Kasper Bjorkqvist's first professional season last year didn't exactly go as planned.
Bjorkqvist had appeared in just six games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton when he collided with a teammate in practice and tore his ACL, requiring season-ending surgery.
Bjorkqvist remained in Wilkes-Barre for the rest of the season to rehab his knee and work on the off-ice skills that he was still able to do.
"We talked about working on his hands and his shooting," then-Wilkes-Barre head coach Mike Vellucci told me last March. "If that guy didn’t stick handle three or four hours a day, he was doing it five or six hours a day. He’s such a hard worker.”
That skills work was led by Penguins skills coach Ty Hennes, even when Hennes was working out of Pittsburgh. He'd send Bjorkqvist videos of different skills drills -- often videos of Patric Hornqvist, who management sees as a player with a comparable skillset -- and Bjorkqvist would work on the drills in Wilkes-Barre with the same fervor of his usual well-documented work in the weight room.
"Kasper is the most eager, attentive, hungry player to get better on the ice and off the ice. He's dialed in and hungry for more." Hennes told me. "A skill series usually takes three, four days for a guy to get comfortable. He spends so much time on it. You have to be two steps ahead of Kasper, because you didn't know if it would be tomorrow or two days from now before he's calling asking for something more."
Head coach J.D. Forrest, who was an assistant coach during Bjorkqvist's rookie year, told me Tuesday that there's "no doubting" Bjorkqvist's commitment to becoming a professional and playing at this level.
"Physically, he's gifted," Forrest added. "His rehab went well and went fast. There was nothing really surprising there as far as how he handled it. It's a tough injury to come back from, too. An ACL is no joke. But it's also something where if you're committed, you can come back and start where you left off. We've seen that from him, as far as how he started off in Finland and everything. We're just hoping to continue more of that here."
Aside from the added skills work, Bjorkqvist still doesn't see last season as a total loss, since he was still able to be around the team and learn from the team's veteran players.
"Being here, we had some great guys, great leaders who played," Bjorkqvist said. "Some of the guys are still left like (Kevin Czuczman) and some of the guys who aren't here anymore who played for a long time, being around those guys and sucking in everything that they know. It's tough when you're not playing. Even though everyone was super nice and everything was great, still you personally just don't feel like you're part of the team the same way you would be if you were playing in the games. But I still think I was able to feel the feelings of what the game brings and take that from the older and veteran guys."
DKPS
Kasper Bjorkqvist
Bjorkqvist, who was loaned to Finnish club KooKoo to start the season, joined Wilkes-Barre last week after his season in Finland ended. He fulfilled his quarantine requirements and has been practicing with the team, but didn't play in the team's two games since he was cleared as he worked to get his legs back under him after being off the ice for awhile due to travel and quarantine.
The expectation is that Bjorkqvist will be in the lineup tonight, Wednesday, when the Penguins host the Binghamton Devils at 7 p.m. It'll be his first AHL game since October 2019.
"It's an exciting time for sure," Bjorkqvist told me on Tuesday. "I spent a lot of time (in North America) the past five years, so it feels like a second home. It was good to cross the border and get into the country, back to I-95 again. Now it's game-time, that's the reason I came here. It's an exciting time."
That excitement was evident in Bjorkqvist's first few practices after rejoining the team.
"He's looked good out there," Forrest told me Tuesday of Bjorkqvist in practice. "He's fast, he's got some skill. He'll help us on the left side for sure. ... He's a great kid, we love his energy that he brings here. He has a smile on his face. He's got really good leadership qualities. We feel like it's going to interject a little bit of new life -- not that we need it -- but just another type of energy here for the last five games."
Forrest said that based off of his early impressions in those practices, he picked up on some improvements in Bjorkqvist's game with his hands and work in tight spaces from that extra skill work as a result of his time spent injured.
"Game-scenario is a little different," Forrest added. "There's pressure. Not only physical pressure of the game, but also mental pressure. It's a different environment to put yourself into. How your body reacts to that, it could be a whole other thing. I don't think he'll have any issues, but that's where we're really looking to see the translation there."
There are only five games remaining in Wilkes-Barre's season, and then that's it. It's over. The AHL isn't having playoffs this year. Returning to Wilkes-Barre for this brief stint is more about helping Bjorkqvist be prepared for next season.
"I think this whole year has probably been pretty crazy for many people," Bjorkqvist said. "For me, it meant that I played the majority of the season back home. For me personally, just to come back here and get used to the small ice sheet again, hopefully it'll prepare me for the future. Hopefully for the team, I'll be able to help the team here win some games."
Bjorkqvist's loan to KooKoo was a mutual decision between Bjorkqvist and Penguins management to get Bjorkqvist some playing time, since the Finnish league was starting on time and the AHL wouldn't be starting until February.
"I'm vert grateful for the fact that I was able to go over there and play," Bjorkqvist said. "I needed the games after last year's injury, playing just six games last year. At the time when I committing to playing there, there was a lot of uncertainty in terms of the season here. In terms of what the teams over there wanted, they wanted me to play the full season."
It was Bjorkqvist's first time playing professional hockey in his native Finland, and his first time playing in Finland at all since his junior 2015-16 season.
"It's so long since I've been home playing," he said. "In the end, it's the same game. Obviously there's some differences with the game, the big ice sheet. As an example, I would say here you have to be ready to play all the time, you have to make decisions fast, everything's coming at you really fast. Whereas there, you maybe get a little bit of time, but you also have to be able to use that time to make things happen. The game is faster here, so it'll be exciting to play (Wednesday) and get things going again with that type of game."
Forrest is very familiar with the Finnish league and its style of play after spending four and a half seasons there himself during his own playing career.
"It's a little different," Forrest said. "You're on a little bit of a larger ice surface, it's a little more of a chess match going on, I guess you could say. The tempo isn't quite as fast. Because of the size of the ice there's just a little bit less physicality. But the thing about playing over in Finland is there's a lot of young, hungry players in that league. You know, I've played in a couple of other leagues where you get more veteran guys to play there. But in Finland, a lot of the players that are in the league want to move on to the NHL, KHL. So it's a real battle, a real grind. I think that'll benefit Kasper just being able to play over there for the whole year in an elevated role. It'll help him transition into what we have planned for him.
Bjorkqvist did extremely well in his stint in Finland, winning the league's rookie scoring title with 11 goals and 15 assists in 44 games, a period that was great for building up his confidence on the ice after everything he went through the last year.
"It's something that helped me knowing that, hey, I still know how to play this game," Bjorkqvist said with a laugh. "A hot start, it's always nice. I think it gave me energy to keep working, and in many ways those first couple of games brought back a lot of the joy with hockey, the stuff that was taken away because of the injury. That was big."
