Joonas Korpisalo gets career altering from his home country.

It is easy to forget that rules in the rest of the world do not necessarily reflect the state of affairs in North America, and over the weekend veteran National Hockey League goaltender Joonas Korpisalo has served as a stark reminder of just that.

Korpisalo is playing out the final year of a 2 year deal he signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets, one that carries an average annual value and salary cap hit of $2.8 million per season, and normally this should be one of the most exciting periods in his life. At 27 years old Korpisalo is set to become an unrestricted free agent and in theory that would put him in a position to collect on a big payday, but some complications have arisen in his home country of Finland.

A few years ago a Finnish politician began making noise about celebrities in that country that had avoided what is meant to be mandatory military service for men. Every able bodied man in Finland must complete this service and while professional athletes can delay the requirements, Korpisalo has now run out of time.

On Sunday, Columbus Blue Jackets insider Aaron Portzline reported that the Finnish government will not issue Korpisalo a new passport until his mandatory military service has been completed and added that his current passport is set to expire a year from now. You can see why, given the timing, that this could have a significant impact on Korpisalo's future.

"The law says that every guy must do it,” said Korpisalo as per Portzline. "It’s a law. I’ve been moving it since I was 18 because I never wanted to miss my summer practice time. But now I’m hitting the deadline."

Korpisalo has not had a good run of form this season. Over 8 games for the Blue Jackets he has recorded a 3.95 goals against average and an .885 save percentage and you have to wonder how much having this hanging over his head may be impacting his play on the ice. 

The minimum amount of time required for Korpisalo to serve is 5 and a half months, a timeframe that would push him well into the start of training camps for next season assuming that he begins his service at the end of April when the Blue Jackets' regular season campaign comes to an end. The Finnish netminder admits there is a lot of uncertainty ahead.

"I don’t know how this is going to go," said Korpisalo.