Flyers loan Samu Tuomaala to Finnish Liiga

The goal for Samu Tuomaala was to come over to North America to begin his professional career. The American Hockey League was at the top of his list. If not, he had the opportunity to be sent to the OHL to play for the Sudbury Wolves. Instead, the Flyers loaned him back to Kärpät in the Finnish Liiga.

He appeared in just five games a season ago and ice time was hard to come by for him. He spent 30 games with the U20 squad and tallied 15 goals and 31 points during his time there.

While that is where the Flyers loaned him, it won’t be where he ends up playing. The following morning, Tuomaala was loaned to Vaasan Sport for the rest of the season.

While Tuomaala seemed determined to stick in North America, it wouldn’t end up working out the way he planned. He dressed for warmups for one Flyers preseason game, but didn’t not play in said game. When he was loaned to the Phantoms, he only ended up appearing in two regular season games.

Even with a recent injury to Tyson Foerster, Tuomaala still couldn’t crack the Phantoms lineup. That is when the Flyers decided it was time to have him return home to Finland. It’s possible the language barrier played a result as well. Tony Androckitis spoke on Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere mentioning it was sometimes difficult to get Tuomaala to understand something they were relaying to him.

Coming over to a new country can be difficult for anyone, but especially when you’re trying to fit in on a new team. It would be understandable if there was some type of language barrier for Tuomaala. Regardless, the opportunity didn’t seem to be presenting itself with the Phantoms at this time.

With that being said, there was lack of space on the wing in Kärpät. So the decision then became to either return to the U20 squad once more or take a loan to another Liiga team. It was the latter that would win out in the end. He’s set to join the team next week.

With more of an opportunity to play, Tuomaala should be able to build up more confidence and hopefully be able to make the full transition to the North American game next season.