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KenitohMenara · 03-16-2020, 06:51 AM

**1302 words - x2 Offseason Media Bonus**

Draft day in Montreal was one of the most nerve wracking times for the three Anchorage Armada players that were ready to be taken. Chris de Siren, Danny White and Santtu Rasanen all were selected in the second round of the draft, all within ten picks of each other. They had celebrated in a local restaurant, eating poutine and excitedly talking about the upcoming season in Anchorage. Now they no longer had the massive question mark hanging over their heads so now they could knuckle down and focus on their development. These three players would all be heading off to individual training camps with their SHL teams before landing back in Anchorage for their season in the junior league. For Santtu, he would head off for the Big Apple, New York City, to train with the Manhattan Rage.

“One of the best moments for me at the draft was some of the texts and messages that a lot of people were sending me. My older brother started writing out Sinatra lyrics and I couldn’t help but laugh. The whole locker room in Anchorage was real excited for me and mum talked about how she was so proud… It really meant a lot to hear from all of them even if they couldn’t be there with me. I just hope that I can continue my hot pace and keep on playing at the level that makes Manhattan want to keep me around.” - Santtu Rasanen

Manhattan moved picks in a trade to the Calgary Dragons to move up to pick 32 to get Santtu. As the Manhattan front office stated previous, they liked what they saw out of Santtu during his time in Anchorage and they were in total disbelief that he was still available at 32. Assistant GM Arnost Holub said at the draft that Manhattan had him ranked 27th in the draft and head coach Sebastian Frost raved about Santtu’s talents and potential. While it is obvious that Santtu is going to be on Manhattan’s starting roster this upcoming season, they clearly made this move in order to build on their success from last season (winning the challenge cup) and turn themselves into a consistent cup contender for years. To do that, you need to draft hard working players with drive and desire to seek improvement. Rasanen was one of the best in that department coming into the draft, proving that even undrafted free agents can be something special (he accomplished this alongside other UDFA stand out Taylor Johansson, who was drafted to Toronto).

As Santtu landed in Manhattan, he was in awe of his future playing city. He had never been to Manhattan before and the sheer enormity of the buildings in the city made his head spin. His hometown of Turku didn’t have anything remotely close in terms of size. Training camp didn’t start until the day afterward so Santtu spent the day just exploring New York. Taking in the sights, tasting the food and just taking it all in. The Manhattan rage social media team found Santtu on a park bench in central park where they recorded a short video about Santtu’s first experience in the city. Even though it was a special day for Santtu, one moment stood out for him.

“I was in the park and this little kid came up to me.” Santtu said, “He was wearing a Manhattan rage jersey. He turned around and the jersey showed my number and name on it. I nearly shed a tear. All I could do at that point was smile and sign his jersey like he wanted. It was just really special. A lot of Rage fans found me that day and just wanted to say hi and “welcome to new york” and “you’re gonna tear it up here”... it’s just wonderful.”

It seems that the Manhattan Rage fanbase was just as excited to get Santtu as the front office was. The Rage traded up to draft Jukka Timonen at Number 10 and Hiroshi Ohira at Number 27, both of which are quality players that the Rage fans were incredibly excited about. Something about Santtu’s story and rise in the SMJHL just seemed to resonate with the fans of New York.

“He’s like us…” said one of the fans at training camp, “Well he’s like the people of New York. Gets up every morning, gets his boots on and just works, works, works. Doesn’t matter if he gets pushed down and pushed aside, he just works harder. In a working city like ours, there’s nothing more New Yorker than his work ethic.”

Then training camp commenced. As was normal in training camps across the land, the coaches allowed the rookies to do drills and get to know their new teammates a little better, to get their feet wet as it were. Santtu met up with the players that had won the most recent challenge cup and just asked for any advice they could impart on him. He wanted to learn all he could about the pace and style of play of the SHL so he could be ready for that big moment when the Rage called him up for his debut. Little did Santtu know at the time but the coaches were already forming a plan for him going forward. On the second day of camp, Head Coach Sebastian Frost took Santtu aside into the film room in order to run down the development plan.

“He has all the skill, all the IQ and all of the drive to succeed, no one is doubting that.” Frost said when asked about where Santtu was. “We also know what we want him to develop into. He has already made tremendous strides in his passing game and his defensive efforts, what we need him to do is work on play awareness. It’s clear he wants to become the playmaker that we can rely on and the plan we are giving him today will help him realize those ambitions.”

In addition to the plan, Manhattan also gave Santtu clear workout routines to help him improve his strength and speed. Santtu went on to say he was extremely grateful to Manhattan for putting these in place for him.

“Manhattan already did so much for me just by selecting me in the draft.” He said, “But now I see that they think that I could potentially become a 1C for the team and potentially become a great player so to see them investing all these resources into me makes me want to play even harder for them and prove they were right to take me with that pick, number 32.”

Santtu would work with offensive coaches for the rest of training camp in order to help better react to developing plays, understanding pro play calls and work on his faceoff game. 7 days of solid hard work and absorbing all the information he could. The difference between junior league and the senior league was immense and for some it could be overwhelming but Santtu refused to let that happen. He had spent his entire life working hard to get to this point where he was considered a top pick by an SHL team and he wasn’t going to let his only chance slip through his fingers. As Santtu packed his bag to return to Anchorage, he took one last look at New York. He knew that one day soon he would be playing here, in the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden in front of those fans. Santtu knew he would have to wait a bit of time before that happened and he would have to keep developing as a player before Manhattan called upon him to make is debut… but that didn’t stop him from dreaming about that day with baited breath.

***luke*** · 03-16-2020, 01:14 PM

Easy Tradeups

ImShiny · 03-16-2020, 02:39 PM

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