Larkin Long Read: Don’t call Sebastian Aho shy
Everyone knows about the NHL’s ‘Two Sebastian Ahos’ in a literal sense. One is a Carolina Hurricanes center, the other a New York Islanders defenseman. Their parallel existence is old news at this point.
There’s another, more abstract way to define the concept of two Sebastian Ahos, however: the Hurricanes center has duelling personas.
The first Sebastian Aho? That’s the one North Americans started getting to know around 2016, when he tore up the World Junior Championship, shoehorned from his supposed position of left wing into the center spot to form one of the tournament’s all-time great lines with Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi, helping Team Finland capture gold on its own soil in Helsinki. Aho quickly earned a reputation as a larcenous second-round pick in the 2015 NHL draft as he debuted with a 24-goal effort in 2016-17, the second most by a Hurricanes rookie this century.
That version of Aho was extremely talented but also a mild-mannered, soft-spoken, shy kid with a boyish, clean-cut face further solidifying the caricature. When he made his first All-Star Game appearance in 2018-19, he was so quiet at the podium on media day that reporters had to lean close.
But that’s not the Aho speaking to Daily Faceoff in March 2022. This “second” Aho, 24, is confident, decisive in his speech and quick-witted, capable of sparring on various topics and bouncing from subject to subject – such as the origins of his multiple nicknames, all playing off his first name, transitioning over the years from ‘Sea Bass’ to ‘Fishy’ to ‘Mr. Fish.’ The truth: there has always been just one version of him. This outgoing Aho is the real Aho. It just took a while for him to show up or, more accurately, translate.
Aho lived a family-centric lifestyle growing up in Oulu, Finland. His father, Harri, played more than a decade of pro hockey, mostly with the Aho family’s hometown team, Karpat of the Finnish Liiga. Aho’s older brother Samuli was a hockey player, too. As Sebastian remembers it, there was a ferociously competitive environment at home, especially when it came to his brother. It was the fun kind of competitive, though.
“I had to learn different ways to beat him,” Aho said. “It didn’t matter what we played. He had some size on me, so it was great times. We were playing all the sports, all the time non-stop. One of the reasons why I am where I am right now is having him next to me just competing at everything.”
Iron indeed sharpened iron with the Aho brothers, though Samuli stopped playing in his mid-teens, the same age at which Sebastian began to realize he had a chance for a pro-hockey career. At first, that dream was focused on Karpat. His father became the franchise’s GM several years after retiring as a player, so Aho had constant, immersive access to the pro dressing-room experience. He fulfilled his dream and took his first shifts with the senior Karpat club before he even turned 17. Two years later, in his age-18 season, he led the team in scoring. In the span of a couple years, he went from a kid hoping for a Liiga career, admiring any hometown players who made it to the NHL, to going in the second round of the NHL draft and beginning to study superstar North American players such as Patrick Kane. Suddenly, the idea that a player like Kane could be Aho’s contemporary wasn’t so far-fetched to him.
By the time he debuted with the Hurricanes in 2016-17, Aho had the talents to transition rather smoothly. His lack of brute physical strength at six-foot and 176 pounds didn’t matter in the modern game. His excellent skating and standout intelligence did. They propelled him to an instant impact as a rookie. The raw tools, as he sees it, came from his dad, but the complex brain came from his mother, Leena.
“I was a little better than average in school, maybe not a great student, but my mom always said that, if there was a subject I was really into, I was a very good student,” Aho said. “But if I had a little lack of interest, I was very average. If people say I’m smart, she was the reason why. She always taught me and pushed me with the school. She’s definitely the brains of the family.”
There was no subject for which Aho had greater aptitude than hockey, and it shows in his numbers. Across his six NHL seasons, he averages 33 goals and 74 points per 82 games. Since he debuted in the league, he’s 21st in the NHL in points and – how about this for a “playmaker” – 10th in goals. The side of Aho that didn’t translate to North America right away was everything hockey-adjacent, a.k.a. his personality. It took far longer than his on-ice skills to arrive from Oulu. That’s how Rod Brind’Amour sees it. He’s now in his fourth season as Hurricanes head coach but was an assistant coach with the team for many seasons before that and has thus been with Aho for every season of his career.
“There’s two things in play,” Brind’Amour told Daily Faceoff. “One is the language, so when someone comes over, they’re a little shy, because they’re not sure if they’re saying the right thing. And then, on top of it, is your personality. Not knowing language is going to put you back a little bit, make your feel not like yourself, but you’re also young. You’re not sure how you fit in. So just over time here, he’s matured as a person. That second thing has gone away, and learning the language has helped him be more at ease.”
Aho 1.0 was entirely the product of his then-new environment. Aho 2.0 is comfortable showcasing all aspects of his personality. He describes himself as an extremely social person who doesn’t like to be alone and prefers to be with friends or family, whether he’s golfing or spending time at his lake house. He’s not actually bashful and never was.
“I’m not a shy guy at all,” Aho said. “Back home, it’s different. You know the language. For sure, the first couple years in the NHL, I was a shy guy, but that was more just the culture and the language and everything’s new. It takes some time, but I was very fortunate to have great teammates and still a lot of guys here who were there from my first year, and I still play with them. The biggest thing is probably language. You just have to get comfortable with it, and when you’re comfortable with a new language, you get to know people a little better, a little deeper, and you’re not the shy guy anymore.”
Not shy. Got it. Another old label starting to peel away: the idea that Aho is superstitious. He says he still has certain pre-game rituals but no major quirk that, for instance, requires repeating if he doesn’t execute it properly. The way Aho explains it: the longer he’s played in the NHL, the more confident he’s become, the less he needs to rely on crutches such as superstitions.
He’s mentally stronger than he’s ever been, and teammates depend on him now. Aho has become a leader in the Canes room, Brind’Amour suggests.
“He’s a quiet personality as far as being vocal, but he’s a loud personality by his presence,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s taken the team on his shoulders a little bit, but he’s comfortable in the fact he knows Jordan Staal is the guy. It’s a real comfort to know, ‘There’s our guy, I’m kinda learning from him.’ And it’s been great for both guys, but especially ‘SeaBass.’ ”
Aho’s impact on the Stanley Cup-contending Canes is undeniable. Across the past three seasons, among 383 forwards who have logged 1,000 or more minutes at 5-on-5, Aho sits in the 92nd percentile in goals and points per 60, the 89th percentile in primary assists per 60 and the 88th percentile in individual scoring chances per 60. With Aho on the ice at 5-on-5, Carolina has significantly outshot, outchanced and outscored its opponents over that span. This season, he averages 2:03 of shorthanded ice time on a Canes team boasting a league-best 89.3 percent penalty-killing efficiency, which, no big deal, currently ranks as second-best by any NHL team, in any season, ever.
Aho, though, has only received Hart Trophy votes in two of his seasons and has never finished higher than seventh in season-ending all-star balloting. Even if he’s out of his shell emotionally, he hasn’t shed the underrated label, though Brind’Amour goes full Morpheus and points out, “Everyone talks about ‘underrated,’ but that means you’re rated, because they’re talking about you.” Whoa. Well said, Rod.
However people want define Aho, being acknowledged as a premier star isn’t his No. 1 priority.
“I know the stuff I care about: teammates, the organization, the coaching staff, what they think about me, how they see me,” Aho said. “It’s not like I need to be on the cover of every newspaper and get the credit. That’s not a thing I’m looking for. I know deep inside me when I’m playing my best game and when I’m off.”
Aho has become a mature veteran who knows himself, and the hockey world is getting to know the real him, too. For him to reach the next level of household-name icon? In a relatively small hockey market? Brind’Amour sums it up best: it’s time to win.
“That’s what’s left to do.”