Finland Passes on Karalahti

The bad news for King defenseman Jere Karalahti on Thursday was that he had not been selected to play for Finland in the Salt Lake City Olympics.

The good news was that the Finns’ decision not to include Karalahti on their 23-man Olympic roster had nothing to do with his past drug abuse.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Hannu Aravirta, coach of the Finnish national team, said from Helsinki when asked if Karalahti’s history, including a 1997 conviction in Finland on drug offenses, had kept him off the team. “I have good relationship with Jere. I don’t think you can be a guy who can say if somebody has done something wrong in the past, it’s absolutely never again. I’m not that kind of person. Everybody makes mistakes and, as a coach, you have to give the second chance.

“I have given him the chance to play in the World Championships [in 1998, 1999 and 2000], and I really hope that he will play for the national team in coming tournaments, even if he is not chosen in this tournament.”

Aravirta said that Karalahti, who is in his third season with the Kings, was “very, very long in our discussions but didn’t make finally our team.”

The news was a stinging disappointment for Karalahti, who has turned his life around since his 1996 arrest in Helsinki, which led to an eight-month stint in a drug-rehabilitation program in 1997 to kick a heroin habit.

“Of course, it’s a big thing to play for Finland,” Karalahti said Thursday, “but it doesn’t always go like you want it to go.”

The news was better for the Kings’ Mikko Eloranta, who called it a “great honor” to be named to the Finnish team. Eloranta, 29, is one of only a few Finnish forwards playing in the NHL but Karalahti, 26, was caught in a numbers game. The seven defensemen named to the Finnish team, among them former King Aki Berg of the Toronto Maple Leafs, are all regulars for their NHL teams.

Karalahti, meanwhile, has been scratched from 10 of the Kings’ 31 games, including the last seven, despite being injury free.

His selection would have capped a remarkable comeback.

Drafted by the Kings in 1993, Karalahti was playing for IFK of Helsinki in the Finnish Elite League at the time of his arrest. Eventually given a suspended three-month jail sentence after he was proven to have possessed and used different drugs over a two-year period, among them heroin, LSD, marijuana and speed, Karalahti was suspended by the league for the rest of the 1996-97 season.

When he returned, however, he was better than ever.

King General Manager Dave Taylor said, “As soon as he finished the rehab period, his play on the ice really elevated.”

A first-team all-star in the World Championships after helping the Finns to silver medals in 1998 and 1999, Karalahti signed with the Kings before the 1999-2000 season and has eight goals and 18 assists in 21/2 seasons.