Anssi Melametsä

Anssi Melametsä
Date of birth	June 21, 1961
place of birth	Jyväskylä , Finland
size	183 cm
Weight	88 kg
position	center
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1985 , 12th lap, 249th position Winnipeg Jets
Career stations
until 1978	Jokerit Helsinki
1978-1979	Peterborough Petes
1979-1981	Jokerit Helsinki
1981-1985	HIFK Helsinki
1985-1986	Winnipeg Jets Sherbrooke Canadiens
1986-1988	HIFK Helsinki
1988-1991	Jokerit Helsinki
1991-1992	Team Boro
1992-1994	KooKoo

Anssi Ilari Melametsä (born June 21, 1961 in Jyväskylä ) is a former Finnish ice hockey player who played for the Winnipeg Jets in the National Hockey League from 1977 to 1994 .

Career

Anssi Melametsä began his career as a hockey player in the youth department of Jokerit Helsinki , where he was active until 1978. He then played for a year for the Peterborough Petes in the Canadian Junior League Ontario Hockey Association . With the Canadians he won in the 1979/80 season first the J. Ross Robertson Cup as an OHA champion and then the Memorial Cup , the championship title of the Canadian Hockey League . Then the center returned to Jokerit Helsinki, for whose professional team he was active in the SM-liiga in the following two years , before he stood on the ice for four years for their league rivals HIFK Helsinki . With HIFK he succeeded in winning the Finnish championship title in the 1982/83 season . Parallel to the game with HIFK, the national player also played in seven games for the Finnish Olympic team in the following season , which competed as a visiting team in the SM-liiga in preparation for the tournament.

In the 1985 NHL Entry Draft , Melametsä was selected in the twelfth round as a total of 249th player by the Winnipeg Jets . For the Canadians he made his debut in the National Hockey League in the 1985/86 season and gave three assists in 27 games. However, he could not prevail in the NHL squad and so he completed 14 games for Winnipeg's farm team , the Sherbrooke Canadiens , in the American Hockey League , in which he scored seven goals and gave five templates. After his year in North America, the Finn returned to his homeland and played for the HIFK Helsinki in the SM-liiga for two more seasons before moving to Jokerit Helsinki, where he started his career. With the team that in the meantime had been relegated to the second-class I divisioona, he achieved promotion back to the SM-liiga in 1989, in which he was team captain of Jokerit in the 1989/90 season .

Melametsä spent the 1991/92 season with the Swedish team Boro in the then second-class Division 1. He last played from 1992 to 1994 for the Finnish second division KooKoo before ending his career at the age of 33.

International

For Finland Melametsä took part in the junior division in the Junior World Championships in 1980 and 1981 , where he was able to win the silver medal with his team. In the senior sector he was in his country's squad at the World Championships in 1983 and 1985 , and at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo .

Achievements and Awards

• 1979 J. Ross Robertson Cup win with the Peterborough Petes
• 1979 Memorial Cup win with the Peterborough Petes
• 1980 silver medal at the Junior World Championship
• 1981 silver medal at the Junior World Championship
• 1983 Finnish champion with HIFK Helsinki
• 1989 Promotion to the SM-liiga with Jokerit Helsinki

statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
NHL Regular Season	1	27	0	3	3	2
NHL playoffs	-	-	-	-	-	-
SM liiga main round	10	380	140	170	310	404
SM liiga playoffs	5	29	6th	12	18th	32

Web links

• Anssi Melametsä at hockeydb.com (English)
• Anssi Melametsä at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Anssi Melametsä at eliteprospects.com (English)