Kai Suikkanen

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FinlandFinland  Kai Suikkanen Ice hockey player
Date of birth June 29, 1959
place of birth Parkano , Finland
size 188 cm
Weight 95 kg
position Left wing
Shot hand Left
Career stations
1976-1981 Kärpät Oulu
1981-1983 Rochester Americans
1983-1990 Kärpät Oulu
1990-1991 TPS Turku
FinlandFinland  Kai Suikkanen
Coaching stations
2004-2006 RoKi
2006-2009 Hokki
2009-2010 TPS
2010-2011 Yaroslavl locomotive
2011-2013 Pelicans
2013-2015 TPS
2016-2017 Oulun Kärpät
2017-2019 HC Bolzano
since 2019 Dornbirn EC

Kai Petri Suikkanen (born June 29, 1959 in Parkano ) is a former Finnish ice hockey player and current coach , who played for the Buffalo Sabers in the National Hockey League from 1976 to 1991, among others . Since the end of October 2019 he has been the head coach of the Dornbirn EC .

Career

As a player

Kai Suikkanen began his career as an ice hockey player in the youth department of Kärpät Oulu , for whose professional team he made his debut in the second-class I divisoona in the 1976/77 season and with which he immediately rose to the SM-liiga . In the 1980/81 season , the winger and his team won the Finnish championship title , after having finished third with his team the previous year . On August 31, 1981, he signed a contract as a free agent with the Buffalo Sabers , for which he completed two games in the National Hockey League in the following two years . The rest of the time, however, he spent exclusively with their farm team , the Rochester Americans , in the American Hockey League . With the Amerks he won the Calder Cup in the 1982/83 season .

After he ran up for the Rochester Americans in the AHL in the 1983/84 season, he returned to Kärpät Oulu during the season. With Kärpät he took third place three times in a row in 1984, 1985 and 1986. In the 1986/87 season he failed with Kärpät even in the playoff final at Tappara Tampere . In the 1988/89 season , the left shooter had to accept relegation to the second division I divisionna with his team, in which he played for a year before moving to the top club TPS Turku for the 1990/91 season. With TPS he won the Finnish championship for the second time in his career and then ended his active career at the age of 31.

International

For Finland , Suikkanen took part in the junior world championships in 1978 and 1979 . In the senior sector, he was in his country's squad at the 1986 World Cup and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary . By winning the silver medal at the Olympic Games, he achieved the greatest success in Finland since the national team was founded. He contributed to this with one goal in eight games.

As a trainer

From 2004 to 2006 Suikkanen was the head coach of RoKi in the third-class Suomi-sarja . He then moved to the second division Hokki Kajaani , with whom he was instant champion of the Mestis in the 2006/07 season . He trained Hokki Kajaani until he replaced Hannu Virta as head coach at his ex-club TPS Turku during the 2008/09 season . With TPS he won the Finnish championship for the first time as a coach in the following season . He then received a contract with the Russian top club Lokomotiv Yaroslavl . In this he began the 2010/11 season as head coach in the Continental Hockey League . On November 4, 2010, the former Olympian was replaced by the Czech Vladimír Vůjtek senior and then worked as a scout for the club.

Between 2011 and 2013 he was the head coach of the Pelicans Lahti , with whom he became Finnish runner-up in 2012. Until 2015 Suikkanen was back under contract as head coach at TPS Turku.

For the 2016/17 season he was appointed head coach of Oulun Kärpät , but was dismissed from his position during the season.

In December 2017 he moved to the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga and became head coach of HC Bozen , which he led from last place in the table to the EBEL championship title. In March 2019, Suikkanen was surprisingly dismissed before the play-offs at HC Bozen. At the end of October 2019 he returned to the EBEL and joined the Dornbirn EC as head coach .

Achievements and Awards

As a trainer

Career statistics

Regular season Play-offs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
1975/76 Oulun Kärpät U20 Jr. A SM-sarja 34 28 7th 35 46 - - - - -
1976/77 Oulun Kärpät U20 Jr. A SM-sarja 9 7th 4th 11 15th - - - - -
1976/77 Oulun Kärpät I-divisioona 16 15th 4th 19th 16 6th 4th 1 5 6th
1977/78 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 35 21st 6th 27 19th - - - - -
1978/79 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 36 16 6th 22nd 65 6th 7th 3 10 2
1979/80 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 36 21st 17th 38 18th 6th 0 3 3 6th
1980/81 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 33 20th 11 31 60 11 5 2 7th 32
1981/82 Buffalo Sabers NHL 1 0 0 0 0 - - - - -
1981/82 Rochester Americans AHL 71 34 33 67 32 9 4th 2 6th 4th
1982/83 Buffalo Sabers NHL 1 0 0 0 0 - - - - -
1982/83 Rochester Americans AHL 66 33 44 77 65 16 7th 7th 14th 21st
1983/84 Rochester Americans AHL 15th 7th 10 17th 2 - - - - -
1983/84 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 23 9 4th 13 20th 10 6th 4th 10 8th
1984/85 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 22nd 8th 6th 14th 47 7th 2 3 5 4th
1985/86 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 33 26th 10 36 24 4th 0 0 0 24
1986/87 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 44 24 25th 49 30th 9 7th 1 8th 6th
1987/88 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 26th 17th 14th 31 25th - - - - -
1988/89 Oulun Kärpät SM-liiga 33 13 10 23 16 - - - - -
1989/90 Oulun Kärpät I-divisioona 35 17th 24 41 31 - - - - -
1990/91 Turun Palloseura SM-liiga 41 4th 3 7th 6th 9 1 1 2 2
AHL total 152 74 87 161 99 25th 11 9 20th 25th
I-divisioona total 51 32 28 60 47 6th 4th 1 5 6th
Liiga overall 362 179 112 291 330 62 28 17th 45 84
NHL overall 2 0 0 0 0 - - - - -

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; 1  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kai Suikkanen: "I will remember all of this for the rest of my life". hockeyfans.at, accessed on April 22, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Kai Suikkanen is no longer the coach of the Weißroten - Clayten Beddoes is the new coach. hcb.net, accessed March 11, 2019 .
Squad of the Dornbirner EC in the 2019/20 season
personal data
SURNAME Suikkanen, Kai
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Suikkanen, Kai Petri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish ice hockey player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Parkano , Finland