Guelph native Connor Vannaman spent five years trying to break into the National Hockey League full-time, but his rise in professional hockey has now led him to move to Finland.
“The opportunity presented itself,” the 25-year-old Vanaman said of joining Oulu-based Karpat in Finland’s top flight SM Liga. “There were other options to stay in the AHL, but I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity to travel. It could be a little bit of a fresh start. That’s basically it. ”
Vannaman played in 58 games in the NHL, four of them in the playoffs, all with the Philadelphia Flyers. With limited ice time, he recorded one goal, two assists, and 10 penalty minutes.
Most of his time was spent in the American Hockey League, first with the Philadelphia affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms, then with the Florida Panthers affiliate Charlotte Checkers, before being traded by the Flyers in a 4-day deadline deal in 2022. After that, there are players and three draft picks.
“It was good,” he said of his days in the NHL. “I learned a lot. It was bad with a lot of ups and downs, but there were a few times when I was there for months at a time, so it was good. I wish I could have stayed a little longer. My Just the whole experience, being drafted and playing with Claude Giroux and (Jakub) Voracek, being in the same room with them and playing on the same team was pretty crazy. For that long. It didn’t last, but I’m really happy that I got the opportunity and the experience and everything else. It’s been unbelievable and fulfilled my dream of playing in the NHL. Maybe I’ll be able to go back someday. No. You never know. Players come back from Europe and these leagues all the time.
“You’ll never know, but right now I’m just taking it one year at a time and seeing where it takes me.”
He will adapt to his new team this winter.
“They’re very different in many ways, but they’re also very similar,” Vannaman said. “I think a lot of teams right now are trying to play more of a North American style. The ice is big and it can be a little tough sometimes. In this league, every rink has a different ice size, which is kind of weird. . We play a little bit differently because four or five teams have NHL-sized rinks.
“Our rink is one of the biggest rinks, so we just play more of a trap style and swing the puck around harder. When we’re in other buildings, it’s more North American.”
Throw it away, chase it, and get it quickly. Although there are many differences, there are also many similarities. ”
He’s also adjusting to a different role than his role in the NHL or AHL.
“They expect to score,” Vannaman said. “They told me I was a top center, a power play, that’s what’s expected when you get here. Usually that’s not my real role. All these years, I He was more of a PK (penalty kill), defensive player, second, third line type of player. It’s definitely an adjustment to play a different role.
“Usually I’m in front of the net on the power play, but right now I’m controlling it on the half wall. It’s going to take me a little while to get used to that, but I’m starting to get there. We still have 20 games left. I’m getting a little hot, which is good. I hope I can keep it up.”
Through 40 games with Karpat, Vanaman has seven goals, 10 assists and 12 penalty minutes, five of which came in four consecutive games late last month.
“I don’t usually set goals for myself,” he said. “This year for me is about absorbing all the experience and obviously playing well. Throughout my career, I’ve never focused on points. That’s how I’ve gotten frustrated. If you keep working hard every year, the points will come, the points will come. That’s my main focus and just continuing to get better as a player and as a person.”
Moving to another country often causes a bit of culture shock, but aside from a teammate helping him get a cell phone plan, Vannaman didn’t experience any of that.
“It’s that simple,” he said. “Everyone speaks English here and there’s no language barrier at all. Me and my girlfriend are here and we always describe it as if this is Guelph. We really… We’re really in the north. We have downtown and all the bars and restaurants are there. Other than that it’s a suburban area so it has a very Guelph feel to it. We love it here. We love all the food I don’t like most food, but the food here is great and I like it.”
Oulu is just over 600 kilometers from Helsinki, which takes more than 7 hours by car. It is located on the western side of the country, at the northern tip of the Gulf of Bothnia.
“The salmon soup here is famous,” says Vanaman. “The reindeer here are their meat. They like it, which is really good. The water is nice. There’s a lot of great walking and nature here. Last week it was like -35 degrees, so , all the snow on the trees has turned into frost. It’s truly a winter wonderland.”
Located at a similar latitude as Baffin Island in Nunavut, Oulu receives little sunlight during the winter.
“For the past month or two, the sun has been rising at 10:30 or 11 a.m. and setting at 1 or 1:30 p.m. Some days have been a little tough, but right now it’s pretty nice,” Vanaman said. “It’s like it goes up at 9:30 a.m. and goes down between 3 and 3:30 p.m. But the sunset is a different color every day. It’s really, really amazing.”
Lack of natural light keeps people indoors.
“Everyone just rides their bikes or walks here,” Vanaman said. “It’s incredible how many people are riding bikes in minus 30 degrees. It’s kind of a European thing and it’s cool.”
Shortly after this season ends, Vannaman plans to move back to the house he bought last year near the university in Guelph.
“We’ll probably be traveling here a little bit more at the end of the year,” he said. “That’s good. I have a lot of vacation time so I can travel.”
As the league takes breaks for international matches, Vannaman gets a week off each time and travel is likely to occur. So far, he has visited Copenhagen and Sweden, and would like to visit Norway, but a warmer climate destination may be first on his agenda.
But he hopes the opportunity to travel won’t come soon enough.
“It’s pretty close,” he said of the league standings. “A win here would give us three points, so it fluctuates a lot throughout the year. Five or 10 games ago we were ninth.”
Karpat is in 6th place, 7 points behind 3rd place and 9 points behind 11th place. The top 10 teams in the 15-team league qualify for the playoffs.
“We have a good team and we expect to make the playoffs and do pretty well.”