Lasse Pirjetä (born April 4, 1974) 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 ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He represented several teams 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 ...

Frölunda HC Frölunda Hockey Club, previously known as the Frölunda Indians, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where th ...

in the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Elitserien Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan. Elitserien leagues at present: * Elitserien (badmint ...

and 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, ...

and

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...

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 ...

Playing career

Pirjetä spent the majority of his first nine years of his professional career playing in his native Finnish league the SM-Liiga. After nominating, Pirjetä was selected by the

as their fifth-round pick, 133rd overall, in the

2002 NHL Entry Draft __NOTOC__ The 2002 NHL Entry Draft was the 40th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 22 and 23, 2002 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. Two hundred and ninety-one players were drafted in total: 35 from the Ontario Hockey League (OHL); ...

, as an overage draftee. Pirjetä made the jump to the NHL immediately in 2002–03 season with the Blue Jackets, appearing in 51 games with a solid 21 points. In the following 2003–04 season, Pirjetä struggled to maintain his form from his debut season and was traded by the Blue Jackets, to the

, for

Brian Holzinger Brian Alan Holzinger (born October 10, 1972) is an American former professional ice hockey center. He played in the National Hockey League with the Buffalo Sabres, Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Playing c ...

on March 10, 2004. After starting the 2005–06 season with Pittsburgh, he was sent down to the Penguins' AHL team, the

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, and are the AHL affiliates of the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins. They play at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre ...

on December 15, 2005. After playing only 8 games with Wilkes-Barre on January 20, Pirjetä returned to Europe to play for the

Kloten Flyers EHC Kloten is an ice hockey team based in the city of Kloten in Switzerland. The team plays in the National League (NL). It has one of the best youth systems in Swiss ice hockey as its youth teams have won 19 championships during the last 50 year ...

in the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

NLA.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* 1974 births Living people Columbus Blue Jackets draft picks Columbus Blue Jackets players Finnish ice hockey centres Frölunda HC players HIFK (ice hockey) players EHC Kloten players Oulun Kärpät players Malmö Redhawks players Pittsburgh Penguins players Sportspeople from Oulu Syracuse Crunch players Tacoma Rockets players Tappara players HC TPS players Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players {{Finland-icehockey-centre-stub