Jarmo Kekäläinen (born July 3, 1966) is a

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 ...

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 ...

executive and former player who briefly played in the

National Hockey League 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 ...

(NHL) with the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

and

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

. Kekäläinen serves as the general manager of the

Columbus Blue Jackets The Columbus Blue Jackets (often simply referred to as the Jackets) are a professional ice hockey team based in Columbus, Ohio. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ...

Playing career

Kekäläinen began his hockey career in his native Finland, playing for four years in Finland with a number of teams as well as for Finland in the 1986

World Junior Ice Hockey Championship The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), or simply the "World Juniors" in ice hockey circles, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is t ...

. Kekäläinen then played for the

Clarkson Golden Knights The Clarkson Golden Knights are composed of 20 teams representing Clarkson University in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women's alpine skiing, basketball, cross country, ice hockey, lacrosse, nordic skiing, soccer, and swimming. Men' ...

for three years, establishing himself and gaining interest from professional teams. In his second year with the Knights, he scored 44 points in 31 games and was named to the

ECAC Hockey League ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relati ...

first all star team. In his third year with the Knights, he scored 18 points in eight games before signing with the

. Kekäläinen played parts of two seasons with the Bruins before returning to Finland, where he played for another two years. For the 1993-1994 season, Kekäläinen went back to North America, where he signed with the

. He played briefly with the Senators that season, playing in 28 games. The following season, Kekäläinen played in Sweden before retiring in 1995 because of knee problems which were caused by injuries.

Executive career

Immediately after retirement Kekäläinen became involved with front office work in many capacities. He was general manager of IFK Helsinki in the Finnish Elite League from 1995 to 1999, during which time IFK won one

Kanada-malja The Kanada-malja is an ice hockey club championship trophy, awarded annually to the winner of the Finnish Liiga playoffs. Kanada-malja is Finnish for "Canada Bowl"; the trophy is so named because it was donated by Canada's Finnish community in 19 ...

and finished as the runner-up to TPS the following year. During this time with IFK, Kekäläinen also worked in several capacities with the Ottawa Senators. After he left Finland in 1999 Kekäläinen became director of player personnel for the Senators until 2002. While with the Senators he helped in selecting future NHL stars Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, and

Ray Emery Raymond Robert Emery (''né'' Nichols; September 28, 1982 – July 15, 2018) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for eleven seasons, between 2003 and 2015. Emery was chosen 99th over ...

. In 2002 Kekäläinen joined the St. Louis Blues as assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting, where he helped draft much of the core of the team in the early 2010s, including defenseman

Alex Pietrangelo Alexander Pietrangelo (born January 18, 1990) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and alternate captain for the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously played for the St. Louis Blues for parts of twe ...

and forwards T. J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund, David Perron, and David Backes. After being passed over for the Blues' general manager job for Doug Armstrong, Kekäläinen returned to Finland to take the general manager job with

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 h ...

. While with Jokerit, Kekäläinen had an unwritten escape clause with ownership that permitted him to leave if he was offered a general manager job in the NHL. That opportunity came on February 13, 2013, when after

Scott Howson Donald Scott Howson (born April 9, 1960) is a Canadian ice hockey executive and former player. He was formerly the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played 18 games in the NHL with the New York I ...

was fired the previous day, the

' president of hockey operations John Davidson, under whom Kekäläinen had worked while with the Blues, hired Kekäläinen to be the new general manager of the Blue Jackets. As a result, Kekäläinen became the first European general manager in the National Hockey League. On April 28, 2021 Kekäläinen was named assistant general manager of Finland's national team for the 2022 Olympic Games.

Personal life

Kekäläinen has a bachelor's degree in management from Clarkson, and graduated with a M.Sc. (Econ.) in marketing from the

University of Tampere The University of Tampere (UTA) ( fi, Tampereen yliopisto (Tay), ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019. The university offered u ...

in 2000. He was selected as the alumnus of the year in 2018. Kekäläinen has a wife and two daughters.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

*
St. Louis Blues profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kekalainen, Jarmo 1966 births Living people Boston Bruins players Clarkson Golden Knights men's ice hockey players Columbus Blue Jackets executives Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Canada Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Finnish ice hockey administrators Finnish ice hockey left wingers Ilves players KalPa players Maine Mariners players National Hockey League general managers Ottawa Senators executives Ottawa Senators players Prince Edward Island Senators players Ice hockey people from Tampere St. Louis Blues executives St. Louis Blues scouts Tappara players Undrafted National Hockey League players VIK Västerås HK players