Markus Mikael Hännikäinen (born 26 March 1993) is a Finnish professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player. Hännikäinen is currently under contract with

Adler Mannheim The Adler Mannheim (English: ''Mannheim Eagles'', formerly Mannheimer ERC) is a professional ice hockey team of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the highest-level ice hockey league in Germany. The team is based in Mannheim, a city in the northern par ...

in the

Deutsche Eishockey Liga The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called Penny (supermarket), PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga) (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a professional ice hockey league in Germany and the highest division in German i ...

(DEL).

Playing career

Hännikäinen recorded a break-out season with 19 goals and 27 assists for 46 points with 51 penalty minutes and a +22 plus/minus rating in 60 games with

JYP Jyväskylä JYP is an ice hockey team playing in the Finnish top division Liiga. They play in Jyväskylä, Finland, at the Synergia-areena, LähiTapiola Areena. History JYP was founded in 1923. First it was the ice hockey section of the sports club ''Jyväsk ...

in the 2014–15 season. After Hännikäinen's

Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mesti ...

team,

was eliminated from the playoffs by

Oulun Kärpät Oulun Kärpät (Finnish language, Finnish for "Oulu Stoat, 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 champion ...

it was announced on 20 April 2015 that Hännikäinen had signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. On 21 January 2017, during an afternoon game against the

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Hurricanes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Con ...

, Hännikäinen scored his first NHL goal. He recorded his first NHL assist on February 25, 2017, against the

New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (N ...

. On 21 March 2017, he signed a two-year contract extension through to 2019 with the Blue Jackets. In his first full season with the Blue Jackets in 2018–19, Hännikäinen recorded four goals and three assists for seven points with two penalty minutes in 44 games with the Blue Jackets, setting single-season career highs in goals, points and games played. On 18 June 2019, Hännikäinen as an impending restricted free agent agree to a one-year contract extension with the Blue Jackets. Approaching his fifth year within the Blue Jackets organization in the 2019–20 season, Hännikäinen was unable to retain his roster spot and was familiarly assigned to the Cleveland Monsters. Having made 28 appearances with the Monsters, on 24 February 2020, Hännikäinen was traded by Blue Jackets to the

Arizona Coyotes The Arizona Coyotes are an inactive professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. They competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division (1996–1998, 2021–2024) and ...

in exchange for a conditional seventh-round pick in

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. He was assigned to AHL affiliate, the

Tucson Roadrunners The Tucson Roadrunners are a professional ice hockey team based in Tucson, Arizona. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League's (NHL) Utah Mammoth. They play their home games at the Tucson Convention Cente ...

, adding 3 goals in 7 appearances before the season was abandoned due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. As a free agent from the Coyotes, and with the following season to be affected by the ongoing pandemic, Hännikäinen opted to remain in his native Finland by returning to original club,

Jokerit Helsingin Jokerit (, English: Joker (playing card), Jokers or Jesters of Helsinki) is a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland, which competes in Mestis. Jokerit plays its home games at the Helsinki Ice Hall and Helsinki Halli in ...

of the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs. It was considered in ...

(KHL), on 16 December 2020. During the 2021–22 season, Hännikäinen posted 16 points through 44 regular season games before Jokerit withdrew from the KHL due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. As a free agent from Jokerit, Hännikäinen completed the season with

of the

. On 28 May 2022, Hännikäinen opted to sign a one-year contract with Swedish club,

Linköping HC Linköping Hockey Club, often known by its Acronym, initials LHC, or Colloquialism, colloquially among its fans as Cluben, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Linköping, founded in 1976. The home arena of the team is Saab Arena (for ...

of the SHL, for the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season. In 46 regular season games, Hännikäinen added 8 goals and 11 assists for 19 points. Unable to help propel Linköping to the post-season, Hännikäinen left the club as a free agent on 15 March 2023. Hännikäinen returned to former club, Adler Mannheim of the DEL, after signing a one-year contract for the 2023–24 season on 10 August 2023.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honours

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hannikainen, Markus 1993 births Living people Adler Mannheim players Cleveland Monsters players Columbus Blue Jackets players Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Finnish ice hockey left wingers HPK players Jokerit players JYP Jyväskylä players Kiekko-Vantaa players Lake Erie Monsters players Linköping HC players Ice hockey people from Helsinki Tucson Roadrunners players Undrafted National Hockey League players 21st-century Finnish sportsmen