Michelle Karvinen joining PWHL Vancouver conjures up memories of Igor Larionov.
Larionov was 28 and considered one of the best players in the world for all he had accomplished with Russia when the centre joined the Vancouver Canucks for the 1989-90 season.
Karvinen was expansion PWHL Vancouver’s first draft pick, chosen No. 7 overall in June’s entry draft. The left-shot winger is 35 years old, and is one of the more celebrated players of her generation.
She’s won three Olympic bronze medals with Finland, including at Vancouver 2010. She was named the top forward at Sochi 2014 after leading the tournament in scoring with five goals and seven points in six games.
Karvinen has also helped Finland capture one silver and seven bronze medals in her 12 trips with them to the world championships. She’s Finland’s all-time leading scorer in the event with 25 goals and 62 points in 74 games, and a three-time tournament all-star.
This is the third season of the PWHL, with Vancouver and Seattle both signing on this year to bring the league to eight teams. Karvinen wasn’t ready to play in North America until this season due to prior commitments in Europe but says that the timing is ideal now because “Vancouver is my favourite city in Canada.”
The Olympics here account for her “best hockey memories.” She also has local connections, including former Canuck winger Jannik Hansen, who still lives locally.
She plays internationally for Finland thanks to her Finnish father Heikki Karvinen. She was born and grew up in Rødovre, Denmark, which is the same hometown as Hansen, 39.
Hansen says that Karvinen’s dad helped teach him how to skate as a youngster. Hansen played alongside her brother Jannik for about eight years and Karvinen was also a teammate of Hansen’s sister Lisbeth as a youngster.
Karvinen is in town this week, beginning preparations for PWHL Vancouver’s first regular season game on Nov. 21 at the Pacific Coliseum, with expansion cousins Seattle as the opponents. She joked that she was going to lean on Hansen for how-to’s about living in Vancouver.
It’s all worked out to her liking it seems. Karvinen talked to PWHL Vancouver general manager Cara Gardner Morey the day before the draft and was told then that the team planned on selecting her.
“After that, I was just waiting and hoping that no one else would pick me, because I wanted to come here,” Karvinen said.
Czech forward Kristýna Kaltounková, who played collegiately at Colgate, was the first overall pick in the draft by the New York Sirens. She’s 23. The rest of the first round is in that similar age range. There’s an obvious risk to taking someone of Karvinen’s vintage, but she maintains there’s plenty of gas left in the proverbial tank.
Karvinen has played the past three seasons with Frolunda of the Swedish women’s league. She had 21 goals and 35 points in 32 games this past season. That put her sixth in league scoring.
“I’ve played a lot and I’ve had a lot of years with the national team, but I’ve never felt better,” she says. “I know how to handle being a pro hockey player, to take care of my body and the mental part of being a pro athlete. For me, I feel like I’m in a good state right now, where I feel like I can enjoy and play really good hockey.”
The fact is, too, that this Vancouver team has been built to win right away. It features Canadian national team stalwart Sarah Nurse up front, along with local products Hannah Miller and Jenn Gardiner. On the blue line, Vancouver has defender-of-the-year runners-up Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson, and in goal is Kristen Campbell and Emerance Maschmeyer, who both have been starters the past two seasons in the loop.
The league leaned heavily into Vancouver and Seattle getting off to a good start, allowing the original six teams to protect just three players apiece to begin the expansion process.
“We will be contenders right away,” Karvinen said. “The goal has to be the Walter Cup (league championship) right away. I think we have the team for it. We have the experience for it. We have a good combination of players at different stages of their careers and I think that’s what you need to have a championship team.”
She’s keen on seeing the fan base here, too. Karvinen remembers 2010 here being “a super welcoming, warm feeling.”
“I’ve never experienced hockey with that kind of energy,” she said. “I scored a goal in the bronze medal game and it felt like the roof of the building was going to come off. It was very unique … almost a dream kind of feeling.”
According to the PWHL, Vancouver’s training camp opens Nov. 10. There’s a pre-season scrimmage between Vancouver and Seattle at the Pacific Coliseum on Nov. 15 and then again there on Nov. 16.