Jorma Juhani Valtonen (born 22 December 1946) 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 ...

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 hock ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

who played in the

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 ...

. Valtonen, who was born in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

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 ...

, played for

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 ...

, TPS, RU-38 and

Ässät Ässät or Ässä may refer to: * HC Ässät Pori Oy, Finnish sports club ** Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) ** Porin Ässät (women's ice hockey) ** Porin Ässät (men's football) ** PATA (esports) *, Finnish band from Oulu *S Group, Finnish Con ...

. In Italy Valtonen played for

HC Gherdëina Hockey Club Gherdëina, also known as HC Gardena, currently named HC Gherdeina valgardena.it due to sponsorship reasons, is an Italian ice hockey team, which plays in the Alps Hockey League, having formerly played in the top division of Italian i ...

and

HC Alleghe HC Alleghe is a professional ice hockey team in Alleghe, Italy. The team plays in the country's second-tier Italian Hockey League and play at Stadio Alvise De Toni. The team was the surprise winners of the 1992-93 Alpenliga. They were formerly c ...

. In West Germany he played for EHC 70 München on season 1980–81. He was inducted into the

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame The Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is housed in and administered by the ('Finnish Ice Hockey Museum'), a part of the Vapriikki Museum Centre, in Tampere, Finland. The was founded in 1979 with the mission to record, document, and exhibit objects, ...

in 1989 and

IIHF Hall of Fame The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Interna ...

in 1999. Valtonen was the goalie for the Finnish Olympic team in 1980 that placed 4th and lost to the U.S. 4–2 in the final game, that earned the U.S. their improbable gold medal. Valtonen has been an Italian league champion and a three-time Finnish league champion. After retiring, Valtonen became a coach. He was head coach of the

Finland women's national ice hockey team The Finnish women's national ice hockey team represents Finland at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women's World Championships, the Olympic Games, the Four Nations Cup, and other international-level wom ...

and the TPS women's team before becoming the goaltending coach of the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Hockey Club Lokomotiv (russian: ХК Локомотив, en, Locomotive HC), also known as Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, is a Russian professional ice hockey team, based in the city of Yaroslavl, playing in the top level Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) ...

. He was not aboard the flight of the

2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash On 7 September 2011, YAK-Service Flight 9633, a Yakovlev Yak-42 air charter, charter flight operated by Yak-Service, YAK-Service carrying players and coaching staff of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional ice hockey team, crashed on take-off nea ...

, when all players from the main roster, four players from the youth team, and eleven staff members perished in that crash, except for main roster player

Maxim Zyuzyakin Maksim Valerevich Zyuzyakin (Russian: Максим Валерьевич Зюзякин) (born 13 January 1991) is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is currently under contract to HC Khimik Voskresensk in the Supreme Hockey League (VHL ...

, who was also not aboard the plane. Valtonen was asked to stay behind to work with the junior team. In 2015, Valtonen returned to Italy to become goaltending coach of his former team HC Gherdëina. He currently serves as goaltending coach of

Asiago Asiago (; Venetian: ''Axiago'', Cimbrian: ''Slege'', German: ''Schlägen'' ) is a minor township (population roughly 6,500) in the surrounding plateau region (the ''Altopiano di Asiago'' or '' Altopiano dei Sette Comuni'', Asiago plateau) in ...

References

External links

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame page
* 1946 births Living people Ässät players Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Finnish ice hockey goaltenders HC TPS players Ice hockey players at the 1972 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1980 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1984 Winter Olympics IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Jokerit players Olympic ice hockey players of Finland Serie A (ice hockey) players Sportspeople from Turku {{Finland-icehockey-goaltender-stub