Raimo Ilmari Helminen (born 11 March 1964 in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

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 Finnish 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 ...

player. He is often called "Raipe" or "Maestro" by his fans. He is the world record holder for most international games played by a hockey player, as well as for tied for being the hockey player in the most Olympic Games, and his 26 seasons as a professional is one of the longest careers in professional hockey history. In the 2022-2023 season he is serving as the assistant coach of

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 ...

Personal life

He has a wife, Leena, and two children, Anssi and Nelli.

Professional career

Early years

Helminen has himself said that he developed most of his skills when he was young and spent all his free time playing in outdoor ice rinks in

Koivistonkylä Koivistonkylä (also nicknamed Koikkari among the locals) is a district located in the southern part of Tampere, Finland. It borders Nekala in the north, Rautaharkko in the west, Taatala in the south and Veisu in the east. Many ice hockey playe ...

. Before he focused on ice hockey he had also played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. Helminen started his career in his native town, playing for one of oldest teams in the country,

. After two gold medals in junior leagues, Helminen got to play for Ilves 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 ...

, Finland's top ice hockey league, in 1982. His first international success came in 1984 when Finland won silver in the U20 World Championship tournament in Sweden. Helminen broke the record for most points scored in an under-20 tournament and was selected for the All-Star team. This attracted the attention of people scouting new talent for the professional teams in the

National Hockey League 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 ...

in North America. That spring Helminen also took part in his first

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

NHL

The following season he was one of the best players for Ilves, being the second highest scorer for his team and third overall in the league. As the centre of the first line, he led Ilves to a league championship victory for the first time in the league's history. The

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

drafted him in the

1984 NHL Entry Draft The 1984 NHL Entry Draft was the 22nd NHL Entry Draft. It took place on June 9, 1984, at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec. The 1984 Entry Draft is noted for the unusually high number of future Hall of Famers picked, particularly in lower ...

as their second pick (2nd round, number 35), and Helminen headed for 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 ...

in the fall of 1985. He finished his rookie season with an outstanding 40 points in 66 games. The next fall, however, the new team management sold most of their young players and Helminen ended up with the

Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...

Difficulties and success

The next season proved more difficult, and Helminen ended up playing a lot in the minor leagues. In the fall of 1987 he returned to home soil to play for Ilves again. He proved to be a success and secured a place in the national team for the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Calgary 1988 ( bla, Mohkínsstsisi 1988; sto, Wîchîspa Oyade 1988 or ; cr, Otôskwanihk 1998/; srs, Guts� ...

. There he helped his country win their first

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

medal (silver) in ice hockey. His performance included 10 points in seven games and assisting two goals in Finland's surprise 3–1 victory over gold medal hopefuls Canada. The tournament left

scouts wondering why this player was not playing in North America. Eventually Helminen got another chance to play in the

, this time for 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 ( ...

Back problems and Sweden

In the spring of 1988 Helminen started having back problems that would hinder his career for the next couple of years. Because of this injury his 1988–89 season for the Islanders was a disappointment—although he played spectacularly for New York's AHL

Springfield Indians The Springfield Indians were a minor professional ice hockey franchise, originally based in West Springfield, Massachusetts and later Springfield, Massachusetts. The Indians were founding members of the American Hockey League. They were in existen ...

farm team for a month—and he left the Islanders for

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

IF in Sweden. Helminen's play in

Malmö IF Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popu ...

was at times very good and he earned the respect of the fans. However, his back would not heal properly until the summer of 1992 after Malmö had won the Swedish

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 ...

, the top ice hockey league in the country. After being

's first ever foreign scoring winner in 1993, Helminen helped

win another championship in 1994.

Late career

In 1996 Helminen returned again to his home town to play for Ilves and quickly became a fan favorite again. In 1998 Ilves won silver medals in the

and Helminen was voted the best player of the season. He was also selected for the league's All-Star team in three consecutive years having remained one of the top scorers. Helminen also made the SM-liiga record for most penalty minutes in one game with (55PIM), when he first spat towards the referee and after that tried to assault him, first with his stick and then with his fists, verbally abusing the referee all the while. In 2014 Markus Palmroth broke the record with 59 PIM. :fi:SM-liigan jäähyennätys Helminen served as the captain of Ilves from 1999 until the end of his career in 2008, although he was temporarily stripped of his captaincy during the 2006–07 season after being thrown out during a game (he was reinstated after one game). At 44 years of age, Helminen was the oldest active player during the SM-liiga 2007–08 season. Helminen officially retired after the 2007–08 SM-liiga season ended for Ilves, when they were defeated by Kärpät in the quarter-finals of the SM-liiga playoffs.

International play

Helminen played in a few international tournaments throughout the 1980s and was on the silver winning team of the

. This was almost the last international glory Helminen was ever to get as then current National team head coach

Pentti Matikainen Pentti Matikainen (born October 5, 1950 in Joensuu, Finland) is a Finnish hockey coach and general manager. He was selected the SM-liiga coach of the year in 1984. As the coach of the Finnish national ice hockey team, he led Finla ...

decided that Helminen's time in the national team was over. After Matikainen was fired and the new head coach, Swede Curt "Curre" Lindström took over in 1994 Helminen was re-instated to the national team. In the 1990s Finland began gaining consistent success in international ice hockey. This included World Championship medals 1994 (silver) and 1995 (gold) and

medals in 1994 (bronze) and 1998 (bronze). Helminen remained a favourite pick in the national team consistently through the decade and played an important role in the national team's successes. Helminen participated in 11

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

tournaments between 1985 and 2002. Helminen holds a world record of most international games. Helminen played a total of 331 times for Finland and scored 52 goals and assisted 155, totaling 207 points. His number originally was 14, but he had to change it to 41 when Ilves retired 14 in honour of

Lasse Oksanen Lasse Kalevi Oksanen (born December 7, 1942) is a retired professional ice hockey player who mostly played in the SM-liiga. He played for Ilves. Oksanen played 23 years as a professional ice hockey player and ended his career in 1983, with the F ...

, a former player of the team. Helminen continued to wear 14 when he played for Team Finland. At the beginning of the 2008–09 season, Ilves announced that Helminen's number 41 would also be retired. The 2002 World Championship Tournament was Helminen's last World Championship tournament callup since Helminen was dropped as the last player from the 2003 World Championship squad by

Hannu Aravirta Hannu Aravirta (born 26 March 1953) is a Finnish ice hockey player and an ice hockey coach for the Finnish national men's team, SM-liiga and Elitserien. Career as player Aravirta was born in Savonlinna, and made his first professional appeara ...

In February 2008, Helminen returned to the national team for one game, his farewell match. Finland faced the Czech Republic in the LG Hockey Tournament, which is part of the European Hockey Tour. Although the tournament is held in Sweden, the match was played in Tampere, which is Helminen's hometown. Helminen recorded an assist on a goal scored by

Tuomas Pihlman Tuomas Pihlman (born November 13, 1982) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey Left Wing who played in the Finnish Liiga with JYP Jyväskylä. He also played in 15 games for the New Jersey Devils in the National Hockey League The Nat ...

four seconds before the end of the game. Finland won the game 6–1. In 1998, Helminen and

Dieter Hegen Dieter Hegen (born April 29, 1962 in Kaufbeuren, West Germany) is a retired professional ice hockey player who played in the Eishockey-Bundesliga and its replacement the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. Playing career Hegen began playing for his hometown ...

(Germany) became the third and fourth ice hockey players to compete at five Olympics, after

Udo Kießling Udo Kießling (born 21 May 1955) is a German retired ice hockey player. He competed at all Winter Olympics from 1976 to 1992, thus becoming the first ice hockey player to compete at five Olympics. He represented West Germany at the 1984 Canada ...

(Germany) and Petter Thoresen (Norway). Helminen's appearance at the 2002 Olympics made him the first ice hockey player to compete at six Olympics, with compatriot

Teemu Selänne Teemu Ilmari Selänne (; born July 3, 1970) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey winger. He began his professional career in 1989–90 with Jokerit of the SM-liiga and played 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Winnipe ...

becoming the second in 2014.

Coaching career

Helminen has been assistant coach of Ilves since late parts of the 2009–10 season, when Juha Pajuoja got the job as the head coach. Pajuoja was sacked in late October in 2011 and replaced by Seppo Hiitelä. He was also assistant coach of the Finnish U20 team in the 2010 and 2011 World Championship, before being promoted to head coach for the 2012 tournament.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Coaching history

Head Coach * Finland U20,

World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), or simply the "World Juniors" in ice hockey circles, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is t ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

2020 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 events, COVID- ...

2013,

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 ...

* TPS 2020-21,

* HC Pustertal 2021-2022, ICEHL Asst. Coach *

2010–2012,

* Finland U20,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Barys Astana Hockey Club Barys ( kk, Барыс хоккей клубы , translit=Barys Hokkei Kluby), also referred to as Barys Astana or HC Barys, is a professional ice hockey team based in Astana, Kazakhstan. It is one of the founding members of the Kontine ...

2014-2015,

KHL The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs b ...

Dinamo Riga Dinamo Riga ( lv, Rīgas Dinamo) is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It is a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LLU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of ...

2015-2016,

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 ...

2016-2019,

2022-2023,

Awards

Kanada-malja The Kanada-malja is an ice hockey club championship trophy, awarded annually to the winner of the Finnish Liiga playoffs. Kanada-malja is Finnish for "Canada Bowl"; the trophy is so named because it was donated by Canada's Finnish community in 195 ...

champion – 1984-85 *

, Runners-up – 1997-98 *

, Bronze – 2000-01 *

Le Mat Trophy The Le Mat Trophy ( sv, Le Mat-pokalen, "Le Mat Cup") is the trophy awarded to Swedish champions in ice hockey, which since 1976 has been the winners of the SHL playoffs. The Le Mat is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in ...

champion – 1991-92, 1993-94 * Swedish Division 1, Promotion (Malmö) – 1989-90 *

Lasse Oksanen trophy The Lasse Oksanen trophy is an ice hockey trophy awarded by the Finnish Liiga to the best player of the season during regular season play. Trophy winners: 1993-94: Esa Keskinen ( TPS) 1994-95: Saku Koivu (TPS) 1995-96: Juha Riihijärvi (Lukko) ...

for best player during the SM-liiga regular season – 1998 *

Kultainen kypärä Kultainen kypärä ("the Golden Helmet") is an ice hockey award given to the best player in the Finnish Liiga. It is voted for by the players. It has been awarded since 1987. In addition, a long running tradition by Veikkaus is for the current best ...

trophy for best player as voted by the players – 1998

Achievements

*Best Player of Team Finland with

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 P ...

and

Jarmo Myllys Jarmo Pentti Kalevi Myllys (born 29 May 1965) is a Finnish people, Finnish former professional ice hockey goaltender. He was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars as their ninth-round pick, #172 overall, in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft. He is currently ...

( World Championships 1984) *All Star Team ( World Championships 1984;

1987–88, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99) *Most assists (

, 1992–93) *Most points (

, 1993–94) *The first foreign player to be the top scorer of the Swedish

(1993–94) *Best Player (

1997–98) *Most assists (155) and points (207) scored for Team Finland *World record holder for most international games played (331) *One of the only two (with Selänne) ice hockey players who have participated in six

Sarajevo 1984 The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр� ...

Calgary 1988 ) , nations = 57 , athletes = 1,423 (1,122 men, 301 women) , events = 46 in 6 sports (10 disciplines) , opening = February 13, 1988 , closing = February 28, 1988 , opened_by = Governor General Jeanne Sauvé , cauldron ...

Albertville 1992 ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

, Lillehammer 1994, Nagano 1998 and Salt Lake City 2002 *

International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Inter ...

(2012)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Helminen, Raimo 1964 births Finnish ice hockey centres Finnish ice hockey world championship gold medalists Ice hockey players at the 1984 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1988 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1992 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1994 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ice hockey people from Tampere Ice hockey players with retired numbers Ilves players IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Living people Malmö Redhawks players Minnesota North Stars players New Haven Nighthawks players New York Islanders players New York Rangers draft picks New York Rangers players Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players of Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for Finland Springfield Indians players Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics