Näkemiin Ilkka

Puck Daddy's resident Russian Dmitry Chesnokov tweeted that Ilkka Heikkinen will spend next season in the KHL (h/t to SNY). Apparently all the Rangers offered him was a two-way deal and he decided that the KHL was the best league for him.

That's a shame.

As I wrote in the Facts of Life, I found Heikkinen to be a quiet but solid defenseman who could have contributed if given a real chance. However, he never was given that and likely never would get it with Redden and Rozsival filling two spots on the Broadway blueline for the next few years. Ah well. Best wishes to him.

The NYR Facts Of Life: #49 Ilkka Heikkinen

For each player who suited up in a Blueshirt this season we will take the good, we will take the bad and take them both and see what we have. Last year around this time the Rangers added a Finnish defenseman and he would get himself a cup of NHL coffee this season. That blueliner was #49 Ilkka Heikkinen.

#49's #s: 7 games, 0 goals, 0 assists, +2, 0 PIM.

Take the good: Heineken, I mean, Heikkinen had a quick, quiet stop on Broadway. And for a defenseman, that was a good thing. At the same time, he didn't really have the trust of the coaching staff so he played more than 10 minutes just once in seven games. I mention that in the good because that one game was against the Isles (12:35), and the Rangers won to snap a four game losing skid. He wasn't overly physical but he blocked a few shots, moved the puck swiftly and smartly and wasn't caught out of position.

Take the bad: Unfortunately that game was Heikkinen's penultimate game in the NHL. He was called up when Tortorella decided Matt Gilroy needed a trip to the bus league and was sent back as soon as Hobey got his act together (and proved he was too good for the AHL). Whether or not he truly could have done something to keep him in New York is unknown but it is hard to make an impact when you are coming on the ice with cold legs, especially as you are trying to get used to the pace of the big leagues.

Take them both and then we have: A useful defenseman for a team that doesn't have two blueline spots sewn up for underachieving, overpaid has-beens. From his stat line in Hartford (38 points in 72 games), you like to think he could be a Teppo Numminen-esque player but we may never know, he is due to become a RFA this summer.

Päivää Ilkka

As you may have read, the Rangers followed up the Hobey Baker signing of Matt Gilroy by adding a defenseman to possibly work with him in Ilkka Heikkinen.

"The 6-2, 200-pounder has appeared in 283 career SM-liiga games with Lukko Rauma and HIFK Helsinki, collecting 31 goals and 82 assists for 113 points, along with 255 penalty minutes." - official NYR release

This is a move that actually broke earlier over on Hfboards, where some of the loyal lions offered a breakdown, along with the news. As far as I can tell, Heikkinen is a little bit of a tougher version of Christian Backman - some offensive potential with a deficient willingness to put it all on the line ... ok, maybe Backman, maybe Nik Zherdev. But unlike Zherdev, there is no real pressure on this kid to perform, no highlight reels of drool-inducing moves. There are some Youtube clips where it is hard to see him, and where it is very hard to compare the level of play considering the Finnish league is far from the NHL.

So we really don't know exactly what we have here and just have to rely on the skill of head Euro scout Christer Rockstrom to say he will be worth the jersey. The last Scandic import, the Avery-replacement wanna-be/never-was Andreas Jamtin didn't last too long on this side of the pond. Two good things - both of which are quite unrelated and are significant stretches - that work in Heikkinen's favour is that another Ilkka (Sinisalo) had himself a nice career in the NHL and the last Finnish defenseman that I can think of who came to Broadway was Reijo Ruotsalainen, a player Glen Sather lusted after and cherished back in his former, actually successful life on Edmonton.

Now we know that Sather's recent signings have been ... lacking ... and he seems to be building up a stable of blueliners on a team in desperate need of scorers but perhaps there is a master plan and Illka will be part of it. This time of year, we are forced to wait and see and hope and pray and fret and second guess and look at the teams still playing with jealous eyes.

Man, I hate the offseason.