PHOTO COURTESY FINLAND HOCKEY
Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Veeti Väisänen, third from the left in the back row, represented Finland at the 2025 World Juniors tournament in Ottawa, returning with a silver medal.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Veeti Väisänen returns from the World Juniors with a new look at how to win. As well as a silver medal.
The Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman returned from representing Finland at the U20 tournament in Ottawa on Tuesday, battling through multiple flight delays before getting in a morning skate ahead of playing Wednesday night in a 7-4 win over the Prince Albert Raiders.
“It was a great experience to play in the World Juniors,” Väisänen said. “It’s a big thing for our country, of course, that we got the silver medal.”
The Fins picked up their 19th medal in history at the games, seventh silver medal, falling 4-3 in an overtime to the United States on Jan. 5. Väisänen picked up an assist in seven games at the tournament and says he enjoyed the moments throughout.
“I think I played pretty well, a lot of PK, not that much offence, but everybody had their own roles, and you have the asset for them,” Väisänen said.
“It’s really fast, maybe a bit faster than here, because there’s more top players, but it’s nice to be back here.”
The silver medal was the second piece of hardware the 18-year-old Hamina, Fin. product has won for his country, finishing third, alongside teammate Niilopekka Muhonen, at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
The third-round pick of the Utah Hockey Club enjoyed playing against Canada in the tournament opener with the 20,000 fans in attendance, despite a 4-0 loss, and says they got better following that game. He says the group they had on the Finland team was a selfless one and is a group he hopes to get to represent again next year.
“The atmosphere was really good, everybody was helping each other, and everybody was ready to sacrifice themselves for the game,” Väisänen said.
“If I get another chance to play there, I’m going to put it all in again and try to help help that team win the gold medal.”
Associate coach Joe Frazer liked what he saw from Väisänen at the international tournament as well as his drive to step into the lineup after a couple of crazy travel days. Väisänen was held up by two cancelled flights, having to stay the night in Calgary before returning to Medicine Hat just ahead of Wednesday’s game.
“He was great against Prince Albert,” Frazer said. “I really like our D-core, all six guys can play and they can all play a lot. So getting Veeti back and adding Tanner (Molendyk), we really like what we have back there.”
Väisänen, with 30 games under his belt entering play Friday night, has a goal and nine points. Coming out of the World Juniors, Väisänen says he’ll try to apply some lessons from the tournament and help the Tigers have as long a season as possible.
“It’s hard because tournaments, you have three weeks to get the atmosphere together, so it’s a bit different, but how teams sacrifice themselves and accept their roles (is a lesson),” Väisänen said.
“We’re going to have a long season, I’m going to put it all in for that and hope that we’re going to win the cup.”
