VANCOUVER – Joni Jurmo is six-foot-four and 190 pounds and says he isn’t close to being the toughest guy in his family.
“My dad has been doing combat sports his whole life,” the fleet Finnish defenceman explained over the phone. “He would still beat my ass. My dad works out every day and he’s in pretty good shape. I have actually no chance against him.”
This is good news for the Vancouver Canucks on a couple of levels.
Selected in the third round of Wednesday’s NHL draft with the Canucks’ top pick, Jurmo needs to build strength and develop the physical side of his game, making his dad an ideal training partner.
And if this week continues the way it’s going for the Canucks, who appear to be staring at the imminent exit of several key veteran players when free agency opens Friday, Jyri Jurmo could be added to security detail around Canuck offices when the next wave of angry villagers, wearing masks and complaining six feet apart, arrive with their old pitchforks.
You draft the kid, you get the dad, too.
Drafting Jurmo may turn out to be the highlight of the week for the Canucks, who chose Wednesday not to make a qualifying offer to popular local defenceman Troy Stecher and appear at this point likely to lose unrestricted free agents Jacob Markstrom, Tyler Toffoli and Chris Tanev.
The 18-year-old Jurmo was projected by most scouting services to be picked higher than 82nd.
The offensive defenceman from Espoo, near Helsinki, had 28 points in 43 games last season playing for Jokerit’s junior team before moving into Finland’s top league this fall with JYP Jyvaskyla in the Liiga. Jurmo’s skating is lauded in every scouting report about him.
“My dad took me to a lot of skating lessons and took me to the outside ice rink,” Jurmo said. “I’ve just been working on it my whole life. I think I’ve always been a good skater. My dad played hockey until he was 14 years old, but he came from a poor family and they didn’t have money to play after that. It’s a pretty expensive sport.”
In Canada, too.
Joni said he tried wrestling when he was younger, which only made him stick to hockey.
When Jyri Jurmo isn’t working on his mixed martial arts skills, he runs an auto repair shop in Helsinki. His wife, Maria Palin-Jurmo, is an interior designer who was a competitive skier when she was younger, Joni said.
The second day of the NHL draft, which seemed to last a week, was another part of the great changes in Joni Jurmo’s life.
His elevation to senior hockey from junior included moving at age 18 to Jyvaskyla, about a three-hour drive north of Helsinki, and into an apartment he shares. He practised with JYP on Wednesday before inviting friends and a couple of teammates over to watch the draft.
“Of course at the beginning it was a little bit weird, but my parents helped a lot with it,” Jurmo said of the transition. “They taught me how to make food and do the dishes and live on my own before I moved here.”
Jurmo said he was already a fan of the Canucks due to Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes and the way the team plays under coach Travis Green.
He trains in the off-season with Miro Heiskanen, the Dallas Stars’ 21-year-old phenom who is also from Espoo. Jurmo says he patterns his game after the supremely-skilled Heiskanen. But if Jurmo eventually turns into only Esa Lindell, the Stars’ other Finnish defencemen who plays an excellent all-around game, the Canucks will be ecstatic
“I really like this kid a lot,” Vancouver general manager Jim Benning said. “I remember Alex Edler in his draft year; he was a big guy who was a good skater (chosen in the third round in 2004). I think Joni is an even better skater. He’s got good offensive skill.
“He still needs to fill out and get stronger and he needs to learn how to defend better. But those are teachable things. You can’t teach six-foot-four. You can’t teach the way he skates and carries the puck up the ice. Going into the draft, that was the guy we were hoping to get in the third round and he ended up falling to us. We feel rather fortunate that he made it to us.”
The Canucks’ other picks Wednesday were American power forward Jackson Kunz (113th), U.S. National Team Development Program defenceman Jacob Truscott (144th), Russian centre Dmitry Zlodeyev (175th) and Swedish defenceman Viktor Persson (191st).
Even though these prospects are likely years away from challenging for NHL roster spots, it felt like the Canucks needed them on a day when non-draft news was all about incumbent players leaving.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that starting goalie Markstrom, like first-line winger Toffoli, would be exploring free agency on Friday rather than accept the Canucks’ contract offer.
Stecher, who spent the last four seasons with the Canucks after signing with his hometown team as a college free agent, was made an unrestricted free agent when Benning declined to retain his rights with a qualifying offer on last year’s salary of $2.325 million US. And there have been no meaningful contract talks with UFA-eligible defenceman Tanev, a career Canuck.
“Obviously, anything can happen,” Benning said. “Our intention was to see what these guys wanted and where they’re at within the framework of a flat cap here for the next couple of years, keeping in mind that we’ve got Petey and Quinn Hughes that are up (for new contracts) next year. There’s a certain responsibility we had. . . to make sure we stayed within the lines.
“We’re going to be prudent and smart. Who knows what Oct. 9 is going to look like? We’re prepared, too, if we can’t get some of the guys signed that we want to, we can go into free agency and try to fill the holes we need to fill. Whether it’s players from within or through free agency, we still have those avenues.”
The Canucks are also still talking to the Arizona Coyotes about defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who was informed last week that new owners want to shed the final seven years and nearly $58 million of his contract. Ekman-Larsson, 29, said he would waive his no-movement clause only for the Canucks and Boston Bruins, then set a Friday deadline for Arizona to work out a trade.
The huge transaction is only possible for the Canucks if Coyotes rookie GM Bill Armstrong agrees to take onerous salaries back from Benning, who refused again Wednesday to discuss or even confirm negotiations.
