Sami Kapanen

Sami Kapanen (born 14 June, 1973, in Vantaa, Finland) is a retired Finnish professional ice hockey player. He played mostly as a right winger. He is the older brother of Kimmo Kapanen. On June 2, 2008 he announced his retirement from the NHL after 12 seasons and will play the 2008–09 season for KalPa Kuopio in Finland. On May 27th 2010 he announced his retirement and that he would take a new job as the general manager of KalPa.

Playing career
Kapanen was drafted 87th overall in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft by the Hartford Whalers. His first NHL season was in 1995–96, when he played 35 games with Hartford. The Whalers relocated to become the Carolina Hurricanes. In his next five seasons with Carolina Kapanen averaged 24 goals and 35 assists with his best season coming in 2001–02 when he scored 27 goals and 42 assists for 69 points.

On February 7, 2003, Kapanen was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers along with Ryan Bast for Pavel Brendl and Bruno St. Jacques. In two seasons with Philadelphia, Kapanen played 31 playoff games, scoring 17 points.

Kapanen has played three times for Finland at the Winter Olympics. In 18 Olympic games he scored 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points. In the NHL, Kapanen has played 831 regular season games, scoring 189 goals and 269 assists for 458 points. He has also played in 87 playoff games, scoring 13 goals and 22 assists for 35 points. Kapanen also won a gold medal at the 1995 Ice Hockey World Championships.

Since 2003, Kapanen has also been the majority owner of Finnish hockey team KalPa Kuopio, the same club that gave him his start as a professional. One of the minority owners is Kimmo Timonen who, in 2007 became Kapanen's teammate on the Flyers. Following the 2007–08 season, Kapanen announced that he would be returning to Finland to play for KalPa.

Trivia

 * Though he played as a right winger, he also had enough experience as a defenceman so that he could change his position from forward to defence even during a game (e.g in the 2010 Ice Hockey World Championship game between Finland and Russia when Finland lost two if its defencmen Kapanen was moved to that position).

Awards

 * Bronze Medal at the Winter Olympics in 1994.
 * Named to the SM-liiga First All-Star Team in 1994.
 * Bronze Medal at the Winter Olympics in 1998.
 * Played in the NHL All-Star Game in 2000.
 * Played in the NHL All-Star Game in 2002.
 * Awarded the Yanick Dupre Memorial in 2004.
 * Awarded the Gene Hart Memorial Award in 2007.

Records

 * Tied a record for scoring two consecutive overtime goals in two consecutive games. (Since broken by Andrew Cogliano)
 * Fastest Man on ice awarded when he completed a lap around an NHL rink in 12.7 seconds.