Erik Vesa Hämäläinen (born April 20, 1965 in

Rauma, Finland Rauma (; sv, Raumo) is a town and municipality of around () inhabitants on the west coast of Finland, north of Turku, and south of Pori. Its neighbouring municipalities are Eura, Eurajoki, Laitila and Pyhäranta. Granted town privileges on 17 ...

) is a left-handed retired

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

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 ...

. Hämäläinen currently is an Ice hockey coach, employed by SM-liiga team

Lukko Rauman Lukko (Finnish for "lock") is a Finnish sports club based in Rauma, Finland, best known for its men’s professional ice hockey team. The club was founded as Rauma Woodin Lukko in 1936. The representative team currently plays in the Fi ...

Playing career

Early career

Erik Hämäläinen started his professional career with his hometown team, Rauman

, which played in the Finnish

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 ...

. He debuted during the 1982–1983 Season. Lukko was demoted from SM-liiga after the 82–83 season, but gained promotion by winning the I-Divisioona in 1984. Hämäläinen played for six seasons (1982–1988) in Lukko. His last was cut short when an injury sidelined him for the most of the season. In 1989, Hämäläinen moved to Kuopio and started to play for

KalPa Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) is a professional ice hockey team which competes in the Finnish Liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Niiralan monttu, Olvi Areena. Team history Established in 1929 as ''Sortavalan Palloseura'' in Sortavala, the club r ...

. He stayed with KalPa for four Seasons (1989–1992) before transferring to Helsingin

Jokerit Helsingin Jokerit (English: Jokers or Jesters) are a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team won six league championships as a member of the Finnish SM-liiga (1973, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2002). Jokerit plays its ...

in 1992. During his three-year stint with Jokerit, he won a gold and silver medal to accompany his two silver medals from KalPa and Lukko. He also won the European bronze medal during his first season with Jokerit.

World Championship victory and move to Sweden

After winning the 1995 World Championships with Finland, Hämäläinen was acquired by

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

. He played with the Swedish team for three seasons (1995–1998). He returned to his old team of Rauman Lukko in 1998. During his three seasons with Lukko, he played twice in the playoffs, but the team failed to get a place in the finals.

To Switzerland

During the 2000–2001 season, Hämäläinen moved to play for SC Langnau, a Swiss team. After a disappointing season in Switzerland, he returned again to Rauma Lukko.

Late career and retirement

During the 2005–2006 season, he broke the record for most SM-liiga games played with his 865th game; the previous record was held by Pertti Lehtonen. Hämäläinen's record was broken 18 February 2012 when Jan Latvala played his 1002nd game. Hämäläinen played his last season during the 2007-08 SM-liiga season. Hämäläinen played his 1000th SM-liiga career game and after the season ended he announced his retirement from playing

Coaching career

Shortly after his announcement regarding his retirement, Hämäläinen was contracted to a 2+2 year contract by Lukko. Hämäläinen will start as an Assistant Coach for Lukko in the beginning of 2008–2009 SM-liiga season.

International play

Hämäläinen has played 108 games for Finland's national ice hockey team. He participated in four World Championship Tournaments (1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995), winning one gold medal (1995), two silver medals (1992, 1994). He was also part of the 1994 Olympic ice hockey team in Lillehammer, where the team won the bronze medal.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamalainen, Erik 1965 births AIK IF players Detroit Red Wings draft picks Finnish ice hockey defencemen Finnish ice hockey world championship gold medalists Ice hockey players at the 1994 Winter Olympics Jokerit players KalPa players Living people Lukko players Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players of Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey People from Rauma, Finland Sportspeople from Satakunta