Magnus Pääjärvi

Magnus Karl Svensson Pääjärvi (born on April 12, 1991 in Norrköping), surname also known as Pääjärvi Svensson, is a Swedish professional ice hockey left/right winger. He currently plays with the Dynamo Moskva of the KHL. He was selected in the 1st round, 10th overall by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

Early life
Magnus Pääjärvi Svensson is the son of retired ice hockey player and coach Gunnar Svensson and Ingrid Maria Svensson-Pääjärvi, and younger brother of Björn Svensson. He was born in Norrköping while Gunnar was the coach and manager of IK Vita Hästen. He uses the hyphenated surname in honour of his maternal grandfather, who was Finnish.

Club career
Pääjärvi started playing ice hockey at the age of six. He started playing junior hockey with the Malmö Redhawks organisation. During the 2005–06 season when he was fourteen years old he made his debut for the Malmö Redhawks in the J20 SuperElit, and scored eight goals in eight games during TV-pucken and led Skåne to a silver medal. He also scored two goals when Malmö won the final of the Swedish Championship for sixteen year olds. The following season he got a more regular role for Malmö Redhawks in the J20 SuperElit, and again led Skåne to a silver medal in TV-pucken.

In 2007, he signed with Timrå IK where his older brother, Björn, played for the senior team. He made his Elitserien debut on September 24, 2007, at age sixteen, five months, and twelve days, becoming the fourth youngest player in Elitserien's history. During the game he recorded an assist on Timrå IK's 1–0 goal in the first period of play. His first goal was a game winning 1–0 goal against HV71 on February 16, 2008, assisted by linemate Anton Lander. All in all, he played 35 regular season games and 11 play-off games with the Timrå IK of the Elitserien, 18 games with the team's U20 squad and 5 games with their U18 team during the 2007-08 season.

In the 2008-09 season, Pääjärvi played only 1 game with the junior team of the Timrå IK, but played 50 regular season games and 7 play-off games with the Timrå IK of the Elitserien.

Magnus was drafted 10th overall by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. He was also selected 19th overall by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the 2009 KHL Entry Draft.

He continued with the Timrå IK also in the 2009-10 season recording 29 points in 49 regular season games and later 1 point in 5 play-off games. He was announced to be a nominee for 2009–10 Elitserien Rookie of the Year on January 20.

Edmonton Oilers
On June 2, 2010, it was announced that he had signed a three-year entry level contract with the Edmonton Oilers of the NHL. On September 2, 2010, it was announced that Magnus would be shortening his name for the NHL to Magnus Pääjärvi and will wear the number 91 on his jersey.

On September 23, 2010, (in his first preseason game with the Oilers) Pääjärvi scored a hat-trick and registered an assist for 4 points, as the Oilers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2.

On October 7, 2010, Pääjärvi played his first NHL game with the Oilers when they played their arch-rivals, the Calgary Flames. He scored his first NHL goal nine days later, on October 16, 2010, against Flames net-minder, Miikka Kiprusoff.

Pääjärvi finished the 2010-11 NHL season with 34 points, good enough for 6th on team scoring.

The 2011-12 season was not the most successful for Pääjärvi. After recording 3 points in 25 games and sitting in the press box for 6 games, Pääjärvi was sent to the Oklahoma City Barons of the AHL. He finished the season with 41 games played and 8 points scored with the Oilers and 34 regular season games played and 29 points scored and 11 points recorded in 14 play-off games with the Barons.

The 2012-13 was similar to the previous one. Pääjärvi played 42 games with the Oilers recording 16 points and 38 games with the Barons scoring 20 points.

St. Louis Blues
In 2013, Pääjärvi started his journey with the St. Louis Blues of the NHL. He spent the whole 2013-14 with the Blues recording 12 points in 55 games. Then he played for the most of the 2014-15 season with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. In this season, he played there 36 regular season games in which he recorded 29 points and then 5 play-off games in which he scored 4 points. He also played 10 games with the Blues recording 1 assist in the 2014-15 season.

In the 2015-16 season, Pääjärvi played 48 games in the regular season and 3 play-off games with the Blues recording only 9 points in the regular season and 1 point in the play-offs. He also played 7 games with the Wolves recording 7 points.

During the next season, he played 32 regular season games recording 13 points and 8 play-off games recording 3 points with the Blues and 26 games scoring 18 points with the Wolves.

Pääjärvi also began the 2017-18 season with the Blues but was traded midseason. He played with the Blues 44 games during this season scoring only 4 points.

Ottawa Senators
Pääjärvi began playing with the Ottawa Senators of the NHL in the middle of the 2017-18 season. He played with the Senators 35 games in the 2017-18 season recording 8 points.

He also spent there the 2018-19 season with 80 games played and 19 points scored.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
In 2019, Pääjärvi returned to Europe and signed with the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL on October 22, 2019. He spent there the 2019-20 season playing 39 regular season games in which he scored 19 points and 6 play-off games with 2 points recorded.

He also began the 2020-21 season there and played there another 26 games and scored 11 points before moving to the Dynamo Moskva.

Dynamo Moskva
Pääjärvi is playing with the Dynamo Moskva of the KHL since the November 30, 2020.

International career
Pääjärvi made his international debut for Sweden at age fourteen with the under sixteen team during the 2005–06 season, the following season he became the scoring leader for the under sixteen team.

In 2007, he won with the Swedish team the 2007 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.

During the 2008 World Junior Championship in Pardubice and Liberec, Czech Republic, at sixteen years and eight months old he became the youngest player ever to play for Sweden during a World Junior Hockey Championship. During the tournament he scored one goal, and helped Sweden to the finals when assisting Mikael Backlund on Sweden's overtime game winning goal against Russia in the semifinal. Sweden took silver medals from this championship. In 2008, Pääjärvi also played at the 2008 World U18 Championship.

In 2009, he participated at the 2009 World U18 Championship and at the 2009 World Junior Championship winning the second silver medal at the World Junior Championship.

Magnus played at the 2010 World Junior Championship winning the bronze medal and becoming one of the top 3 players of the Sweden at the tournament and at the 2010 World Championship where he led the Swedish team in scoring and with the best plus/minus at the championship was selected to the tournament all-star team and also was named one of the top 3 players of the Sweden at the tournament. Sweden won the bronze medal at this championship.

Pääjärvi also participated at the 2011 World Championship next year. Sweden won the silver medals this time.

Next big tournament at which Pääjärvi played was the 2018 World Championship where Sweden became the world champions.