Mikkelin Jukurit missed out on a play-off berth by a solitary point.

Olli Jokinen’s team may have felt hard done by, but in truth, too many leads and points were squandered late in games.

To make matters worse, KooKoo, the team who clinched the tenth place and the final play-off berth, caused a huge upset in the first round (play-in).

KooKoo lost the first game of their three-game series to Kärpät (seventh seed) but went on to claim success and progression with emphatic 4-1 and 5-0 victories.

Despite the disappointment of Jukurit missing out on the post-season, Liam Kirk can be very proud of his performance and production with the Finnish team in the second half of their season.

His nineteen points were good for ninth on the team in scoring despite featuring in less than 50% of the games.
Not only did Kirk’s points-per-game percentage of 0.76 lead all Jukurit skaters but he had a hand in 28% of all goals scored by the club in his 25 games.

Fourteen of Kirk’s points were registered at even-strength play. He recorded the same amount of primary points.

His time-on-ice fluctuated depending on his assigned position (played some time at centre) and line (split mostly between second and third) but Kirk averaged over sixteen minutes per game.

This stint in Finland was the best yet in his professional career regarding the level of ice time, the total of games played and competition.

During the 2017-18 season, Kirk “played” 52 games for the Sheffield Steelers. It is a big stretch to come close to representing anything like the challenge or opportunity in Finland.

The Liiga is a far more structured and defensively sound league with a greater talent level amongst every team. There is a reason why NHL prospects remain in Europe on Liiga teams.
There is also the ice-time factor, and like all other teenagers in the EIHL, TOI is hugely limited, sporadic and score dependent.

Taking a deeper dive into Liam’s performance reveals he was a difference-maker for Jukurit.

His 56.8% Corsi was second best on the team and 25th overall in Liiga amongst all skaters to have played at least twenty games.

Points Per 60 breakdown.

All Situation Points Per 60 = 2.75
Primary Points Per 60 = 2.03
Even Strength Points Per 60 = 2.03

The PP60 statistic isn’t listed on any public forum I’ve found but is relatively easy to work out as Liiga releases ice-time via their website.

Without context, how much do we read into these numbers for Kirk?

They compared favourably with Michael Joly, who led Liiga in scoring through the regular season.

Toward the end of the season, I noted in an article that the 27-year-old had a P/60 of 3.11 with over 1100 minutes logged. At the time, a differential of 0.54 points per sixty minutes, which works out to around an extra point every 5-6 games.

Let’s also compare to Jukurit’s leading scorer this past season, Patrik Puistola, who recorded forty points in sixty games.
The 22-year-old was drafted 78th overall by Carolina in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and as recently as February this year had his signing rights traded to Edmonton.

Puistola’s All Situation P/60 worked out to 1.65, a single point less overall than Kirk albeit with a larger body of work.

For context, I believe it’s important to add that Edmonton’s prospect has far more professional experience than the British forward, having played in over 200 Liiga games and featured in seventeen Champions Hockey League games.

It was also a career year for Puistola in points.

It cannot be understated what Liam Kirk has been able to achieve this season in hugely difficult circumstances.

Initially benched by Tucson Roadrunners (AHL) and Arizona seemingly not considering him worthy to play over other players on AHL-only contracts.

Kirk and his agent had to forcibly push for a move to garner ice time which resulted in packing up his gear and making a trip across almost the other side of the USA to Atlanta.

In the ECHL, Kirk was able to get his feet wet and help the Gladiators have success, but it was an unworkable long-term situation.
The GB forward requires a greater level of competition to push him and aid continued development in the quest for his ultimate goal.


Upping sticks to a new country is no small task, let alone integrating with brand new teammates and facing the prospect of adapting to the league and level of competition Kirk hasn’t faced consistently in his career.

No season has been like the last since Kirk was drafted into the NHL.
The only constant has been adversity and his finding a way to keep beating the odds.

A fine time in Finland has left Kirk in a good place heading into next season, whereupon the Arizona organisation will finally have to make a call regarding their seventh-round selection in 2018.

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