To take the next step in his hockey career, 19-year-old Finn Jesse Nurmi is taking a big step, coming over to North America for the 2024-25 season.

Nurmi, the Islanders’ 2023 fourth-round pick (113^th overall), signed with the OHL’s London Knights over the summer to acclimate to the speed and size of the North American game.

Nurmi was drawn to the Knights championship pedigree and reputation as a first-class junior organization, as London is the reigning OHL champions and were finalists the year prior. They’ve produced plenty of top talent, including Bo Horvat and fellow Isles prospect Isaiah George.

“I think that’s best place in junior hockey in the world,” Nurmi said. “[You] just [look at] how many guys they are [sending] to the NHL from there and it’s just a great organization.”

Nurmi spent the past three seasons with KooKoo, shuttling between Liiga, Finland’s top league, and U20 SM-sarja, the top junior league. Injuries limited Nurmi to just 19 Liiga and six junior games last season, so he’s focused on staying healthy this year and also taking a run at Finland’s World Juniors team.

“I had an injury last year and I was off like four months, so last year was hard for me mentally,” Nurmi said. “This year I’m going to try to be healthy and just try to play in World Juniors.”

The 5’11, 170 lbs. winger missed Rookie Camp and the first two days of Training Camp with an undisclosed issue, but was back on the ice for Saturday’s session. It was a hard skate – as all three days have been – but Head Coach Patrick Roy was impressed by Nurmi’s drive to push through.

“I was very happy with him,” Roy said. “I was surprised to see the skills that he had… He was pretty excited to be on the ice also, but he looked good out there. Really good. I was pleased with his speed and skills.”

Roy said there were plenty of benefits to Nurmi playing juniors, citing his experience with the Russian players he coached with the Quebec Remparts, including a 10-game stint with Nikita Kucherov, where the two communicated via translation apps on Kucherov’s phone.

“I think it’ll be good for him, confidence wise, learning how to play smaller ice, learning the language, learning the way to play the game,” Roy said. “There’s a lot of a lot to learn for him and I think as a 20-year-old, he’ll be ready to either play with us or with the farm team.”

Saturday was step one in that journey for Nurmi, who is at an Islanders camp for the first time. It wasn’t an easy welcome back, but coming to North America is a welcome change.

“It was kind of hard for the first day after one week out of the ice,” Nurmi said. “But it felt pretty good just going ice with the guys.”

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