A Los Angeles Kings scout and father of three sons: “Attending 174 games in 199 days is a lot less than usual.”

Los Angeles Kings

When Wayne Gretzky moved to Los Angeles Kings in 1988, it created the first big hockey excitement in California. After two Stanley Cup victories (2012 and 2014), the Kings are now one of the most important clubs in the entire National Hockey League. The value of the organization is an astronomical $2.9 billion. Since 2016, Jussi Kari-Koskinen (46 years old) has been working as a European scout. In this interview, the Finnish expert describes how it’s possible to attend 174 games in six and half months and raise three teenage sons with his wife.

You live in Hämeenlinna which is located between Helsinki and Tampere. You have an excellent geographical location for traveling throughout Finland. As of the end of January 2025, how many games have you seen live in the 2024/25 season as a scout for the Los Angeles Kings?

“I live on the North side of Hämeenlinna, in Hattula. The season started for me on July 17th and I’ve only seen 174 games so far. This season has been different because there have been a lot of days with no games in Finland. During many weeks there are only three game days in a week, so you can catch three to four games a week. In the previous years, there were usually games from Tuesday to Sunday so you could easily catch six to eight games a week. When I travel to tournaments, I see two or three matches a day.”

The Los Angeles Kings employ 23 scouts, six of whom work in Europe. The Director of European Scouting is your compatriot Christian Ruuttu. You are an amateur scout from Finland, Niklas Andersson is a Swede, Yuri Khmylev is from Russia, and Petr Jelínek is from the Czech Republic. Matjaž Kopitar (father of Anže Kopitar) is in charge of scouting “Unrestricted Free Agents”. How is your field of activity divided across Europe?

“You become a Free Agent when you are no longer draft eligible anymore, at 22 years old. Ruuttu travels almost every week and Kopitar is our European pro scout who travels a bit. Me, Andersson and Jelinek stay more in our countries and travel to international tournaments. Before the pandemic, I used to travel more watching other countries’ leagues as well.”

You are a family oriented person. How does a father of three sons manage to combine family responsibilities with the time consuming work of a talent scout?

“My oldest one just turned seventeen so for the boys it’s normal that I’m traveling and I’m not at home in the evenings/weekends. My wife has done all the heavy lifting in our family. She’s been in charge of driving the boys for their hobbies and so on. I’m taking care of the kitchen. When I’m not at work, I don’t have any other plans or hobbies – I’m at home or somewhere with the family. I’ve been involved with the boys’ hockey teams throughout the years and right now, I’m a member of the coaching staff of my youngest one’s team. Nowadays, it’s easier to see your kids’ hobbies online – hockey games, floorball games, etc. You can watch all the games through some sort of livestream/broadcast and this gives you a chance to talk to them about their games and their days even when you are not there physically. And in the summertime, I go golfing with all the boys. Also, my wife and I try to take our time and go away for a long weekend at least once or twice a year without the kids.”

All hockey countries go through performance curves. Five years ago, Finland was on top. In the recent years, you have fallen a bit and I heard that the Finnish 2007 season is one of the weakest in about twenty years. That said, one month ago, the Suomi juniors made it to the finals of the 2025 World Championship. Where is Finnish youth hockey currently? 

“Finland competes as a team that has always succeeded. Finnish junior leagues are quite good. The games are not always the most exciting but the training level is good and some games are demanding and tight. Furthermore, a new age group is coming now which seems to be improving the level of players again.” 

The NHL is made up of organizations of varying financial resources, ranging from wealthy to moderately wealthy to less solvent ones. In terms of the number of European scouts, the Florida Panthers (9) have the most. The team with the fewest scouts in Europe is Ottawa Senators (2). Is it a significant advantage for an NHL organization to employ a larger group of scouts? Does it result in less travel and better coverage of smaller territories?

“There are a lot of leagues in Europe. Knowing everything about them is easier when you have more scouts who can focus on smaller areas. That way you also get more information about those players who you don’t see in the games.”

You have been a scout for the Los Angeles Kings since 2016, but you started working for the Buffalo Sabres as a talent scout in 2011. At that time, there were still quite a few quality players in Slovakia and its junior league. You still visit Slovakia from time to time to watch hockey. Why do you think Slovak hockey has declined? Other scouts also say that the Slovak junior league is not up to par.

“I agree, the Slovak junior league is not a top league. It’s hard to say what has happened. I don’t know what a typical day looks like for junior players in terms of practice and lifestyle. But I know that the best players either go to better leagues or the men’s leagues, which must have an impact. That said, junior leagues in Slovakia haven’t developed as well as in other countries. Ideally, they improve to a point where the top players don’t feel the need to leave.”

The current biggest European NHL stars (Kucherov, Draisaitl, Rantanen, Pastrnak, Bratt) are in their prime years. Among the players under 21, only Russian forward Matvei Michkov is close to breaking into the top 100 in scoring. It seems to me that the NHL is lacking in top-tier European players in this age group. Do you agree? Or do you think that the best young European players simply need more time to show themselves? 

“European players usually take more time to develop than North American players, but there is potential already. For example, Lucas Raymond on the Red Wings, who is 22 years old, had 72 points last year and right now has over one point per game. But every year is different, maybe we’ll see more young European players emerging in the next few drafts.”

A hockey team is a living organism and every NHL club needs different types of players in a given time. One club, for example, needs to get an offensive right-handed defenseman in the draft and another a robust winger for the second formation. Is it possible to describe in some general way what kind of players are in demand the most in the NHL these days?

“There aren’t many players in an NHL team that can do only one thing, every line has to produce on both ends… Some players of course excel in a specific area or they have special skills. But every team has different kinds of needs when they are building their lines. Some players will be higher than others on the list because they bring something unique or they are better than others at something. But time will tell how they turn up eventually.”

The Los Angeles Kings are two-time Stanley Cup winners (2012 and 2014) and the organization is much more well-known today than in the past. But since their second triumph in 2014, the team has never made it beyond the first round of the playoffs. Is there growing pressure within the organization to get past the first round and go as far as possible?

“Of course, there is always pressure when you get stuck at the same point year after year.”

From February 12th to February 20th, a tournament of the four best hockey countries in the world, the so-called 4 Nations Face-Off, will take place in Canada (Montreal) and America (Boston). What do you expect from this tournament? How do you see your native Finland’s chances?

“It’s really hard to predict what will happen – how the games will play out and how challenging the competition will be – but we will see. The rosters are strong. I’m not too optimistic about Finland’s chances, but you never know.”

How strong will the 2025 NHL Draft be compared to previous years? The top picks are American center James Hagens (NCAA), Canadian defenseman Matthew Schaefer (OHL), Canadian forward Michael Misa (OHL) and Swedish center Anton Frondell (HockeyAllsvenskan).

“Compared to previous years, many countries look about the same. The exception is Sweden, which is strong, the USA which looks weaker, and Finland which is relatively weak.”

You are working as an NHL scout for the fourteenth season. Can you name one player you have scouted, who was selected in the lower rounds and who ended up making a significant impact in the NHL? Or was there someone you were convinced would be a star in the NHL and who ultimately failed to do so?

“I don’t have names for you but there have been a couple of players that were drafted from the lower rounds and who turned out to be better than I expected. And then players who haven’t eventually gotten to the level where I thought they would. That is what makes scouting so interesting – you try to know every player and what they will be like in five years, which is not an easy task.”

Jussi Kari-Koskinen played hockey until junior age. He has been working as a talent scout in the NHL for fourteen years (photo: archive).

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