Kristian Näkyvä (born 18 November 1990) is a Finnish 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 currently plays for

Örebro HK Örebro HK is a Swedish ice hockey club located in Örebro. The team is currently playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top tier of Swedish ice hockey, since the 2013–14 season. The team's home arena is Behrn Are ...

of the

Swedish Hockey League The Swedish Hockey League (officially SHL; sv, Svenska Hockeyligan) is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, an ...

(SHL).

Playing career

Undrafted, Näkyvä played as a youth within the Espoo Blues organization. He made his professional debut in the 2008–09 with the Blues with 2 assists in 6 games. After three seasons with the Blues, Näkyvä signed with rivals JYP in search of regular playing time at the Liiga level on 18 May 2011. Näkyvä established himself within the blueline of JYP and after three seasons in which he won a Championship in 2012 and found a place in the international squad he opted to leave his native Finland and signed a three-year contract with Luleå HF of the

on 9 June 2014. In his debut season in Sweden in the 2014–15 season, Näkyvä was an instant success in co-leading the league in goals from the blueline with 10 and finishing 5th in scoring with 29 points. Näkyvä performances gained NHL interest and after just one season with Luleå, he cut short his contract with the club to sign a one-year entry-level contract with the

Nashville Predators The Nashville Predators (commonly referred to as the Preds) are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and ha ...

on 24 April 2015. In the 2015–16 season, Näkyvä was assigned to the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

with affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. Unable to earn a recall to the Predators, Näkyvä appeared in 69 games for 10 points. On 18 May 2016, Näkyvä opted to leave the Predators organization after one season to return to Sweden in signing a two-year contract with Linköping HC of the SHL.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* 1990 births Living people Espoo Blues players Finnish ice hockey defencemen JYP Jyväskylä players Kiekko-Vantaa players Linköping HC players Luleå HF players Milwaukee Admirals players TuTo players Örebro HK players Ice hockey people from Helsinki {{Finland-icehockey-defenceman-stub