Matti Virmanen (born November 30, 1960 in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

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 ...

) is a retired

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 ...

player and currently a professional scout for the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

. In addition, he works as a player coordinator for Finnish hockey league team Vaasan Sport.

Playing career

Jokerit

During his playing career, Virmanen played his only

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 ...

games 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 ...

. Virmanen played 4 games for Jokerit in 1980/81 SM-liiga season. During his junior seasons for Jokerit, Virmanen played on the same junior team with future

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 ...

-player,

Esa Tikkanen Esa Tikkanen (born January 25, 1965) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey forward. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Pan ...

Years in Norway

After Jokerit, Virmanen played 4 seasons for

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

team

Djerv Djerv (Majuscule: Ꙉ, Minuscule: ꙉ ) is one of the Cyrillic alphabet letters that was used in Old Cyrillic. It was used in many early Serbo-Croatian monuments to represent the sounds and (modern đ/ђ and ć/ћ).Maretić, Tomislav. ''Gramati ...

. Virmanen led the Norwegian League in points for 1982/83 season.

Return to Finland and Retirement

After his seasons in Norway, Virmanen returned to Finland and settled to

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Greater Helsinki, Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa i ...

-area. Virmanen finished his playing career in Vantaa-HT for which he played for couple of seasons. Virmanen retired in 1997. Virmanen made a short return as player in 2001/02 season when he played for

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

team LeKi-75.

Career after Retirement

After Retirement, Virmanen worked in

organization, which he had joined in 1992. Virmanen replaced

Leena Harkimo Leena Harkimo ( Alamäki; born 28 March 1963) is a Finnish business executive and ex-politician. Political career In 1999, Harkimo was elected Member of Parliament from the Uusimaa constituency, representing the centre-right National Coalitio ...

as the General Manager for Jokerit in 1999. Virmanen's tenure as General Manager ended in 2008 when he was moved to work as the Director of Sports Activities for Jokerit. Virmanen was succeeded as GM of Jokerit by

Keijo Säilynoja Keijo Henrik Säilynoja (born February 17, 1970, in Vantaa, Finland) is a retired Finnish ice hockey player Playing career Jokerit (1988-1998) Säilynoja started his career for Jokerit in 1988, while the team was playing in Finnish First Divi ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Virmanen, Matti 1960 births Living people Edmonton Oilers scouts Jokerit players Kiekko-Vantaa players Ice hockey people from Helsinki Finnish ice hockey forwards