Just In: Former Canadiens captain Aatos Koivu wants to make a splash with the Canadiens

Former Canadiens captain Saku Koivu acknowledges ovation from fans prior to a National Hockey League game between the Habs and the Anaheim Ducks in Montreal on Dec. 18, 2014. Koivu’s son Aatos was selected by the Canadiens on Saturday, June 29, 2024, in the third round (70th overall) of the NHL Draft in Las Vegas. PHOTO BY JOHN MAHONEY /Montreal Gazette

Aatos Koivu plans to make a name for himself with the Canadiens.

That may be troublesome since his Father, Saku, used to be commander of the Canadiens and was quite possibly of the most famous player in Montreal.

On Saturday, the Canadiens chose the more youthful Koivu in the third round (70th generally speaking) at the NHL Draft in Las Vegas.

Last season, the 6-foot, 170-pound focus posted 9-13-22 aggregates in 20 games with the TPS U18 group in Finland prior to climbing to the U20 group, where he had 16-15-31 sums in 28 games. Koivu, who turned 18 on June 22, likewise played four games with the TPS group in the Finnish First class Association without enrolling a point.

Koivu was just 3 when his dad left the Canadiens after 13 seasons and endorsed with the Anaheim Ducks as a free specialist on July 8, 2009. His main genuine recollections of Montreal are of the Chime Community and the family’s old home on Nuns’ Island.

“I recollect a ton with the Ducks,” Koivu said during a Zoom gathering from Finland on Saturday subsequent to getting drafted. “At the end of the day, I went to class back in California and I recollect a ton (from Anaheim, where his dad played for five seasons). Not a lot from Montreal.”

Montreal fans will be eager to see the name Koivu on the rear of a Canadiens sweater once more, which could come down on Aatos. In any case, he’s not worried about that.

“I don’t believe it will be harder in any capacity since I want to sort of establish myself simply playing the manner in which I can play and acting naturally and being the most ideal player,” he said. “Obviously, individuals will know who my dad is and where he played and when. It’s continuously going to be like that, certainly in Montreal, and I don’t believe it’s something terrible and I want to only sort of become famous there also. It won’t be any not quite the same as some other players.”

It will be, but Aatos is used to handling the pressure of having Koivu on the back of his sweater in his home country.

“I didn’t actually feel an excessive amount of strain,” he said. “Obviously, a many individuals knew who my father was and where he played. Most certainly from the rivals I heard a great deal from it and they were continuously shouting about my father. In any case, it’s sort of something that I became acclimated to and it doesn’t actually annoy me any longer. … It pushed me to need to turn into a decent player myself and not simply be Saku’s child. Become well known.”

Scratch Bobrov, the Canadiens’ co-overseer of beginner exploring alongside Martin Lapointe, accepts the youthful Koivu can do that.

“We enjoyed him as a player, no matter what his last name, so we’ll begin with that,” Bobrov told journalists in Las Vegas after the seven-round draft was finished. “He’s a late-sprouting kid. He began playing at U18 level and afterward everything came super quick at him. U20, public group, TPS, expert games in Liiga. So for a more modest pretty much a youngster year prior and developed rapidly, there’s a ton of development potential.

“Obviously, his father showed him well overall,” Bobrov added. “His propensities are now genius. In any case, the body needs to create and our responsibility is to endlessly project the build and venture where the player can get to in five years. So we felt that he’s simply starting to expose what’s underneath and there’s something else to go. Tune in, he’s been in a family where tension was normal and the sort of individual his father is and the family, this youngster understands what’s truly going on with it and we felt he’d be agreeable in that climate and he was a quite simple pick for us.”

Koivu chose not to go to the draft in Las Vegas subsequent to talking with his dad and his representative. They concluded together it was better for him to remain at home in Finland, where he could proceed with his mid year preparing as opposed to flying to and fro. He isn’t wanting to go to the Canadiens’ improvement camp, what begins Tuesday in Brossard, for a similar explanation.

Koivu watched the draft on television with his family, yet couldn’t take a gander at the screen when it came time for the Canadiens to make the 70th generally speaking pick and he didn’t hear his name get reported.

“Be that as it may, my mother began to holler and she hopped and she was like: ‘Gracious, my God! Goodness, my God!'” Koivu said. “And afterward I saw my name on the television and afterward my father hopped too. He was super-cheerful.”

Koivu said it’s an “incredible inclination” to now be important for the group his dad used to play for, adding: “I’m super-blissful. I can’t find the words right now to portray what I’m feeling.”