Jari Grönstrand

Jari Grönstrand
Date of birth	November 14, 1962
place of birth	Tampere , Finland
size	191 cm
Weight	92 kg
position	defender
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1986 , 5th round, 96th position Minnesota North Stars
Career stations
1982-1986	Tappara Tampere
1986-1987	Minnesota North Stars
1987-1988	New York Rangers
1988-1989	Nordiques de Québec
1989-1990	New York Islanders
1990-1991	Capital District Islanders
1991-1994	Tappara Tampere
1994-1995	ESG Saxony
1995-1996	Chamonix Hockey Club
1996-1999	Hockey Club de Reims

Jari Grönstrand (born November 14, 1962 in Tampere ) is a former Finnish ice hockey player and coach , who worked for the Minnesota North Stars , New York Rangers , Nordiques de Québec and New York Islanders in the National Hockey League has played.

Career

Jari Grönstrand started his career as an ice hockey player in his hometown in the youth department of Tappara Tampere , for whose professional team he was active in the Finnish SM-liiga from 1982 to 1986 . During this period he was elected Finnish champion in 1984 and 1986, and in 1986 in the All-Star Team of the SM-liiga. Then the defender was selected in the fifth round of the 1986 NHL Entry Draft as a total of 96 players by the Minnesota North Stars , for whom he made his debut in the National Hockey League in the 1986/87 season . In his rookie year , he scored one goal in 47 games and provided six assists.

On October 8, 1987, he was given together with Paul Boutilier in exchange for Jay Caufield and Dave Gagner to the New York Rangers . In parallel, he ran for their farm team Colorado Rangers in three games in the International Hockey League . After a year, the New York Rangers gave him to the Nordiques de Québec , for which he was just as active for a little over a year as for their AHL farm team Halifax Citadels , before he was hired by the New York Islanders in November 1989 . While the former Finnish international was still mostly for the NY Islanders in the NHL and only in one game for their AHL farm team Springfield Indians in the 1989/90 season, he played in 63 games for theirs in the 1990/91 season new AHL farm team Capital District Islanders , for which he scored a total of 13 goals and provided 22 assists. In the NHL team of the Islanders, however, he was only used 3 times.

After losing his regular place in the NHL, Grönstrand returned to his Finnish homeland, where he defended for his ex-club Tappara Tampere for another three years. In the 1994/95 season he moved for the first time within other European countries and signed with ESG Füchse Sachsen from the newly founded DEL . For this he scored three goals in 41 games and gave eight assists. The following season he spent with the French record champions Chamonix Hockey Club in the Ligue Magnus . In the following years he stayed in France and was under contract for three years with the Hockey Club de Reims , where he ended his active career in 1999 at the age of 36.

During the 2000/01 season he was head coach for EHC Freiburg in the 2nd Bundesliga ice hockey . He was then replaced by the German-Czech Leos Zajic .

International

For Finland , Grönstrand took part in the 1986 World Cup and the Canada Cup in 1987 .

Achievements and Awards

• 1984 Finnish champion with Tappara Tampere
• 1986 Finnish champion with Tappara Tampere
• 1986 SM-liiga All-Star Team

statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
NHL Regular Season	5	185	8th	26th	34	135
NHL playoffs	1	3	0	0	0	4th
AHL regular season	3	74	13	24	37	46
AHL playoffs	-	-	-	-	-	-
DEL main round	1	39	3	7th	10	70
DEL playoffs	1	2	0	1	1	14th
SM liiga main round	7th	261	27	38	65	247
SM liiga playoffs	4th	35	1	4th	5	51
SM liiga relegation	1	3	1	2	3	27

Web links

• Jari Grönstrand at hockeydb.com (English)
• Jari Grönstrand at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Jari Grönstrand at eliteprospects.com (English)