Reijo Leppänen

Reijo Leppänen
Date of birth	November 8, 1951
place of birth	Turku , Finland
size	180 cm
Weight	70 kg
position	striker
Shot hand	Left
Career stations
1968-1975	TuTo hockey
1975-1987	TPS Turku
1987-1990	Kiekko-67

Reijo Leppänen (born November 8, 1951 in Turku ) is a former Finnish ice hockey player who played in the SM-liiga for TPS Turku from 1968 to 1990, among others .

Career

Reijo Leppänen began his career as a hockey player in his hometown in the junior department of TuTo Hockey , for whose professional team he was active in the SM-sarja from 1968 to 1975 . He then moved to his city neighbor TPS Turku , for which he played from 1975 to 1987 for twelve years in the newly founded Finnish top division, the SM-liiga . With TPS Turku he took part in the playoffs in each of these seasons and he helped lead the club to the top nationally. With his team he won the Finnish championship title in the 1975/76 season . In the following season he failed with TPS only in the playoff final at Tappara Tampere . Also in the seasons 1981/82 and 1984/85 he was runner-up with TPS.

Reijo Leppänen was not only successful with his team, but was also one of the best Finnish offensive players himself in the 1980s. In 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1985 he was elected to the All-Star Team of the SM-liiga. In the 1980/81 season he also had the best plus / minus balance of all SM-liiga players, for which he received the Matti-Keinonen trophy . In the same season he was the top scorer of the league with 76 points scorer, for which he received the Veli-Pekka-Ketola trophy , as well as the best assists with 45 assists. When he reached the runner-up in 1982 he was with 33 goals and 37 assists (70 scorer points) both top scorer, assists and top scorer of the SM-liiga. He was also named an SM-liiga Key Player and received the SM-liiga Lynces Academici Forward Award. When he reached the runner-up in 1985, he received the Raimo Kilpiö trophy as the fairest player.

The 1980 Olympian, who until then had only played for teams from his hometown, ended his career at Kiekko-67 . With the team he rose to the second-class I divisioona in 1989 and ended his career there a year later. Two years later he was inducted into the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame as the 87th player.

International

For Finland , Leppänen took part in the junior division of the U19 European Junior Championship in 1970 . In the senior sector, he was in his country's squad at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and at the 1982 World Cup .

Achievements and Awards

1976 Finnish champion with TPS Turku 1977 Finnish runner-up with TPS Turku 1980 SM-liiga All-Star Team 1981 SM-liiga All-Star Team 1981 Matti Keinonen Trophy 1981 Veli Pekka Ketola Trophy 1981 Most of the templates of the SM-liiga 1982 Finnish runner-up with TPS Turku 1982 SM-liiga All-Star Team 1982 Veli Pekka Ketola Trophy

1982 Aarne Honkavaara Trophy 1982 Most of the templates of the SM-liiga 1982 SM-liiga Lynces Academici Forward Award 1982 SM-liiga key player 1985 Finnish runner-up with TPS Turku 1985 SM-liiga All-Star Team 1985 Raimo Kilpiö Trophy 1989 Promotion to the I divisioona with Kiekko-67 1992 inducted into the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame

SM liiga statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
Main round	12	426	257	298	555	148
Playoffs	12	80	36	39	75	22nd

Web links

• Reijo Leppänen at hockeydb.com (English)
• Reijo Leppänen at eurohockey.com
• Reijo Leppänen at eliteprospects.com (English)