Aku Koskenvuo has bounced around from the Canucks, to the AHL, to the ECHL this season due to organizational injury issues. Through all of it, he remains focused on his own game.
When it comes to playing in goal, a strong mindset is one of the most important keys to success. Having the ability to move past a bad loss or bounce-back from a misplay is integral to collecting wins. Different mindsets work differently for different goaltenders, but at the end of the day, finding consistency in that plays a major role in the personal performance of netminders.
It’s something Aku Koskenvuo has been building on through his first season of professional hockey.
The Vancouver Canucks prospect, who was drafted in the fifth-round of the 2021 NHL Draft, has split time between the AHL and ECHL in his first pro season. Part of the reason for his constant movement has been the injury issues that Vancouver has dealt with since October.
An early November injury to Thatcher Demko saw nearly every goaltender in the organization get called-up to a different team. This included Koskenvuo, who ended up making his AHL debut as a result of the organization’s moves. At the time, the Abbotsford Canucks had been deep in the trenches of an 11-game losing streak suffered in-part due to a heavily depleted lineup. They’d also had yet to win their first game on home-ice.
It’s Koskenvuo’s mindset that helped Abbotsford snap this streak and get that elusive first home-win.
“Obviously the organization has been pretty unlucky with the amount of injuries, so I’ve been moving around a lot,” Koskenvuo told The Hockey News. “You don’t know where you’re going to be the next week, but you’ve just kind of got to embrace it and be a goalie whose game moves, I guess, and just try your best wherever you are, and focus on the controllables. As long as you’ve got some sheet of ice under you, you can do your thing.”
When Koskenvuo talks about not knowing where he’ll be playing week after week, he means it. The last time the goaltender played in a game was on January 30 with Abbotsford, only a few days after he’d recorded his first AHL shutout. In mid-February, Vancouver re-assigned him to the NHL to practice with the team through the 2026 Winter Olympics. He was re-assigned again yesterday, ending up back in Kalamazoo with the Canucks’ ECHL-affiliate. While he knew practicing with the Canucks wouldn’t be permanent (for now), Koskenvuo spoke on what the experience was like working with Vancouver’s players and staff.
“I think it’s been exciting. It’s been fun out there, to have the opportunity to practice with these guys, be around these coaches, be around Marco [Torenius]. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m really grateful for this opportunity.”
Photo Credit: @AbbyCanucks - AHL It wasn’t for very long, just shy of a week, but Koskenvuo still took lots away from his organizational teammates in Vancouver. One that he’s spent a good share of time with in Abbotsford as well is Jiří Patera, whose experience in a variety of leagues has been exceedingly influential to the young goaltender.
“First of all, I think Jiří is a great human being. I just love being around him off the rink too. Just such a great guy,” Koskenvuo explained. “Obviously he’s seen a lot, so I try, I look up to him and see what he does on and off the ice, and how he kind of handles himself when either he has success or some sort of adversity, and try to learn from him how to be a professional and how to grow as a person, and also how to grow as a goaltender. He’s a terrific goaltender, and I think I’ve learned a lot from him. It’s been great getting to spend time with him.”
At the end of the day, however, Koskenvuo knows that the best way to approach the game is through his own lens — maintaining focus on his own.
“You’ve got to keep believing in your own stuff. You can’t change your game — just stick with it. I think that’s helped me here a lot, just focusing on my own thing, stacking days and having the big picture in mind,” he said. “The same things that I’ve been focusing on in Abbotsford I think work here too. So I just stick with them.”
It’s Koskenvuo’s mindset, one that prioritizes focusing on himself and what he can control, that has helped out the goaltender in his first professional season.
“Focusing on things that I can control instead of the results, like focusing on getting better every day, focusing on refining my craft, and kind of playing every puck as if it’s 0–0, and remembering that every play has a history of its own, and just have that mentality of staying in the present. And I think I’ve started focusing more on that, instead of any maybe external goals, but it’s something I’m still working on. So I’m just trying to do my best every day.
“I won’t put any external pressure on myself, just try to do my best every day, on whatever is given to me. So that’s my focus.”
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