Ville Pokka

Ville Pokka (born on June 3, 1994 in Tornio) is a Finnish professional ice hockey defenceman who plays with the Avangard Omsk of the KHL. He was selected 34th overall by the New York Islanders in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

Club career
Pokka began his junior career with the TIHC organisation and since 2009, he played junior hockey with the Kärpät organisation.

Pokka made his senior debut in the 2010-11 season when he played 2 games with the Kärpät of the SM-liiga and 3 games on loan with the Kiekko-Laser of the Mestis while he also played 3 regular season games and 9 play-off games with the Kärpät under-18 team and 32 regular season games and 1 relegation game with the Kärpät under-20 team.

In the 2011-12 season, Pokka played mostly with the Kärpät of the SM-liiga. He played there 35 regular season games and 9 play-off games in this season. He played 4 games with the junior team of the Kärpät in this season. He was also loaned to the Kiekko-Laser of the Mestis, but he did not play in a single game with the Kiekko-Laser in this season.

The 2012-13 season was Pokka's last junior season. He played 47 regular season games and 3 play-off games with the Kärpät of the SM-liiga and 3 games with the junior team of the Kärpät organisation.

In the 2013-14 season, he continued playing for the Kärpät of the Liiga (formerly SM-liiga). Kärpät won the Liiga in this season and Pokka won the Matti Keinonen Trophy for the player with the best plus/minus (+32).

In 2014, Pokka moved to North America and started playing with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. He stayed there until the middle of the 2017-18 season. In the 2014-15 season, he was selected into the AHL All-Rookie Team.

After 46 games played in the 2017-18 season, he moved to the Belleville Senators of the AHL where he finished the season with 23 games played.

Since 2018, Pokka is playing with the Avangard Omsk of the KHL. In the 2018-19 season, he was the player who blocked most shots (73) in the play-offs. In the 2019-20 season, he was the player who had most blocked shots (161). In the 2020-21 season, he became the KHL Gagarin Cup champion. Pokka is currently signed with the Avangard Omsk until the end of the 2021-22 season.

International career
Pokka played with the Finnish National Team at the 2011 World U17 Hockey Challenge, 2011 and 2012 World U18 Championship s, 2012, 2013 and 2014 World Junior Championship s (being selected one of the top 3 players on the Finnish team as he was the tournament's best player in plus/minus (+10) at the 2013 tournament and winning gold medal in 2014), 2016 and 2018 World Championship s (winning silver medal in 2016) and at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.