Hello hockey fans. It's been a really great last few days.
The draft was amazing. I got into Montreal on Monday, so I had a few days to spend in the city.
On Tuesday I spent time with my parents going to see the city. I hadn't seen my mom since coming to North America a couple of months ago to train with Gary Roberts at his high-performance training center, so it was nice to spend time together.
On Wednesday I got in a workout, met with a few teams and had a nice dinner with my family. Seeing all of them together has been great because everyone is pretty spread out. In addition to my parents, my grandmother, Merilyn, and my cousin, Jimmy, came in from Saskatoon; my Aunt Eija, Uncle Jussi, Cousin Salamari came over from Finland; and my mom's cousin, Henri, and his wife, Nora, came from California.
Wednesday is when I started to get excited. I wouldn't say I was nervous about what could happen, but that's when I really started to look forward to what might happen.
Thursday morning I spent about four hours at the CCM performance lab learning about the technology they use to provide players with a stick that fits them best, worked out, then got some rest before heading to Bell Centre about 5:45.
As the picks started going off the board, I started to get more and more excited. I had no idea when I'd get picked or to what team I would go.
Then came No. 30 and the Winnipeg Jets. Hearing my name called, it was a great feeling, definitely a dream come true. I knew the Jets had some interest in me because I had met them at the NHL Scouting Combine and they followed up for additional information between the combine and the draft but didn't know more than that.
After taking the photo on the stage I met everyone at the Jets draft table. Then I got to go up to their suite. They had brought all my family and friends up there, so that was pretty special.
I'll be heading back to Finland now to attend camp and prepare to hopefully play for Finland at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship, which starts Aug. 9. Then I'll be back in Canada to work out at Gary Roberts' training center for the rest of the summer.
I'm not sure where I'll be playing next season. I'll go to Jets training camp and we'll see after that where the best place for my development is. For now my focus is on making Finland's team for the World Juniors.
Thanks to everyone for reading my draft diaries this year. I hope you've enjoyed them.
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