{"id":703740,"date":"2026-06-14T15:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T15:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/703740\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T15:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T15:12:10","slug":"former-red-wings-goalie-prospect-moving-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/703740\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Red Wings Goalie Prospect Moving Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you look at the depth of goaltenders populating the <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/detroit-red-wings\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Detroit<\/a> Red Wings prospect list, it\u2019s hard to recall that not so long ago, the team was so desperate for netminding help that they signed <a href=\"https:\/\/detroithockeynow.com\/red-wings-sign-finnish-goalie-olkinuora\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"3181\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Jussi Olkinuora<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Among the many failed European free agent experiments that Detroit GM <a href=\"https:\/\/detroithockeynow.com\/red-wings-yzerman-says-no-one-is-untouchable\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"24103\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Steve Yzerman<\/a> has concocted, <a href=\"https:\/\/detroithockeynow.com\/olkinuora-holds-no-regrets-about-leaving-red-wings\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"6279\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Olkinuora<\/a> was among the more disastrous.<\/p>\n<p>Looking for goaltending depth in the summer of 2022, Yzerman inked Finnish netminder Olkinuora to a one-year contract. Assigned to the AHL <a href=\"https:\/\/griffinshockey.com\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Grand Rapids Griffins<\/a>, Olkinuora was less than stellar. He saw action in 15 games, posting a 6-8-0 record with one shutout. Olkinuora\u2019s goals-against average was 3.75, and his save percentage .868.<\/p>\n<p>At midseason, Olkinuora requested his release. The Red Wings willingly granted it. He would finish out the 2022-23 campaign playing for Brynas of Sweden\u2019s SHL. <\/p>\n<p>It was the beginning of a vagabond journey for the veteran puckstopper.<\/p>\n<p>New Home For One-Time Red Wings Hopeful<\/p>\n<p>Since leaving the Detroit organization, Olkinuora has played for six teams in three different countries. <\/p>\n<p>Now, Olkinuora is on the move yet again. He\u2019s left German club Dresdner Eisl\u00f6wen to return home to Finland. He\u2019s joining Pelicans Lahti. Olkinuora, 35, previously played for Pelicans in 2023-24 and in 2018-19.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe feelings are really excited,\u201d Olkinuora said in a statement on the club\u2019s website. \u201cReturning to Lahti brings back a lot of good memories. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe upcoming season is exciting. There is a lot at stake, and in Lahti, the puck means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Olkinuora does own a resume of major successes on the international stage. He was Finland\u2019s goalie for gold medal wins at the IIHF World Championship in 2019 and 2022. Olkinuora also won a gold medal with the Finns at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has won big things at the international level in his career and knows what success requires in everyday life,\u201d Lahti Sports Director Jarkko Oikarinen said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe that his professionalism and competitiveness will raise the standard of the entire team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you look at the depth of goaltenders populating the Detroit Red Wings prospect list, it\u2019s hard to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[2508,1786,21231,304111,385,99,65492],"class_list":["post-703740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-detroit-hockey-now","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-grand-rapids-griffins","tag-jussi-olkinuora","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-steve-yzerman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}