Michael Keränen (born 4 January 1990) 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 ...

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 ...

who is currently playing with

Bietigheim Steelers SC Bietigheim-Bissingen, also known as the Bietigheim Steelers, is a professional ice hockey team based in Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany. They currently play in DEL, the highest-level league in Germany. Prior to the 2021—22 season they played i ...

in the

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

(DEL).

Playing career

Undrafted, Keränen first played as a youth in his native Finland with

Tappara Tappara (; Finnish for "Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the Liiga. They play at ''Tampere Deck Arena'' in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 18 Finnish league championships (1959, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, ...

before moving to

Ilves Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the city ...

as a 17-year-old. Keränen made his professional debut 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 ...

with Ilves at the conclusion of the 2009–10 season. After his fifth season with Ilves, in which he led the team in scoring with 52 points in as many games, Keränen initially signed as a free agent on a one-year contract with rival Finnish Liiga club,

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

on 30 April 2014. A little over a month later, Keränen exercised his NHL out clause to leave HIFK and sign his first NHL contract on a one-year, two-way deal with the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

on 5 June 2014. In the following 2015–16 season, Keränen returned to the

Iowa Wild The Iowa Wild are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, that began play for the 2013–14 season. The team plays at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, as the AHL affiliate of the NHL's Minnesota Wild. The team was f ...

for a second season. He was leading Iowa in goals when on 17 November 2015, he received his first recall to the Wild. Making his NHL debut later that night against the

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 ...

. He was promptly returned to the AHL and on 29 February 2016, he was dealt by the Minnesota Wild, executing a minor league trade deadline deal, to the Ottawa Senators in return for defenseman

Conor Allen Conor Jay Allen (born January 31, 1990) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman. He played with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Playing career Prior to his enrollment at UMass Amherst, Allen played his ...

. On 28 April 2016, Keränen ended his North American tenure in agreeing to return to Finland in signing a two-year contract with Jokerit of the KHL. Keränen and Jokerit parted ways by mutual consent in late November 2016. He had appeared in 25 KHL contests for the club, with two goals and five assists. On 6 December 2016, he returned to

, where he once had made his

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 ...

debut. Near the end of the 2017-18 season, with 5 games remaining in the regular season with KooKoo, Keränen -who was their leading scorer despite having missed 20 games- decided to leave the team with no playoffs hopes and joined

Genève-Servette HC The Genève-Servette HC (also called Servette or GSHC) is a professional ice hockey club based in Geneva, Switzerland and competing in the National League (NL), the top tier of the Swiss hockey league system. The team plays their home games at the ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

on a one-year contract worth CHF 700,000 for the remainder of the season to help Geneva make a playoff push. Keranen was paid CHF 175,000 of this contract. He eventually appeared in three games with Geneva, scoring one goal and left the team in the summer to join

Mora IK Mora IK (or Mora Ishockeyklubb) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Mora in northern Dalarna. After failing the 2019 SHL qualifiers, Mora has been relegated for play in the second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan. Mora has previously pla ...

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 ...

. On 3 September 2019, Keränen returned to Switzerland in the second division, to play for

EHC Visp EHC Visp is a Swiss professional ice hockey team based in Visp and competing in the Swiss League (SL). The club was founded in 1939 and became Swiss champion in 1962. Visp has also won the league title in NLB three times; 1960, 2011 and 2014. The ...

of the

Swiss League The Swiss League is the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the National League. The winners of the league each season plays a best-of-seven series against the bottom team of the NL, and if they win, th ...

. He was brought in to replace injured

Mark Van Guilder Mark David Van Guilder (born January 17, 1984) is an American former ice hockey player. He played one game in the National Hockey League with the Nashville Predators during the 2013–14 season. The rest of his career, which lasted from 2008 to ...

and Troy Josephs.

Career statistics

Awards and honours

References

External links

* 1990 births SC Bietigheim-Bissingen players Binghamton Senators players Finnish ice hockey forwards Genève-Servette HC players HIFK (ice hockey) players Iowa Wild players Ilves players Jokerit players KooKoo players Living people Minnesota Wild players Mora IK players Ice hockey people from Stockholm Undrafted National Hockey League players Vaasan Sport players EHC Visp players {{Finland-icehockey-winger-stub