Juha Jaaska

The Carolina Hurricanes have gotten some early work done with one of their depth forwards from the 2024-25 season. According to a team announcement, the Hurricanes have re-signed forward Juha Jääskä to a two-year contract worth $1.55MM. Per the team’s announcement, Jääskä’s contract will transition from a two-way agreement in 2025-26 to a one-way deal in 2026-27.

After quality back-to-back campaigns with the Finnish Liiga’s HIFK, the Hurricanes signed Jääskä as an international free agent toward the back half of the 2023-24 NHL season. In those two seasons, Jääskä scored 22 goals and 67 points in 113 games, with another five goals and 11 points in 13 postseason contests.

A little old to be considered a true prospect (27), Carolina first deployed Jääskä with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. He quickly reaffirmed the Hurricanes’ decision to sign him, scoring 12 goals and 33 points in 53 AHL contests. His scoring output was good for fifth on the team, and sat second among wingers behind prospect Bradly Nadeau.

Carolina rewarded Jääskä’s quality transition to North American hockey this past season. Spending all of January at the NHL level, Jääskä tallied three assists in 14 games with a +3 rating in a fourth-line role. Adding four more games played by the end of the campaign, Jääskä finished the 2024-25 season with four assists in 18 contests, averaging 8:56 of ice time.

It’s hard to make any assessment of Jääskä’s game at the NHL level in his brief stint. He responded well to head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system as evidenced by his 61.7% CorsiFor% at even strength, but he was deployed rather safely with 61.7% of his shift starts coming in the offensive zone. Depending on whether the Hurricanes rearrange their bottom-six this offseason, Jääskä is destined for a similar role with the organization next season.

March 24: Carolina returned Jaaska to Chicago yesterday, according to the AHL’s transactions log. He saw a season-high 12 minutes of ice time on Saturday against the Kings, although it didn’t go particularly well for him – he was a minus-three in a 7-2 loss. He was scratched in yesterday’s win over the Ducks, with captain Jordan Staal returning to the lineup after a one-game absence.

March 22: The Carolina Hurricanes have recalled forward Juha Jaaska from the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Jaaska spent just over a month on the NHL roster from early January to early February. He played in the first 17 NHL games of his career on the call-up and recorded four assists, nine penalty minutes, and a plus-three.

This is Jaaska’s first season in North American pros. He’s made good work of it, netting 10 goals and 24 points in 41 games with the Wolves – good for sixth on the team in scoring. Jaaska previously spent the last nine seasons with HIFK Helsinki of the Liiga, Finland’s top pro league. He worked his way up through the HIFK system and slowly climbed his way up their pro roster. Jaaska made his Liiga debut in the 2015-16 season and played through his first full year in 2017-18. He had five points in 26 games as a rookie and grew those numbers to 21 points in 47 games as a sophomore.

Jaaska was typecast as a power-forward early in his pro career, the natural result of a 6’0″, 210-lb frame. But he found a scoring groove over the last two Liiga seasons. He’s scored double-digit goals in each of his last five seasons – now including 10 goals in the AHL – and managed a career-high 37 points in 56 games of the 2022-23 Liiga campaign. Jaaska followed that with 30 points in 57 games last year. Those numbers, and his ability to reach the 30-point mark in back-to-back years, was enough to inspire Carolina to sign him to a one-year, $850K contract this summer. Now, Jaaska will get yet another chance at hardy NHL minutes after posting five points in his last five AHL games.

Tapping into the European free-agent market, the Carolina Hurricanes have brought in forward Juha Jaaska to a one-year, $775K contract. The contract will begin at the start of the 2024-25 NHL season, any Jaaska will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the deal.

For the last eight seasons, Jaaska has been a full-time member of HIFK, an organization in the Finnish Liiga. Over 310 games overseas, Jaaska scored 51 goals and 142 points in total while also chipping in 11 goals and 22 points in 55 playoff games.

Over his eight years with the organization, Jaaska and HIFK were able to play in five bronze medal games in the Finnish Liiga playoffs but were only able to win two of those series. Outside of those two medal finishes, HIFK was unable to reach any further in the playoffs over the last eight seasons.

Even though he was never on pace to capture any scoring awards overseas, Jaaska has been a very consistent player for HIFK throughout his tenure and has developed into an intense forechecker. When asked about the signing, General Manager of the Hurricanes, Don Waddell, said, “Juha is a veteran forward who brings energy and intensity to every shift. He’s performed consistently in Finland, and we’re excited to see what he can do in North America.”

Since Carolina is projected to lose some depth at the bottom of their lineup this offseason, Jaaska should have an opportunity to make the team out of training camp. Especially with a league minimum contract, the Hurricanes could take advantage of the additional cap flexibility to be more aggressive in signing Martin Necas and Seth Jarvis this summer.