| Simo Saarinen | |
| |
| Position | Defence |
| Shoots | Left |
| Height Weight |
5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 178 lb (81 kg) |
| Teams | HIFK Helsinki New York Rangers |
| Born | February 14, 1963, Helsinki, FIN |
| NHL Draft | 193rd overall, 1982 New York Rangers |
| Pro Career | 1980 – 1996 |
Simo Saarinen (born February 14, 1963 in Helsinki, Finland) is a retired professional ice hockey defenceman
Playing career[]
Simo Saarinen started his career for his hometown team HIFK Helsinki. Saarinen played once in the European Junior Ice Hockey Championships and twice in the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships and was soon noticed by NHL scouts. Saarinen was drafted by New York Rangers 193rd overall in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft. After the 1984 Olympic Ice Hockey tournament Saarinen went to the NHL. Saarinen was injured during his debut season for the New York Rangers. Due to the injuries Saarinen did not play in the 1985–86 season and returned to HIFK for 1986–87 season. Saarinen played for HIFK until 1996 when he finally retired from active playing.
After retirement[]
After retiring in 1996 Saarinen started to referee ice hockey games in Finland. Saarinen refereed his first SM-liiga games in the 2001–2002 SM-Liiga season. Currently Saarinen referees hockey games in Helsinki and Southern Finland area.
International play[]
| Olympic medal record | ||
| Men's Ice hockey | ||
|---|---|---|
| Silver | 1988 Calgary | Ice hockey |
Saarinen played twice for Finland in Ice Hockey World Championships and three times in Olympic Hockey Tournament. Saarinen was part of the historic 1988 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey Team which won Finland's first international tournament medal, a silver one.
External links[]
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Simo Saarinen. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA). |