Olli Maatta was originally scheduled to join the Finnish Army this summer to fulfill his obligation to his country.
The Finnish Defence Forces is based on a universal male conscription. All men above 18 years of age are liable to serve either 165, 255 or 347 days per Wikipedia.
As reported by DK on Pittsburgh Sports Olli Maatta will not be serving his time this summer.
The Penguins’ defenseman told MTV.fi, a news outlet in his homeland, that he’ll postpone the obligation for two years upon the advice of a doctor in the Finnish army.
This doesn't come as a huge surprise as Maatta has run the gamut of physical ailments since joining the Penguins. He has dealt with serious shoulder issues (which required a second surgery), cancer, the mumps, lower body issues, and a concussion. Finland is usually very accommodating to its NHL players in how they go about serving their military time and this is another example of that.
Olli Maatta was rewarded with a six year contract worth 4.083M per year for his play the past few years. This is a good risk reward deal for the Penguins because of his upside. The risk portion has to do with his health and not fulfilling his military duties this summer can only help him focus solely on getting back to 100%.
Here is Olli Maatta's injury timeline in the NHL. It is way too large considering he is only entering his fourth year in the league.
If you need the enlarged version of that graphic you can find it here
The chart is showing his 20 game rolling average of Score-Adjusted Fenwick. You can see that when he has a stretch of OK health he performs at a pretty high level. Unfortunately that hasn't been as often as he or the team would like. He was trending in the right direction this season after recovering from the hit from behind against Minnesota up until the lower body injury/concussion issues hit in the playoffs.
Hopefully he can have an uneventful summer on the injury front and properly recuperate his body. We have probably yet to see Olli Maatta's ceiling as a player. He needs to be healthy to hit it. This summer should help the cause.
Thanks for reading!