FILE - Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen heads on to the ice for his shift in the third period of Game 4 of an NHL first-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
May 22, 2025 - 2:01 PM
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer has jokingly referred to himself as being Finnish during these NHL playoffs. After all, he has five of the 13 players from Finland who are on the rosters of the four teams still chasing the Stanley Cup.
The Stars' top line is a trio of Finns, with top-scoring forward Mikko Rantanen alongside Roope Hintz and Mikael Granlund. They also have veteran defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell, who both scored in the third period of a comeback win over Edmonton in the West semifinal opener.
“They’re phenomenal,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said of his teammates playing more than 5,000 miles from their home country. “I'd say we're a Finnish-first team probably now.”
In the East final, the Florida Panthers have four Finnish players who were also part of last year's Stanley Cup title: captain Aleksander Barkov, Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola and Anton Lundell. Carolina, which had Rantanen for a 13-game stretch this season before trading him to Dallas, has Sebastian Aho, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Juha Jaaska.
Luostarinen, who in 2017 was a second-round draft pick by the Hurricanes, had four points in Florida's series clincher over Tampa Bay in Round 1. He added three more in Game 7 of the second round against Toronto.
“It’s nice to see so many Finns getting so far, and I think playing key roles on their teams, playing high minutes,” Luostarinen said. “I think it’s just the work they put in in Finland, from juniors all the way to the top level. It’s top notch."
All 12 of the Finns who have played this postseason have scored goals, and half have at least 10 points through Wednesday. Rantanen, first traded from Colorado to Carolina and then six weeks later to the Stars, leads all players with nine goals and 20 points.
Kasperi Kapanen is the lone Finnish player for the Oilers, and his only point so far this postseason was a huge one: an overtime goal to wrap up the second round series against Vegas.
From Finland to the NHL
The Dallas and Miami metropolitan areas each has more residents than Finland, but the nation of 5.6 million is a growing hockey power.
There were 53 Finns on NHL rosters this season among 268 all-time, according to Hockey-Reference.com. Divide the number of NHL players into a country’s population, and Finland sends about as many players to the league per capita as Canada or Sweden.
“They’ve done a great job of developing players over in Finland,” Stars general manager Jim Nill said. “We know they’re good players, but they’re just really good human beings. ... When you talk about the Finnish players, they play the game the right way. They’re well-coached, they understand both ends of the ice.”
Dallas and Florida played two regular-season games in Finland in November, the 10th and 11th the NHL has played there. The Panthers won both games in Barkov's hometown of Tampere while the seven Finnish players combined for 11 points, led by his four.
Team Finland won the gold medal in the 2022 Olympics, when the NHL's decision not to send players to Beijing kept Aho, Barkov and Rantanen from participating. They were among nine of the still-playing Finns who represented their country in this year's 4 Nations Face-Off, and likely will be part of the 2026 Olympics.
“On my end with those guys, this is the golden age of Finnish hockey,” said DeBoer, an assistant for Team Canada in the 4 Nations. “If you look at the last decade, those guys have won a lot of tournaments, under-18, world juniors, world championships. They know how to win. They have those winning habits and that’s what makes them easy to coach, easy to play."
Jere Lehtinen, who played all 14 of his NHL seasons with the Stars and was part of their 1999 Stanley Cup championship, is the GM of the Finnish national team.
Impact players
In Carolina, Aho is the top-line center and the team’s top-paid player, a 27-year-old locked up long term after signing an extension paying $9.75 million per year through the 2031-32 season. The team’s second-round pick from 2015 has been a core piece of Carolina being the only NHL team with an active streak of winning at least one postseason series for seven straight years.
When the Stars acquired Rantanen from the Hurricanes, that trade deadline deal was contingent on the 28-year-old forward signing a $96 million, eight-year contract extension.
He had 101 points (34 goals, 67 assists) in 81 playoff games for the Colorado the past seven years, including the Avalanche's 2022 Cup run, before his 12 points against them in the first round this postseason that included his hat trick in Game 7. Rantanen had another hat trick in the second period of Game 1 in the second round against top-seeded Winnipeg.
Speaking Finnish
Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling, who is from neighboring Sweden, still sometimes doesn't understand Mikkola.
“He’s very funny. He’s got the Finnish accent, which is hilarious — sometimes I don’t know what he’s saying,” Forsling said. “But he always comes back to the bench saying something, and it’s hilarious.”
Heiskanen, who was 19 when he made his Stars debut in 2018, said it's great to have Finnish teammates as he has throughout his NHL career.
“It's fun off the ice, too,” Heiskanen said when asked about the additions of Rantanen and Granlund, who at 33 is the oldest of the playoff Finns. “Can speak Finnish and do stuff together.”
Seguin said he has learned a few swear words in Finnish, along with some simple phrases. But there are times when he and team captain Jamie Benn wonder what is being said, and “have the Google translator out trying to figure it out.”
The only word that really matters right now is “voittaa," which generally translates as “to win.”
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AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard and Tim Reynolds contributed.
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