A BIG HIT: Savolainen's skill, size and physical style will help Charge be 'harder to play against'

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If Emily Clark was asked for a scouting report on the Finnish defender the Ottawa Charge was considering as its second-round selection before last June’s draft, she would have replied with a ringing endorsement.

It’s possible she added a sigh of relief when GM Mike Hirshfeld went ahead with the slam dunk decision that was Ronja Savolainen.

“She plays with an edge, and she’s extremely competitive,” Clark, an assistant captain for the Charge who doubles as a winger with Canada’s national women’s team, told a couple of reporters on Media Day. “In this league last year, the physicality was like no other we’ve seen, so I don’t think she’ll have any problem adjusting to the PWHL.

“She’s a pain in the butt to play against,” added Clark, who has battled Savolainen in international play for a decade. “I’m super excited to wear the same jersey as her and see how she fits in with our group. I have no doubt she’ll have an impact right away.”

There’s a good chance she’ll leave some marks in the process.

Savolainen, a 26-year-old who has represented Finland in seven world championships, played for Lulea HF/MSSK in the SDHL (Swedish Women’s Hockey League) from 2016 until 2024, when she became a free agent eligible with an eye to the better wages available in North America’s new professional league.

Her skills are obvious.

In her last two seasons with Lulea HF, Savolainen had 18 goals and 61 points in 65 games.

Representing her homeland in 2022-23, she scored eight goals and 20 points in 20 international games.

But there’s much more to Savolainen than the stats.

Looking to get “harder to play against”, the Charge did its homework on the 5-foot-10, 168-pounder with the well-developed arms she had on display at the draft.

“We really tapped into our network,” Hirshfeld said of the four or five respected hockey people — a group that included Swedish league coach Jordan Colliton (sister of former Chicago Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton) and former Finnish national team coach Pasi Mustonen — who were very familiar with Salovainen. “Then we watched her tape, watched her play on the international level, loved her size and her physicality, and said ‘This is what we need.'”

Newcomers among the 10 defenders at camp who could bolster the blueline are fourth-round pick Stephanie Markowski, seventh-round pick Madeline Wethington, plus invitees Jessica Adolfsson and Sam Isbell — all of whom are at least 5-foot-8.

With her experience and skill set, Savolainen stands out as the total package.

“I’ve seen her in a T-shirt and she’s a strong woman,” said coach Carla MacLeod. “I think all these women are so pro in their approach to training. That piece of it is so important to our game, making sure the engine, our body, is what we need it to be. Ronja and others on the back end are definitely more physical. They’re bigger, stronger women, we think that’ll complement our returning group.”

Savolainen remembers her dad taking her outside to play hockey when she was six or seven years old, but her fondness for the game preceded that.

“I just love watching men’s hockey, and that’s the way it started,” she said. “You can play with your friends, and have fun every day. I love to talk. I love to be around people … I would never be an athlete who would go off to do something by myself.

“I could see that people can have fun, and compete and take those wins, and even if you lose, you can still get together and find a way to win again.”

Savolainen played on boys’ teams until she was 14, and even though she was small “I could still compete with them.”

She had a growth spurt when she started playing with girls and, with the 1 1/2 hours of training her teams had in the weight room training before practices, she started getting stronger.

Later, the fact she lived with Finnish team captain Jenni Hiirikoski also helped.

“You can probably tell, she’s a monster,” said Salovainen. “So it’s a big thank you to her for helping me to build muscles.”

And a thank you to Mustonen for getting her to use them productively.

“He taught us to play hard and physical,” she said. “If you want to win, you need to be tough. You need to play hard, and he taught me to be physical because I’m a big player.”

Savolainen has enjoyed the transition to North America.

“It’s a big country and the culture and everything is different,” she said. “But I love new things.”

She’s also heard about the canal outside TD Place, and that people skate on it in the winter, and she’s looking forward to doing the same in her downtime.

“Other than that, I just love shopping,” she said.

Meanwhile, it’s obvious Savolainen hasn’t been quite herself at practice this week, holding back with her physical play.

That is expected to change when the Charge heads to Verdun for a mini-camp that includes exhibition games against the Boston Fleet on Thursday and Montreal Victoire on Friday.

“I think it’s a feeling-out process,” said Hirshfeld. “It’s getting to know your teammates. You’re not going to crush your teammates in practice at training camp. We’re excited to see her go in these exhibition games. It’s a team with another jersey.

“We know it’s there. These two games we’ll see it, I’m sure.”

So is Savolainen.

“I want to show I’m a physical player,” she said, “and that the coaches can trust me in whatever situation they put me in. I want to be a tough player to play against and also show that I can play with the puck to create some good situations out there. I want to show them I can also be a ‘ D’ who can be a forward too, I like to be up there and create situations.”

With her hands, and her hits.

“In the SDHL, we got to play physical, but in a big rink you don’t really see the hits,” said Savolainen “It’s a smaller rink here and you can see the hits more, so I’m super excited to be here.”