Vesa Toskala

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FinlandFinland  Vesa Toskala Ice hockey player
Vesa Toskala
Date of birth May 20, 1977
place of birth Kangasala , Finland
Nickname Vesku
size 178 cm
Weight 89 kg
position goalkeeper
number # 35
Catch hand Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 1995 , 4th lap, 90th position
San Jose Sharks
Career stations
until 1999 Ilves Tampere
1999-2000 Färjestad BK
2000-2007 San Jose Sharks
2004-2005 Ilves Tampere
2007-2010 Toronto Maple Leafs
2010 Calgary Flames
AIK Solna
2011–2012 Ilves Tampere

Vesa Tapani Toskala (born May 20, 1977 in Kangasala ) is a former Finnish ice hockey goalkeeper who was last under contract with Ilves Tampere in the SM-liiga until summer 2012 and during his career for the San Jose Sharks and Toronto Maple Leafs, among others played in the National Hockey League .

Career

Finland and Sweden

Toskala played from the 1991/92 season to 1994/95 in various youth teams of Ilves Tampere . As a reward for the good performance in the Finnish youngsters, he was appointed to the junior national team in 1995 to take part in the European ice hockey championship in Berlin . There, too, he convinced in four games with an average of 2.50 goals against and was the goalkeeper of the professional team of Ilves in the Finnish SM-liiga for the following season . Until the end of the 1998/99 season he remained there regular goalkeeper in Tampere and established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the league. During this time he also played three A-World Championships , in which he knew how to convince.

For the 1999/00 season Toskala moved to the Swedish top club Färjestad BK in the Elitserien . There he played 44 games and at the end of the season he made five appearances for the Finnish national team at the World Cup , where he won the bronze medal with the team.

National Hockey League

In the summer of 2000, Toskala then ventured overseas. But initially he could not convince in the training camp of the San Jose Sharks and ended up on the farm team with the Kentucky Thoroughblades in the American Hockey League . There he achieved a good catch rate of 91.1 percent in 44 games. The following year he came to his first NHL appearance, but played most of the time in the AHL with the Cleveland Barons . So it was in the following season, before he finally prevailed as number 2 behind Yevgeny Nabokow in 2003/04 and so came to 28 missions. The Sharks failed only one round before the Stanley Cup finals at the Calgary Flames in six games.

Vesa Toskala in the jersey of the San Jose Sharks

In the following season he played nine games in Finland at Ilves Tampere due to the lockout , with which he reached the playoffs .

The 2005/06 season was his best season so far. At the beginning of the playoffs, he ousted Nabokow and became the new number 1. The elimination in the second round against the Edmonton Oilers , however, he could not prevent. In the 2006/07 season he first shared the post of goalkeeper with Nabokow. After an injury, however, he lost his place and had to be content with the post as a replacement. Due to the goalkeeper situation with two possible starters in their ranks, Toskala was given to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a number of draft picks as part of the NHL Entry Draft 2007 together with Mark Bell . For the next two and a half years, the Finn never lived up to management's expectations and shared the goalkeeping post with Swedish rookie Jonas Gustavsson in the first half of the 2009/10 season .

On January 31, 2010 he was given to the Anaheim Ducks together with striker Jason Blake . In return, Jean-Sébastien Giguère moved to Toronto. Toskala stayed in Anaheim for just over a month, however, during which he did not complete a game for the Ducks. On the last day of the transition period he was sent to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Curtis McElhinney , for whom he was in goal in six NHL games. After the end of the season, Darryl Sutter , General Manager of the Flames, announced that Toskala would not get a new contract.

Return to Europe

Initially without a club, he was signed on November 1, 2010 by the Swedish AIK Solna from the Elitserien for a month. In June 2011 he returned to Ilves Tampere and received a two-year contract there, which was not fulfilled because of the end of his career in October 2015.

Since the 2015/16 season he has been working as a goalkeeping coach at the Finnish second division club Kiekko-Vantaa .

Achievements and Awards

Career statistics

Regular season Play-offs
season team league GP W. L. T MIN GA SO ATM GP W. L. T MIN GA SO ATM
1995-96 Ilves Tampere SM-liiga 37 14th 14th 7th 2073 109 1 3.16 2 0 2 - 78 11 0 8.46
Koo-Vee Mestis 2 1 1 0 119 5 1 2.51 - - - - - - - -
1996-97 Ilves Tampere SM-liiga 40 22nd 12 5 2270 108 0 2.85 8th 3 5 - 479 29 0 3.63
1997-98 Ilves Tampere SM-liiga 43 26th 13 3 2554 118 1 2.77 9 6th 3 - 519 18th 1 2.08
1998-99 Ilves Tampere SM-liiga 33 21st 12 0 1966 70 5 2.14 4th 1 3 - 248 14th 0 3.39
1999-00 Färjestad BK Elitserien 44 2652 118 3 2.67 7th - 439 19th 0 2.59
2000-01 Kentucky Thoroughblades AHL 44 22nd 13 5 2466 114 2 2.77 3 0 3 - 197 8th 0 2.43
2001-02 Cleveland Barons AHL 62 19th 33 7th 3574 178 3 2.99 - - - - - - - -
San Jose Sharks NHL 1 0 0 0 9 0 0 0.00 - - - - - - - -
2002-03 Cleveland Barons AHL 49 15th 30th 2 2824 151 1 3.21 - - - - - - - -
San Jose Sharks NHL 11 4th 3 1 536 21st 1 2.35 - - - - - - - -
2003-04 San Jose Sharks NHL 28 12 8th 4th 1540 53 1 2.06 - - - - - - - -
2004-05 Ilves Tampere SM-liiga 3 0 1 2 186 8th 0 2.58 6th 3 3 - 357 19th 0 3.19
2005-06 Cleveland Barons AHL 1 0 0 1 65 0 1 0.00 - - - - - - - -
San Jose Sharks NHL 37 23 7th 4th 2039 87 2 2.56 11 6th 5 - 686 28 1 2.45
2006-07 San Jose Sharks NHL 38 26th 10 1 2142 84 4th 2.35 - - - - - - - -
2007-08 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 66 33 25th 6th 3837 175 3 2.74 - - - - - - - -
2008-09 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 53 22nd 17th 11 3056 166 1 3.26 - - - - - - - -
2009-10 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 26th 7th 12 3 1393 85 1 3.66 - - - - - - - -
Calgary Flames NHL 6th 2 0 0 212 8th 0 2.26 - - - - - - - -
SM-liiga total 156 83 52 17th 9049 413 7th 2.75 29 13 16 - 1681 91 1 3.36
Elitserien total 44 2652 118 3 2.67 7th - 439 19th 0 2.59
AHL total 156 56 76 15th 8929 443 7th 2.98 3 0 3 - 197 8th 0 2.43
NHL overall 260 127 82 30th 14554 671 13 2.76 11 6th 5 - 686 28 1 2.45

International

Represented Finland at:

year team event GP W. L. T MIN GA SO ATM
1995 Finland U18 European Championship 4th 240 4th 2.50
1996 Finland U20 World Cup 4th 204 15th 4.41
1997 Finland U20 World Cup 4th 250 12 2.88
1998 Finland WM Without any effort
1999 Finland WM Without any effort
2000 Finland WM 5 299 15th 0 3.02
2004 Finland World cup Without any effort
Juniors overall 12 694 31 3.26
Men overall 5 299 15th 0 3.02

( Legend for the goalkeeper statistics: GP or Sp = total games; W or S = wins; L or N = defeats; T or U or OT = draws or overtime or shootout defeats; min. = Minutes; SOG or SaT = shots on goal; GA or GT = goals conceded; SO = shutouts ; GAA or GTS = goals conceded ; Sv% or SVS% = catch quota ; EN = empty net goal ; 1  play-downs / relegation ; italics : statistics not complete)

Web links

Commons : Vesa Toskala  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ sportsnet.ca Former Leafs, Sharks goalie Toskala retires
personal data
SURNAME Toskala, Vesa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Toskala, Vesa Dabani (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish ice hockey player
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH Kangasala