Kasimir Kaskisuo has seen it all and then some on his journey in professional hockey, and now he’s back in North America continuing to play the game he loves in the ECHL as a member of the Bloomington Bison.

It hasn’t always been easy.

In fact, Kaskisuo faced many obstacles along the way whether it was coming to the decision to come to North America for his final year of junior hockey eligibility, navigating the uncertainty of being a free agent during the COVID pandemic and persevering through times of unknown in the summer awaiting a new contract to continue his playing career.

The first of those life-altering moments came in 2013 when he came to the decision to leave his native Finland and play out his last year of junior eligibility in the United States with the NAHL’s Minnesota Wilderness.

“I never played that much. I had pretty good goalies playing in front of me,” Kaskisuo said, mentioning that with Jokerit-U20 he was primarily a backup playing behind Joonas Korpisalo and Kevin Lankinen.  “So my playing time was pretty limited, and I had one more year of junior eligibility. And at the time, college hockey wasn’t really… nobody knew about it in Finland.”

Kaskisuo learned about North American junior hockey and college hockey from a friend of his who had been playing at St Cloud State, and another friend who was committing to play college hockey that fall.

“Just heard about college hockey from them, like, basically from zero knowledge to hearing about it from them,” Kaskisuo said, adding that he “just felt a little stuck in Finland and seeing how I can move forward and move up. So that was something that I wanted to pursue at that point because it gave me some extra years. And the more I found out about college hockey, the more interesting it got, and the better it sounded.”

The decision turned out to be a wise move, as his final year of junior hockey in the NAHL allowed him to – for the first time and at 20-years-old – assume the starter’s role in net for a team.

“It was just nice, fresh scenery, and it helped me, personally, mentally and off the ice and on the ice as well,” Kaskisuo said. “It kind of showed how I was able to play and basically be the starter for the first time in my life, being a 20 year old. So all of those pieces kind of fell into place.”

That 2013-14 season put Kaskisuo on the radar of big-time college hockey programs, as he went 21-6-5 with the NAHL’s Wilderness with a 1.48 goals-against average, .944 save percentage and nine shutouts in 32 appearances.

“Yeah, it was an important season for me to play juniors,” Kaskisuo said, reflecting on the decision to move to Minnesota to play junior hockey in the U.S. “And then from things starting to go pretty well some schools started calling.”

While it was never the plan to play close to Minnesota in college, Kaskisuo ultimately decided to attend Minnesota-Duluth – playing two years of college hockey and jumping right in as a starter as a freshman in 2014-15.

“The facilities that they had, and the program that they had, [Minnesota-Duluth] had basically everything that I was looking for, ” Kaskisuo explained of the process, recalling his experience playing in college.

“Playing big-time weekends, and you get to kind of go from playing at these local community rinks straight to playing at North Dakota and feeling like you’re in the NHL.”

Kaskisuo, who went undrafted to the NHL, turned pro when he signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 28, 2016. The two-year contract gave Kaskisuo an opportunity to prove himself at the pro level, though he primarily played with the Leafs’ ECHL affiliate, the Orlando Solar Bears in his rookie season – joining the AHL’s Toronto Marlies and ending up appearing in 10 games during the 2017 Calder Cup Playoffs.

After a strong season, Kaskisuo was the odd man out once again the following season – appearing in one game with the Marlies and two games with the Solar Bears before being loaned to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.

Toronto signed Kaskisuo to a two-year extension in the summer of 2018, though he was injured in October and had a tough start to the season. Things seemed to improve on the ice when he welcomed his daughter into the world in mid-December that year.

“First game after she was born, I got a shutout,” Kaskisuo recalled of his December 22nd, 2018 shutout that night against Laval. “And ever since then, things turned around.”

Kaskisuo finished the 2018-19 season on a high note, going 9-3 with a 2.14 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage in the postseason in a run that saw the Toronto Marlies reach the Conference Finals.

The following year, in the 2019-20 season, Kaskisuo made his NHL debut with the Maple Leafs in November in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. Unfortunately for Kaskisuo, the remainder of that season was shut down early due to the COVID pandemic.

“Obviously, that season got cut short and that kind of ended my time in Toronto as well,” Kaskisuo said of the final year of his contract in Toronto coming to an abrupt end. “But, yeah, at least I got one [NHL] game out of that whole experience.”

Kaskisuo also was able to experience the COVID-bubble and 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifying round that year as the Maple Leafs third goaltender, creating a YouTube channel to document his experience of being in the bubble and provide an inside look into the life of a pro hockey player at a time when sports content was minimal due to the pandemic.

“Fans were excited that hockey was back again, and the players were excited and it was kind of a unique situation,” Kaskisuo recalled of starting his now well-known YouTube channel during the NHL’s return.” It kind of blew up overnight with the NHL and the Maple Leafs retweeting it.”

The videos were well-received and Kaskisuo’s channel has evolved into following his career and giving players and hockey fans alike a behind the curtain view of the life of a pro hockey player.

Kaskisuo signed a one-year contract with the Nashville Predators the following year, but was used as the team’s taxi squad goaltender – appearing in relief action in just one game for the final 15 minutes of a third period for his lone game action of the 2020-21 season.

The impending uncertainty surrounding free agency didn’t leave free agents that summer, like Kaskisuo, much time or a true sense of the marketplace as there were many unknowns at the time.

He ended up signing a two-year contract in Sweden’s SHL with Leksands IF with an opportunity to be the team’s starting goaltender.

In the first year in Sweden, Kaskisuo played more games than any goalie in the SHL – getting into a rhythm and putting up a 2.64 goals-against average and .910 save percentage to go along with a pair of shutouts.

Unfortunately for Kaskisuo, his final year in Sweden during the 2022-23 season saw him limited to just 14 games – a frustrating season that saw him heading back into free agency with a limited resume of work for the year prior.

“My goal was always to get back to the NHL after COVID had settled down, and try to raise my stock up,” Kaskisuo explained. “It doesn’t help when you’re not playing too well and too much either.”

Turning 30 years old in October last fall and without a contract, Kaskisuo had a long summer – and fall – of waiting for the right opportunity to present itself and ultimately it came in December in the form of a professional tryout contract with the AHL’s Laval Rocket.

“In my mind, it was like the last chance to come and play again in North America,” Kaskisuo said of the long wait in free agency last offseason. “It was something that I wasn’t ready to leave behind yet and wasn’t ready to give up on. In the end, all the waiting and all that was definitely worth it – coming back and just enjoyed it so much.”

Kaskisuo proved last season he could still compete at a high level and perform well in the AHL, going 7-4-0 with a 2.90 goals-against average and .909 save percentage in 12 appearances – leading all Rocket goaltenders last season in both goals-against average and save percentage.

It’s a similar story for Kaskisuo this year, as he began in the fall at the Boston Bruins and Providence Bruins training camps before heading to Norfolk and now to Bloomington with the ECHL’s Bison.

“I’m just so grateful to be playing again and getting my normal routines back, and getting my normal life back basically,” Kaskisuo said of joining Bloomington in mid-February.  “And even if it’s riding the bus, I’m grateful about it. I’m enjoying every minute of it.”