Esa Pirnes (born April 1, 1977) is a Finnish former 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 h ...

centre. He began and concluded his 21 year career playing for

Oulun Kärpät Oulun Kärpät ( Finnish for "Oulu Ermines", sometimes referred to as Kärpät Oulu) is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Oulu and playing in the top-tier Finnish Liiga. Kärpät have won the Finnish championship title eight time ...

of the Finnish

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 ...

. Pirnes was selected by the

Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference a ...

in the 6th round (174th overall) of the

2003 NHL Entry Draft The 2003 NHL Entry Draft was the 41st NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee on June 21 and 22, 2003. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was selected first overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins. This was ...

Playing career

Pirnes started his career with Kärpät in the Finnish second league in 1995 and played with them until 1999, when he signed with

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 ...

club

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

. He stayed with the Blues for two seasons before he moved to rivals

Tappara Tappara (; Finnish for "Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the Liiga. They play at '' Tampere Deck Arena'' in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 18 Finnish league championships (1959, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 197 ...

in 2001. In 2003, he was drafted by the Kings after four good seasons in SM-Liiga. Pirnes went over the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe a ...

to play in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. But he did not have the same success in NHL as he had in Finland. Despite playing 57 games with LA he only scored 11 points. Before the season was over he also played a few games with the Kings's farm team, Manchester Monarchs of the AHL. He was named to team

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 Bot ...

in the

2004 World Cup of Hockey The 2004 World Cup of Hockey was an international ice hockey tournament. It was the second installment of the National Hockey League (NHL)-sanctioned competition, eight years after the inaugural 1996 World Cup of Hockey. It was held from August ...

roster, but did not play a game. But he did not stay in the NHL, instead he went back home to Finland and signed with

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 ...

for the 2004/05 season. After one year in Lukko he moved back to his former club, Blues. But after the season he signed with his fifth club in five years, Swedish club Färjestads BK, for the 2006/07 season. In Färjestad he was re-united with his former teammate from Lukko, Janne Niskala. In the Season 2008/2009 Pirnes signed to play for

Atlant Moscow Oblast Hockey Club Atlant Moscow Oblast (russian: ХК Атлант Московская область, en, Atlas Hockey Club Moscow Region) was a Russian professional ice hockey team based in Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast. They were members of the Bobr ...

and left the club on May 6, 2009 the club to sign with

Jokerit Helsingin Jokerit (English: Joker (playing card), 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) ...

. In May 2012, Pirnes signed with

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 ...

of the Swedish Elitserien (SEL). Sometime in 2020, Pirnes became the European Development Coach for the New Jersey Devils of the NHL.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pirnes, Esa 1977 births Living people AIK IF players Atlant Moscow Oblast players Espoo Blues players Expatriate ice hockey players in Russia Färjestad BK players Finnish ice hockey centres Los Angeles Kings draft picks Los Angeles Kings players Lukko players Manchester Monarchs (AHL) players Oulun Kärpät players Sportspeople from Oulu Tappara players EV Zug players