Eerikki Koivu (born 29 December 1979 in

Kokkola Kokkola (; sv, Karleby, ) is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. The town is located in the Central Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, region. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

) is a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

who is currently playing for

Lørenskog IK Lørenskog Ishockeyklubb (founded in 1963) is a Norway, Norwegian ice hockey team based in Lørenskog, Norway. The team competed in GET-ligaen from 2008 to 2018. In May 2018, the club did not receive a new licence, due to long-term economic proble ...

in Norway's

GET-ligaen Eliteserien, known as Fjordkraftligaen due to sponsorship, is the premier Norwegian ice hockey league, organised by the Norwegian Ice Hockey Association. It comprises 10 clubs and works on the premise of promotion and relegation, in which the tw ...

Career

Until 2004, Koivu had played two seasons in

Ligue Magnus The Ligue Magnus, currently known as Synerglace Ligue Magnus for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's division of the French ice hockey pyramid, established in 1906. The league operated under a variety of names before taking that of its champion ...

and the rest of his career in

Mestis Mestis (from fi, Mestaruussarja, meaning 'Championship series') is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division'). ...

, the second tier of Finnish hockey. In the 2004–05 season, he played his first five games in

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

with JYP and continued in the team for 2005-06 and 2006–07 seasons. He moved to Norway in 2007 to play with

. After playing four seasons in Norway, he received eligibility to play for the Norwegian national team, and he was selected to play at the

2011 IIHF World Championship Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''E ...

External links

* * 1979 births Living people People from Kokkola Norwegian ice hockey players Finnish ice hockey defencemen Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in France Ducs d'Angers players Hokki players JYP Jyväskylä players Lørenskog IK players Storhamar Dragons players Sportspeople from Central Ostrobothnia {{Finland-icehockey-defenceman-stub