Off-season time in SHL means that a lot of moves are made. Some are joining the junior league via the draft, some are moving up into SHL, and then there are some who are somewhere between. Raivo Helminen is one of the latter. Perhaps too good to play in the juniors, or certainly too old and he is not good enough to attract serious interest from the SHL teams.

Raivo Helminen is a season 56 draftee, picked late in the fifth round due to rumored character issues. The rumors turned out to have some truth in them as the management in San Francisco dropped the modestly talented center from the payroll season or so ago. As a result, Raivo Helminen is free to sign with every SHL team.

However, rumor has it that Helminen with his agent is looking into the possibility of playing in Europe for at least a season or two. KHL team Dinamo Riga has reportedly invited Helminen to join their upcoming training camp. Helminen who nowadays represents Latvia on the international level could be an interesting option as he would be considered a homegrown player after gaining citizenship not so long ago.

Helminen commented on the Dinamo Riga rumors in his Instagram:

''The rumors are true, we have talked about joining the training camp in Riga, but I can't just show up there out of the blue, since we are in the middle of a pandemic. We are working on the fine details, but as of right now I'm getting ready to fly out there as soon as possible''.


SuperAlko was a noticeable force behind Helminen's international transfer from Finland to Latvia. SuperAlko is allegedly willing to pay 50% of Helminen's salary if he ends up playing for Dinamo Riga. Many Riga fans are speculating whether SuperAlko is stepping over the line by openly organizing the transfer of a relatively unknown player to Riga.

Anonymous Riga supporter posted a comment into Helminen's Instagram post:

''You claim to be Latvian, but I don't think I have ever even heard you speak Latvian before. On top of that, can you even play hockey? When I watched some of your highlights on Youtube all I could think was how on earth can someone play hockey with two left skates? You should also consider just throwing the puck, since that thing you call wrist shot has barely enough power in it to lift the puck off the ice.

I don't want to sound overly negative, but based on what I know, SuperAlko should play your full salary, and at least 50% on top of it. I will be amazed if you survive even two days in the training camp''.

Remains to be seen whether Helminen has what it takes to play in KHL and Dinamo Riga. Assuming that Covid among other potential factors doesn't cancel the training camp invitation.

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