They may want to start billing Jarkko Immonen as the Lone Ranger when he gets to the NHL in New York. Right now it seems like Immonen does everything for the Hartford Wolf Pack except drive the Zamboni between periods.
Immonen, who's in his first AHL season, seemingly is on the ice from the opening faceoff until the final buzzer.
Through his first 52 games, Immonen leads Hartford in scoring with 46 points on 24 goals plus 22 assists, and in power-play goals (11).
Individual stats, though, don't reveal his full value.
"Jarkko's one of the more intelligent players in our organization, not just on our team, but the entire organization," says coach Jim Schoenfeld. "That works for him both offensively and defensively. He's tremendous on face-offs and has had a very high winning percentage all season.
"We use him on the power play and the penalty kill. We use him to take the key faceoff offensively, to win the draw so we have a scoring opportunity offensively, and the key draw defensively."
That's not too shabby for a 23-year-old who last year at this time was playing for JYP in the Finland National League. Hartford ranks fifth in the AHL in penalty kills largely due to Jarkko’s juice.
Immonen was acquired from Toronto on March 3, 2004, along with defenseman Maxim Kondratiev, as part of the deal for Brian Leetch.
Given his progress, Immonen is proving to be anything but a "throw in."
"He can stick handle extremely well at top speed, which makes him a dangerous player on the rush," says an NHL scout. "This season he's being used more as a playmaker and has a quick wrist shot that beats goaltenders in close.
"I feel he's a very creative player who reads the game very well, both on offense and defense. He seldom makes a bad pass."
How soon Immonen cracks the Rangers' lineup depends on one thing: how much and how soon he can improve his speed.
"The only thing holding him back maybe is his overall speed," said Schoenfeld. "He's been pretty diligent in trying to enhance that. You really won't know if he's reached the level that is good enough to compete in the NHL until he gets a chance to compete there.
"But he's so smart and anticipates so well that he might be able to get by with a little less speed than somebody else might."
His silver pucks fly in the AAA. He’ll need a bit more seasoning before he’s ready to take on the posse from the NHL. Rising just over the freshman 40s at No. 36, he’s a hot ticket for a top ten ranking in the 2007 FAB50 Hockey unless he rides off into the sunset for New York before that.
