Nearly half a century before the Pittsburgh Penguins traded for speedy, 24-year-old winger Kasperi Kapanen, another Kapanen likewise switched teams, setting the stage for a moment that has lived on in Finnish folklore.
Hannu Kapanen, Kasperi’s grandfather, was a skinny spark plug who represented his country at the 1976 Olympics and would eventually be enshrined in the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame. A player who averaged more than a point per game over the span of his career, Hannu’s scoring touch was second only to his wicked temper.
With every five-minute major and 10-minute misconduct, the man nicknamed “Smiling Hannes” racked up 418 penalty minutes in 320 league matches. His best season, the undersized forward ranked about 15th in the SM-liiga in scoring ... and first in penalty minutes.
“I always knew the rules,” Hannu told a Finnish magazine in his native tongue a few years back. “When the referees did not, I always taught them.”
That often-simmering volcano of a personality eventually erupted in 1977.
Hannu was playing for a Helsinki club named Jokerit — which, considering Hannu’s motor-mouth and jovial personality, fittingly translates to Jokers or Jesters. But when the team owner announced it was up to Hannu to pull the club out of a subpar stretch, the hothead revolted. He orchestrated a move to Jokerit’s long-hated, intra-city rival HIFK.
The bad blood that divided Finland’s capital city eventually forced two brothers to pick sides, as Hannu’s younger brother, Jari, remained loyal to Jokerit.
That first matchup of the 1977-78 season was even more eagerly anticipated than usual in Helsinki, with a gallon of gasoline dumped on an already-inflamed rivalry and the local newspapers providing additional kindling. It didn’t disappoint.
Jari, who would eventually captain the Jokerit club, zipped through the ice using some of that trademark Kapanen speed. Hannu reached out and hooked his younger brother, drawing a penalty. The referee’s arm raised, and so did tensions.
The brothers converged. Hannu remembers saying something along the lines of, “What are you crying about little boy? You know what happens if we fight.”
Jari later told a Finnish publication years later that he remembers the chirping along the lines of, “The little boy is not angry or he will call his mommy.”
Words flew. Then fists. Referees separated the two Kapanen brothers. But by then the newspapers in Helsinki were already crafting headlines.
As the years continued, Hannu would go on to become the patriarch of a distinguished hockey bloodline. He had two sons. Kimmo became a goalkeeper in Finland, while Sami played in the NHL for 12 of his 20-plus year professional career.
The tradition now continues with Kasperi. Scoring touch and a short-fuse remain at the roots of the family tree.
“We all got that kind of temper,” Kasperi said. “We got that emotion in us, which is something I feel like you need in hockey.”
Today, that brotherly brawl begins to explain where Kasperi gets his edge and also the unique dynamic he encounters in his third NHL season.
On one hand, Kasperi knows it’s a blessing to grow up in NHL dressing rooms and to inherit some of the same speed that helped his father, Sami, twice win the NHL’s fastest skater competition. At the same time, while it’s never come to blows the way it did for Hannu and Jari, there’s a bit of an internal conflict that comes with following in the family business.
“My goal was to over-achieve my father,” Sami explained. “Playing on more national team games. Playing in more Olympic games. Scoring more points than him. That was one of the driving forces for myself.
“I think it works the same way for Kasperi right now. He’s trying to achieve more than I did and go beyond.”
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Tempers flared and gloves dropped inside Madison Square Garden on Feb. 1, as Kasperi Kapanen squared up with Rangers center Brett Howden.
An ocean away and hours later, Sami woke up to watch the highlights back home in Finland. All at once, there it was. To his surprise, his son was sparring. No message from Kasperi to warn him. Hmm, Sami thought, this really is Hannu’s grandson after all.
“At the younger age, he’d always say, ‘When I get bigger and I get stronger, I want to be one of those in-your-face type of players,” Sami said. “I kept trying to talk him out of it. Just focus on skill and skating. Stay away from the fighting. But it’s everyone’s own decision.”
Sami says this both as a concerned father and as someone who knows first-hand the way a fast, physical game can jeopardize a career in an instant.
In the second chapter of the Kapanen’s family family story, then-Hartford Whalers general manager Jim Rutherford drafted Sami in 1995. But during the first scrimmage of Day 1, Sami fell down in the neutral zone as 215-pound defenseman Gerald Diduck was about lay a hit. The rookie’s head collided with the defenseman’s knee, leaving Sami stunned and staggered.
“Are you okay?” Everyone asked as Sami wobbled to the bench, gasping for air.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” he said, not wanting to appear to his new team like a player who couldn’t take contact.
But he wasn’t fine at all. Moments later, medics were loading Sami onto a stretcher in the dressing room and strapping an oxygen mask to his face. An ambulance rushed him to the hospital for X-rays and other testing.
His condition only worsened. Days later, he could barely walk. Doctors discovered bleeding in the back of his brain that was leaking around his spine. With the rookie forward bedridden for weeks, one doctor suggested Sami prioritize his health and give up the game.
“I’m 22,” Sami remembers saying. “I’m here to fulfill my dream to play in the NHL and the first day I get injured. I’m not quitting or stopping. This is not going to stop me.”
Even now, as he relives the moment, it’s easy to sense the fiery competitor true to the Kapanen name. Slowly but surely, Sami recovered and eventually returned to the ice, ready to prove he could still play the same physical game without fear.
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With the scare and a rookie season behind him, Sami returned to Finland for the offseason. His perspective was about to change again.
On July 23, 1996, the young couple welcomed their first child into the world. They named him Samu, a derivative of his father’s name Sami. But, eventually, they decided to call him by his middle name, Kasperi.
To Sami and Kasperi’s mother, Petra, that was not an especially significant decision. They just simply liked the way Kasperi fit. They also call their two daughters by their middle names, Camilla and Cassandra, while their son Konsta goes by his first name.
However, maybe there is an unseen metaphor here for a player who carries his family name while consciously working to make one for himself.
“Me and [my grandfather] are more alike than me and my dad,” said Kasperi, who wears a No. 9 necklace in honor of his grandfather. “He’s a pretty funny guy. He likes to keep it loose. My dad is more captain-serious vibes. Me and my grandpa are like best friends.”
With his NHL career in its infancy and a newborn infant in tow, Sami raised Kasperi the same way his father raised him. Hannu used to give his two sons, Sami and Kimmo, a stick and ball to practice in the dressing room while he took the ice. The tradition continued with Kasperi.
“He learned to walk by leaning on the hockey stick,” Sami said.
Kasperi wasn’t even a year old when he sat in the stands with earplugs as his father represented Finland in the 1996 World Cup. Soon, he was in the dressing room in Carolina and later at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, where Sami played the final five seasons of his career.
“The first time I remember watching him skate, I was probably 2 or 3 years old,” Kasperi said. “I knew then and there it was something I wanted to do.”
As Sami’s NHL career wound down, he returned to Finland to bookend his career with KalPa, where he was at the time a partial owner. Meanwhile, Kasperi was blossoming into one of Europe’s top talents, a player who would eventually score the golden goal in the 2016 World Junior Classic.
Sami tried to impress upon his son the importance of playing two-way hockey. He learned the value of defensive hockey first-hand in the NHL. After scoring 20 goals five straight seasons early in his career with the Hurricanes, he reinvented himself as a tenacious checker and penalty killer in his five seasons with the Flyers.
Sami said his message fell on “deaf ears.”
“He and I are kind of the same,” Kasperi said. “Quick temper sometimes. Not always the best at listening to other people. I think he found that middle ground for me.”
Sami can understand where his son was coming from. He admits, he too was the same stubborn teenager. Maybe worse. Hannu served as Sami’s head coach his last two seasons in Finland before the jump to the NHL.
“Even at that level, we’re talking professional hockey, I was arguing with my coach because it was my dad,” Sami said.
By the time Kasperi reached 14 or 15 years old, it was becoming obvious a professional career wasn’t far off. Sami pushed himself a few extra seasons into his 40s to skate along this son. The moment finally came in January of 2013, when they both suited up for KalPa Kuopio in Finland’s SM-ligga.
“We’re very lucky we got to do that,” Kasperi said. “It was a dream come true.”
They played in about 60 games total over parts of two seasons, sometimes even on the same line. Sami was on the bench when Kasperi scored his first professional goal on a penalty shot. They later became the first father-son combination to score a goal in the same professional game. In another game, Kasperi assisted on his father’s goal.
“I received a pass inside the box in the offensive zone by the slot,” Sami said. “Just kind of a quick release. When you turn toward the passer to celebrate, it’s your own son. That’s an unusual and surreal moment that sets you back a little bit. Almost an awkward feeling. You’re used to having that moment with your teammates. Now when you turn to your teammate with that excitement, it’s your own son eye-to-eye.”
The best moment for Sami also happened to be one of his final ones as a pro. With the sun setting on Sami’s career and Kasperi’s just dawning, the son gave his dad the ultimate retirement gift when he scored in the his dad’s final game.
They looked up at the clock and realized it was exactly at the 24:24 mark in the period, the same number Sami wore for so many years and that Kasperi would eventually wear in Toronto.
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Now, it’s Kasperi’s time.
This offseason, his NHL career boomeranged back to Pittsburgh, when Rutherford re-acquired the player he selected with his first-ever draft pick as Penguins general manager in 2014. The truth is Rutherford never wanted to give up Kapanen in the first place. However, including the young prospect was the only way to complete the blockbuster trade that would eventually bring Phil Kessel and two Stanley Cups to Pittsburgh.
When did Rutherford start thinking of re-acquiring Kapanen?
“When I traded him,” Rutherford said. “I told Kyle [Dubas] for a few years if he ever got to the point that he was going to trade him, let me know.”
With the Maple Leafs dealing with salary cap issues this offseason and the Penguins hungry to pry open their window another inch, Rutherford dealt a first-round draft pick and a package of prospects to get Kasperi. The bet was that Kapanen’s speed and scoring touch could add to the top line, while his age and contract structure could help maximize this window while contributing to the next one.
When he rejoined the Penguins, Kapanen chose to flip his number from 24 to 42, the same one he wore for the AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton — in a sense taking something from his father but also making it his own. With each game he plays and every goal he scores, Kasperi continues to close the gap on his father while also pushing toward his own personal standards.
“I would be more than happy and honored that he’s passing my games played and goals scored and points,” said Sami, who finished his NHL career with 189 goals and 269 assists over 12 years. “I think he already has more fights than I do.”
Sami adds one caveat to that.
“As long as he’s not adding a burden or a weight on his shoulders that he feels obligated that he needs to go beyond,” he said. “I’m proud what he already has accomplished. And I’m proud of my son no matter what.”
