end of last season and has become a CBJ regular this year, posting three goals and five assists while playing in 27 of the Jackets’ first 37 contests.

A dependable defensive presence and a regular part of the Blue Jackets penalty kill, Pyyhtia has seen his confidence and his play grow this season. He has two goals and an assist in the last six games, tied a career high with four shots on goal in Friday’s win over Boston, and feels more and more comfortable at the NHL level as time goes by.

“You never know what’s going to happen, and now I’m here,” he said with a smile. “I think I feel every day like a more and more confident NHL player. Maybe a little bit more than when I started the season because now we’re how many games in – 30, 40? So yeah, a little bit more.

“Especially when you do something that is a big thing for the team – score a goal or kill a penalty, whatever it is – that helps the team to win, that means a lot for me.”

The man known by just about everyone as “Tuna” – a nickname bestowed upon him in Cleveland in part because of his difficult-to-pronounce surname – also has become a favorite of head coach Dean Evason. In a world of talented players with elite offensive skill who have to be taught the defensive game, Pyyhtia beings the opposite attributes, as his commitment to defensive responsibility sometimes overshadows the fact he has some offense to his game.

Pyyhtia had a career-best 21 goals – and eight more playoff tallies – in 2021-22 with TPS and 28 points in 60 AHL games a year ago, so the Blue Jackets believe he can contribute points at the NHL level. When he was sent to Cleveland for a short stint earlier this year, it was with the hope he’d rediscover some offensive confidence, and he responded with a goal and four assists in four games with the Monsters.

“That’s why we sent him down,” Evason said. “He definitely was able to play in those situations down there and feel better about his offensive game. I think (his first goal after the recall Dec. 17) in Tampa probably helped too.

“It’s funny because a lot of guys that we talk about are naturally gifted offensively, and you have to push them and teach them to play defense. Now you have a guy that is naturally sound defensively and we’re pushing him to play a little more offense. So he’s unique.”

Through it all, Pyyhtia has kept a smile on his face. A typical Finn, he’s not known as a chatterbox, but he has developed relationships with a number of CBJ players from his time in Cleveland and has a reputation as a low-maintenance teammate who adds to the locker room.

“He’s a man of few words, but he is really funny,” defenseman Jake Christiansen said. “He’ll make the odd comment that is hilarious. Guys that have roomed with him before, they’re always talking about how funny he is, so maybe it comes out a little bit when you’re hanging out that much. But he’s a great guy. Awesome guy to be around. Everyone loved him (in Cleveland).”