Petri Kontiola

Petri Kontiola (born on October 4, 1984 in Seinäjoki) is a Finnish ice hockey center with the Ilves of the Liiga. He was selected 196th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

Club career
Kontiola began his junior career with the S-Kiekko organisation. In 2001, Kontiola moved to the Tappara organisation.

He made his senior debut during the 2003-04 season when he played 12 regular season games and 10 play-off games with the Tappara under-20 team, 39 regular season games and 3 play-off games with the Tappara of the SM-liiga and 6 games on loan with the Suomi U20 of the Mestis.

In the 2004-05 season played Kontiola 1 game with the Tappara under-20 team and 54 regular season games plus 8 play-off games with the Tappara of the SM-liiga.

Kontiola then continued with the Tappara of the SM-liiga until the end of the 2006-07 season. In the 2005-06 season, he became the player with most assists (35) recorded in the SM-liiga.

Kontiola started out the 2007-08 season with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL, before he played his first NHL game with the Chicago Blackhawks on November 25, 2007 against the Vancouver Canucks. All in all, Kontiola played 12 games with the Chicago Blackhawks and 66 regular season games and 12 play-off games with the Rockford IceHogs in the 2007-08 season.

Kontiola started the 2008-09 season with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. On March 4, 2009, after 61 games played, Kontiola was traded by the Blackhawks along with James Wisniewski to the Anaheim Ducks organisation in exchange for Samuel Pahlsson and Logan Stephenson and a conditional 2009 draft pick. He was immediately sent down to the Ducks' AHL affiliate, the Iowa Chops, and played out the remainder of the season. He finished there the season with 20 games played. In this season, Kontiola also played at the AHL All-Star Game.

On May 26, 2009, Kontiola was signed by the Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL to a two-year deal. In the 2010-11 season, Kontiola was selected to play at the KHL All-Star Game, but decided to not participate at the game.

On May 3, 2011, Petri Kontiola has been announced as the new player of the KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk. He stayed there until the end of the 2013-14 season. In the 2012-13 season, he was the player who scored most game-winning goals (3) in the play-offs, most goals (10) in the play-offs and most points (19) in the play-offs.

Kontiola tried his luck in North America once again at the beginning of the 2014-15 season. He played 11 games scoring 0 points with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. Then Kontiola decided to return to Europe and finished the 2014-15 season with the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL. He played there 26 regular season games and 6 play-off games in the 2014-15 season.

Kontiola then continued with the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl until the end of the 2018-19 season.

In the 2019-20 season played Kontiola with the Jokerit of the KHL.

In the following season, he played with the HPK of the Liiga (formerly SM-liiga). In this season, Kontiola won the Liiga Golden Helmet and the Veli-Pekka Ketola Trophy for the player who scored most points (55) in the Liiga.

In 2021, Kontiola signed a one-year contract with the Ilves of the Liiga.

International career
Kontiola made his international debut for Finland at the 2004 World Junior Championship in Helsinki scoring 2 points in 7 games to help earn a bronze medal. Kontiola was named to the Finnish National Team for the 2007 World Championship in Russia to make his senior debut. He finished among the Finnish leaders with 7 points in 9 games as Finland lost in the final to Canada to earn silver.

Kontiola returned to the Finnish team three years later when he was selected to the 2010 World Championship team in Germany. In seven games he scored 3 goals before suffering elimination on May 20, 2010, when he missed a penalty-shot in the quarterfinal shoot-out against the Czech Republic.

Kontiola then became a regular member of the Finnish team and played at the 2012 World Championship, 2013 World Championship (where he was named one of the top 3 players on the Finnish team, was named the best forward of the tournament as he scored most goals (8) and most points (16) at the tournament and made it into the tournament's all-star team), 2014 Olympics (winning there bronze), 2014 World Championship (winning there silver), 2015 World Championship and 2018 Olympics.