The Carolina Hurricanes placed centerman Juha Jaaska on waivers on Tuesday. He cleared waivers on Wednesday, and will be assigned to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff.
Jaaska spent the majority of the 2024-25 season in the Chicago lineup. It was his first year in North American pros after playing in Finland’s Liiga from 2017 to 2024. Jaaska made quick work of the rookie year, earning an alternate captain role on the Wolves and posting 12 goals and 33 points in 53 games. His scoring ranked fifth on the Wolves and would have rivaled the top-30 in league-wide rookie scoring, though at 26, Jaaska was excluded from rookie counts.
Still, his debut year in Chicago was a promising one. It came as no surprise for those who followed the bulky winger’s career in Finland. He has long been lauded as a leader for his clubs, and wore a letter in all five years he spent with HIFK’s junior program. That includes captaining the U20 team in 2016-17 – his first year of draft eligibility – when he scored 24 points in 25 games in Finland’s top U20 league.
Despite the hot scoring, Jaaska’s struggles to match pace at the top level held back a lot of NHL attention. Those concerns continued through his final two years of draft eligibility, leaving Jaaska to pursue HIFK’s men’s team rather than a move to North America. That proved a fruitful decision, as the Helsinki-native began to claw his way up the lineup between 2018 and 2023. He showed his might at the pro level with 12 goals, 37 points, and a plus-14 in 56 games of the 2022-23 season; then matched that performance with 30 points and a plus-four in 57 games of the 2023-24 season. He wore an ’A’ in both seasons.
Those performances were enough to earn Jaaska a spot on Finland’s World Championship roster, and a contract with the Carolina Hurricanes. In addition to a prominent role on the Chicago Wolves, Jaaska also made his NHL debut last season, and totaled four assists in 18 games with the Hurricanes. Now, he’ll return to his role of alternate captain for the Wolves, with the goal of improving on a strong push into North America. With the right start to the season, or a few injuries ahead of him on the depth chart, Jaaska could quickly find his way into routine minutes on Carolina’s fourth-line.