The last couple of years for Heikki Ruohonen have been, if nothing else, active. The center, drafted by the Flyers in fourth round of the 2024 draft, has certainly been racking up the miles travelled — having moved on from his playing career in Finland at the close of his draft year, his journey took him for a brief sojourn to Muskegon of the USHL before, with detours to represent his country on the international stage interspersed, landing at Harvard, where he’s just wrapped up his freshman year, for the next step in advancing his playing career. It’d been quite the journey for such a young player already, but Ruohonen (already locked in as a political science major) has been finding his footing nicely at one of the nation’s most storied institutions.
“I mean it’s definitely manageable,” he said of the workload back at Development Camp, “but it takes some time to get used to for sure. I mean there’s definitely easier classes and then there’s harder classes. So you have to allocate your time a little, like you have to think about how to use your time, but you know, you definitely don’t have a lot of free time every day. So, you know, some late nights in the in the library, but that’s what you sign up for.”
Ruohonen has been working well to take these off-ice challenges in stride, striking a balance needed to cover one’s scholastic obligations in order to keep the college career going in the first place, but he’s also taking an effective, if still quite methodical, approach to refining his game towards something balanced and dependable at this next level.
Because, of course, the jump from the USHL level to college (especially with how the former league has been trending of late) is a big one, and though that adjustment comes in the form of a process, it’s one that Ruohonen has readily bought into, as he keeps himself grounded in building out his game from the very fundamentals.
“I mean, just [the] big part physically was just getting more explosive in the gym,” he said, “Like I feel like I have a lot of strength, but to [translate] that to speed and like those first couple steps, and then on ice just all around worked on shooting, and like not just shooting but scoring from different areas and making plays, and how to find soft ice and stuff like that. So pretty much all around but mostly like offensive stuff.”
It was work, too, which seemed to pay off. While his production numbers don’t positively jump off the page — six goals and 19 points in 28 games (a figure which was, in fairness, good for third among all Harvard skaters, with fewer games played) — it was a respectable foundation set for a player still adjusting to not just playing against more difficult competition, but working on finding his best game at this level in the first place. That is, Ruohonen’s game has never been a purely high-octane scoring focused one, and the move to college hasn’t seen him make a complete pivot in pursuit of that.
What he’s working to develop, rather, is a responsible foundational game, which manages the necessary elements to create space for his linemates, and then building out the more direct playmaking from there.
“I mean I think it’s just how you look at it,” he explained, “I mean, I’ve always thought of playing offense like kind of from underneath the play, like being more of a more of a creator because when you’re in the D-zone, you’re playing low, but the the offense kind of starts with you usually. So, just not stealing the play or anything like that. And yeah, I don’t plan on doing that in the future either. But yeah, of course it’s a little harder and points might not come every night because you play so responsibly defensively, but I mean that’s winning hockey. It’s not just about you and your points, you know.”
Those points will come for him eventually, of course, but Ruohonen’s approach to building the whole of his game strikes as quite a mature one. There’s no cheating for offense or cheap production — at this or any level — and it’s this understanding of what makes for a steady and sustainable high level of impact, even if it’s not flashy, will serve him well as he continues moving up the levels of competition.
It’s all a process, and he’s continuing to chip away at it, and he’s identified well already the next steps that he needs to take.
“I think [the] two biggest things,” he concluded, “are just like scoring from different areas and my skating, just skating is a big thing. I feel like I have a lot of power but being like more economical with it, like not getting so tired being a heavier guy, you know? And then being able to push. Like a big thing I’ve talked about with my coaches is that like being the same player the whole shift, like the first 20 seconds once you’re fresh, you usually have that extra jump, but if you’re able to have that 40 seconds in, I mean it’s a huge advantage.”
The path laid out for Ruohonen since being drafted — the detour to the USHL before a planned extended stint to build his game at the college level — was always going to be a bit longer, because with the dept at the forward position elsewhere in the Flyers’ pipeline, there’s been no need to rush his development. All the same, it’s been encouraging to see him encouraging that slow growth of the harder areas of his game — particularly as he moves into a critical sophomore season and looks to take that next step forward and advance towards graduating from this level entirely — and to see the results already beginning to come for him.
