Merelä's strong Liiga postseason leads to contract with Bolts

After back-to-back championships in Liiga, the top professional ice hockey league in Finland, along with the 2023 Champions League title, it was time for Waltteri Merelä to take the next step in his hockey career.

The 24-year-old forward signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning in early June after leading Tappara in playoff goals to help the organization secure a second-straight Liiga title. In 14 postseason games, Merelä scored eight goals and added six assists for 14 points after racking up 33 points in 41 regular season contests with 15 goals and 18 helpers.

Following the end of his season, Merelä's success continued when he joined Team Finland at the 2023 IIHF Men's World Championship and scored one goal in the only game he was in the lineup. NHL teams were taking notice.

"After I had a good playoff run and then went to the World Championships, I had a couple NHL teams there that were interested," Merelä explained. "Of course, I've always wanted to sign in the NHL. I'm a little bit of an older guy, so I felt like this was the right time to sign.

"I had a couple of good options, but the way Tampa handled everything and all that they did was just perfect. They were really interested. They called my agent many times and I was able to chat with Julien BriseBois and Jon Cooper for a bit as well.

"Tampa is one of the best organizations in the NHL. For them to have their Head Coach and their GM actually take an hour of their time to talk with me really meant a lot. They just handled everything perfect.

"I have a couple of buddies who played in the organization, and I talked with them. Of course, the agents know a lot of stuff about all the NHL organizations as well. I haven't heard anything but good things about Tampa."

Merelä arrived in Tampa a few days ahead of Development Camp and used the extra time to check out the city and enjoy the sights.

"It's my first time in the United States, even for a vacation or anything like that, so I came here three or four days early just to check it out. I've been downtown and went to the Bucs stadium, so it's been a lot of fun.

"A little hot compared to Finland, but it's been really nice. I love the city. There's not too much traffic. You can go pretty much anywhere within 20 minutes or so. It's awesome. I love it."

Merelä said his time in Liiga helped him grow a lot as a player, pointing to his 200-foot game and ability to play in all situations as some of his biggest strengths. With Tappara, Merelä saw time on the penalty kill and power play before ending the regular season ranking fourth on the team in goals and sixth in points, despite playing roughly 15 games less than most of the team's scoring leaders.

"I think the biggest thing is my complete game," said Merelä. "I know I'm not good enough yet to play on a power play in the NHL or anything like that, but I've played a lot of PK, and I can play the fourth line role if I need to and play a good two-way game.

"You can trust me pretty much in all situations. I think that's my biggest strength. I got to play a lot of minutes over there. I got thrown into a lot of different situations in really important games during the playoffs. I learned a lot."

In total, the right-shot winger played four full seasons in Liiga, two with Pelicans and two with his hometown team, Tappara. During those four seasons, he played in 203 games and recorded 122 points, scoring 53 goals and adding 69 assists.

"I think I improved a lot, just kind of growing up from a kid to a man," Merelä explained. "I worked on a lot of physical stuff off the ice and that all translated onto the ice. My skating has been improving a lot. Holding onto the puck in tight positions has improved a lot playing against some of the big, strong men playing over there.

"Thankfully, I got a lot of ice time with the best team in Finland with Tappara and we won a couple championships. That was awesome experience for me.

"There's a lot of really good players over there, a couple guys that played in the NHL, and they taught me a lot. It was an awesome two years in Tappara. It's my hometown team, so it was nice to play and win there.

"In my four full years in Liiga, I felt like I took a little step forward every year. Now, I think it's a good time to change the place and take a couple more of those next steps."

Entering his first Development Camp, Merelä is looking to use the week to learn as much as possible. There will certainly be some adjustments along the way, including getting accustomed to the smaller ice surface in North America, something he said he's looking forward to.

"To be honest, I kind of like it here a little more," Merelä explained. "Skating in from the boards, you have two meters less to get the net. It's nice.

"Of course, the game is faster and it's a different style, but I think that's going to suit my game pretty well with needing less time to get to the net. I like that.

"They also shoot way more here. In Finland, it's more about just keeping the puck and rimming it around and stuff. But here, a lot of pucks go to the net, and I like that."

While Sunday was the first day of one-ice training, Merelä feels that he's already learned a lot and seen plenty of new things that should help him during the offseason. Once Development Camp is over, the 6-foot-2, 196-pound winger will look to take what he's learned and bring it back to Finland, where he will complete the remainder of his offseason training.

"I just want to learn as much as I can," Merelä said. "These first two ice sessions have already shown a lot of new stuff to me. Barb Underhill, the skating coach, has a lot to give to me, and then there's all the new kinds of drills we're doing with the coaches on the other rink for skills.

"There's a lot of new stuff for me to work on during the summer so I can become a better player before training camp. I just want to do everything as good as I can, improve with every ice session and hopefully learn some new stuff."

Once he's back home, Merelä will get back on the ice in Finland, where he skates with a group that includes a few NHLers like Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov.

"There's a former NHL player, Ville Nieminen, and he leads the group," Merelä explained. "He's also from Tampere, where I'm from. There's a couple NHL guys and a lot of Liiga guys. That's my summer ice group.

"I do the off-ice stuff with my athletic trainer, who I've been working with for many years. But also, there's a lot of new stuff that I'll be taking back from the off-ice sessions here."

Merelä has done his homework on the organization. Not only did he know about the current players on the roster and all the recent success Tampa Bay has had, but he also knew the last Finnish player to wear a Lightning jersey.

He wants to be the next one.

"The Lightning really haven't had that many Finnish guys play in the NHL," Merelä said. "I think Valtteri Filppula was the last Finnish skater to play NHL games for Tampa Bay. That was a long time ago.

"Hopefully I'm the next guy playing in the NHL for the Lightning."