Reijo Ruotsalainen

Reijo Ruotsalainen
Date of birth	April 1, 1960
place of birth	Oulu , Finland
Nickname	Rexi
size	173 cm
Weight	75 kg
position	defender
Shot hand	Right
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1980 , 6th lap, 119th position New York Rangers
Career stations
until 1981	Kärpät Oulu
1981-1986	New York Rangers
1986-1987	SC Bern
1987	Edmonton Oilers
1987-1988	HV71 Jönköping
1988-1989	SC Bern
1989-1990	New Jersey Devils
1990	Edmonton Oilers
1990-1993	SC Bern
1993-1994	Kärpät Oulu Tappara Tampere
1994-1995	SC Bern
1995-1996	KalPa Kuopio ZSC Lions
1996-1998	Kärpät Oulu

Reijo Juhani "Rexi" Ruotsalainen (born April 1, 1960 in Oulu ) is a former Finnish ice hockey player and coach who played 532 games for the New York Rangers , Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils between 1975 and 1998 has played in the National Hockey League on the position of defender . In addition, Ruotsalainen was active as a player in his home country and in Switzerland. In addition to winning the Finnish and Swiss championship titles , he won the Stanley Cup with the Edmonton Oilers in 1987 and 1990 . The 122-time Finnish international coached the United States, Finland, Austria and Germany between 1998 and 2014.

Career

Ruotsalainen began his career in 1979 with Oulun Kärpät , with whom he won the Finnish championship title in 1981. In the 1980 NHL Entry Draft , the New York Rangers had selected him as 119th. On October 5, 1981, Reijo Ruotsalainen played his first NHL game in New York's Madison Square Garden in front of 17,000 spectators. The Detroit Red Wings were defeated 5-1, with Ruotsalainen contributing an assist.

The Finn has played over 500 games in the NHL. This for the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils and the Edmonton Oilers , with whom he won the Stanley Cup twice. Finally, four seasons followed at SC Bern (1986/87; 1990/91 and 1991/92) with three Swiss championship titles and one season in Sweden at HV 71 Jönköping. The 1995-96 season he played at the Zurich Ice Skating Club ( ZSC Lions ) and then ended his active career.

Between 2007 and 2012 Ruotsalainen worked as an assistant coach at EC Red Bull Salzburg , with whom he won the Austrian championship several times in the following years . Most recently he was the assistant coach of the Kölner Haie under Uwe Krupp in the 2013/14 season .

Style of play

Due to his rather small body size and weight, Ruotsalainen had physical deficits, which he compensated with enormous speed, first-class stick play and precise shots. Another strength were his qualities in overpowering situations.

Achievements and Awards

1977 Master of the I-divisioona and promotion to the SM-liiga with Kärpät Oulu 1980 Best defender in the SM-liiga 1980 All-Star-Team of the SM-liiga 1981 Finnish champion with Kärpät Oulu 1981 Best defender in the SM-liiga 1981 All-Star-Team of the SM-liiga 1986 NHL All-Star Game 1987 Stanley Cup win with the Edmonton Oilers 1989 Swiss champion with SC Bern 1990 Stanley Cup win with the Edmonton Oilers

1991 Swiss champion with SC Bern 1991 All-Star-Team of the National League A 1992 Swiss champion with SC Bern 1998 Master of I-divisioona with Kärpät Oulu 2000 Admission to the Finnish Ice Hockey Hall of Fame 2004 Finnish champion with Kärpät Oulu (as assistant trainer) 2008 Austrian champion with the EC Red Bull Salzburg (as assistant coach) 2010 IIHF Continental Cup - win with the EC Red Bull Salzburg (as assistant coach) 2010 Austrian champion with the EC Red Bull Salzburg (as assistant coach) 2011 Austrian champion with the EC Red Bull Salzburg (as assistant coach)

International

• 1976 bronze medal at the European Junior Championships
• 1980 silver medal at the Junior World Championship
• 1980 Best Defender of the Junior World Championship
• 1980 All-Star Team of the Junior World Championship
• 1988 silver medal at the Olympic Winter Games

Career statistics

				Regular season						Play-offs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1975/76	Kärpät Oulu	I-divisioona		34	9	15th	24	12		-	-	-	-	-
1976/77	Kärpät Oulu	I-divisioona		42	25th	41	66	14th		-	-	-	-	-
1977/78	Kärpät Oulu	SM-liiga		30th	9	14th	23	4th		-	-	-	-	-
1978/79	Kärpät Oulu	SM-liiga		36	14th	8th	22nd	47		-	-	-	-	-
1979/80	Kärpät Oulu	SM-liiga		30th	15th	13	28	31		6th	5	2	7th	0
1980/81	Kärpät Oulu	SM-liiga		34	28	23	51	28		12	7th	4th	11	6th
1981/82	New York Rangers	NHL		78	18th	38	56	27		10	4th	5	9	2
1982/83	New York Rangers	NHL		77	16	53	69	22nd		9	4th	2	6th	6th
1983/84	New York Rangers	NHL		74	20th	39	59	26th		5	1	1	2	2
1984/85	New York Rangers	NHL		80	28	45	73	32		3	2	0	2	6th
1985/86	New York Rangers	NHL		80	17th	42	59	47		16	0	8th	8th	6th
1986/87	SC Bern	NLA		35	26th	27	53	27		-	-	-	-	-
1986/87	Edmonton Oilers	NHL		16	5	8th	13	6th		21st	2	5	7th	10
1987/88	HV71 Jönköping	Elitserien		40	10	22nd	32	26th		2	0	1	1	2
1988/89	SC Bern	NLA		36	17th	29	46	46		11	4th	7th	11	22nd
1989/90	New Jersey Devils	NHL		31	2	5	7th	14th		-	-	-	-	-
1989/90	Edmonton Oilers	NHL		10	1	7th	8th	6th		22nd	2	11	13	12
1990/91	SC Bern	NLA		36	13	25th	38	20th		10	5	8th	13	10
1991/92	SC Bern	NLA		35	7th	16	23	24		11	4th	6th	10	4th
1992/93	SC Bern	NLA		31	7th	15th	22nd	42		5	0	3	3	29
1993/94	Kärpät Oulu	I-divisioona		4th	1	5	6th	6th		-	-	-	-	-
1993/94	Tappara Tampere	SM-liiga		6th	2	4th	6th	2		9	1	2	3	6th
1994/95	SC Bern	NLA		19th	3	7th	10	20th		6th	1	5	6th	4th
1995/96	KalPa Kuopio	SM-liiga		16	3	5	8th	4th		-	-	-	-	-
1995/96	Zurich SC	NLA		18th	4th	11	15th	4th		-	-	-	-	-
1996/97	Kärpät Oulu	I-divisioona		17th	1	5	6th	14th		9	0	4th	4th	0
1997/98	Kärpät Oulu	I-divisioona		44	8th	23	31	42		14th	2	6th	8th	10
I-divisioona total				135	42	83	125	88		29	4th	16	20th	10
SM-liiga total				152	71	67	138	116		27	13	8th	21st	12
National League A overall				210	77	130	207	183		43	14th	29	43	69
Elitserien total				40	10	22nd	32	26th		2	0	1	1	2
NHL overall				446	107	237	344	180		86	15th	32	47	44

International

Represented Finland at:

U19 European Junior Championship 1976 Junior World Championship 1977 U18 European Junior Championship 1977 Junior World Championship 1978 World Championship 1978 Junior World Championship 1979 World Championship 1979

Junior World Championship 1980 World Championship 1981 Canada Cup 1981 World Championship 1985 Canada Cup 1987 1988 Winter Olympics World Championship 1989

year	team	event	result		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1976	Finland	U19 European Championship			3	1	0	1	0
1977	Finland	June World Cup	4th Place		7th	2	4th	6th	6th
1977	Finland	U18 European Championship	4th Place		2	0	2	2	0
1978	Finland	June World Cup	6th place		6th	3	3	6th	2
1978	Finland	WM	7th place		10	2	0	2	2
1979	Finland	June World Cup	4th Place		6th	0	3	3	0
1979	Finland	WM	5th place		6th	2	0	2	2
1980	Finland	June World Cup			5	4th	3	7th	2
1981	Finland	WM	6th place		8th	3	2	5	4th
1981	Finland	Canada Cup	6th place		5	0	1	1	2
1985	Finland	WM	5th place		10	0	4th	4th	6th
1987	Finland	Canada Cup	6th place		4th	0	0	0	2
1988	Finland	Olympia			8th	4th	2	6th	0
1989	Finland	WM	5th place		10	2	4th	6th	6th
Juniors overall					29	10	15th	25th	10
Men overall					61	13	13	26th	24

( 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

• Reijo Ruotsalainen at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Reijo Ruotsalainen at eliteprospects.com (English)
• Reijo Ruotsalainen at hockeydb.com (English)
• Reijo Ruotsalainen at eurohockey.com
• Reijo Ruotsalainen in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Megert: 111 reasons to love SC Bern . A declaration of love to the greatest ice hockey club in the world. 1st edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2017, ISBN 978-3-86265-653-0 , pp. 166 .