Those Who Know Blomqvist Praise His Potential

After the Penguins selected Finnish goaltender Joel Blomqvist in the second round (52nd overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, he received a special FaceTime call from a future teammate.
"Hey Joel, how's it going man?" Penguins forward Teddy Blueger said. "I was the last player picked No. 52, so I just wanted to give you a call and welcome you to the team and say congrats.

Blueger was taken by the organization back in 2012, and needed a few years to develop before making his NHL debut in 2019 and earning a full-time roster spot last season. And while the Penguins say that Blomqvist will need time as well, everyone who knows him is thrilled about his potential.
"I think he can be a starter in the NHL," said Penguins European scout Petri Pakaslahti, who is based out of Finland and evaluated Blomqvist. "But you have to be patient."
Former Penguins forward Jussi Jokinen, who has played a handful of games with Blomqvist with Karpat of the SM-Liiga (Finland's top professional league) between last season and this season, agreed with that assessment.
"Joel has all the attributes," Jokinen said. "At the same time, there's still lots of time to put the work in, but I'm sure he'll do that. He has all the potential to be a guy that makes the NHL and be a star and be a great goalie in that league."
Blomqvist, 18, currently measures out at 6-foot-2 and 183 pounds. Penguins director of amateur scouting Patrik Allvin compared him to Tristan Jarry, saying he's an athletic, calm play reader.
"I think he's a highly talented goaltender," Penguins goalie development coach Andy Chiodo said. "He moves incredibly well. That effortless movement allows him to gain positioning and manage the game."

Blomqvist really got onto the Penguins' radar at the start of the 2019-20 season. He was coming off a year where he backstopped Karpat's Under-20 team to a Junior SM-liiga championship.
He built on that by winning the Junior SM-liiga Best Goalie Award and being named to the First All-Star Team after leading all goaltenders with a .931 save percentage in 34 games.
"We all liked him and how he improved all year," Pakaslahti said. "We had a consensus about his ability and his talent, so it was an easy pick for us. We didn't disagree about that."
Blomqvist also appeared in two games with Karpat's senior team last year, and got called into action for the first two games of the 2020-21 season after both of their goalies got injured. Jokinen was impressed by how far the teenager has already come.
"When I saw him for the first time this season, you can see there's been lots of improvement," Jokinen said. "He played 2-3 exhibition games with us and when the season started, our top two goalies were out.
"It's not easy to come in as a young guy, especially since there's been a long break here because of COVID. I'm sure he felt lots of pressure, but he's really calm in the net and played really well the first couple games. He has earned our team's confidence. It's been great to play in front of him."
And those performances are what cemented Pittsburgh's already-high opinion of Blomqvist.
"I saw those games and it was really impressive how he handled the situation mentally," Pakaslahti said. "It was a little bit of pressure for a guy his age to just hop in and play games in the big league here. That was the last push for us that this guy is the real deal."
Moving forward, Blomqvist will actually spend the rest of the 2020-21 season on loan to Hermes of the Mestis league, which is Finland's second-highest professional league. He will also be the starting goalie for Finland's Under-20 national team.
In 2021-22, the plan is for Blomqvist to transition into one of Karpat's two goalies. And throughout that entire time, Chiodo - who played one season in Karpat in 2007-08 - will continue to be in contact with Karpat's goalie coach Ari Hilli
Chiodo has had in-depth conversations with Hilli to gain insight into Blomqvist as an individual - his practice habits, his ability to be coached, what he's like as a teammate, his performance in different situations and his capacity to grow - along with that development path they have for him.
"I know they have done a good job developing goaltenders and players alike," Chiodo said. "He's probably going to take a patient path in the Karpat organization, gain some experience in the Mestis league then transition to the first league in a prominent role. He'll have to continue to build strength and experience and face adversity and work on some fine details of his game over the next few years."

Everyone who knows Blomqvist says he's a quiet, laid-back guy. Pakaslahti said that sometimes their conversations could be challenging since Blomqvist is actually a Finnish Swede, which means that although he was born and raised in Finland, Swedish is actually his first language and that's what he speaks at home
But he's also a high-character kid, and Pakaslahti said all the coaches he's talked to love Blomqvist.
"He's a really high-quality person," Chiodo said. "We do due diligence on (prospects') character, and it really checks out. So we feel good about bringing that into the organization."
When the news about Blomqvist being drafted came out, Jokinen said their Karpat team group chat was blowing up with congratulatory texts.
He planned on seeing Blomqvist at the rink today, and said he'll be happy to tell him all about what the Penguins organization is like.
"He'll go to a first-class organization," Jokinen said. "Some of the best memories I have are from playing for the Penguins. Anything short of the Stanley Cup is kind of a disappointment, and it's kind of the same here in the Finnish League with Karpat. We expect to win it all and it's the same thing with Pittsburgh. I really enjoyed my time there, and I'll tell him that and that it's a great hockey city."