Geoff Platt (born July 10, 1985) is a Canadian–Belarusian 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 h ...

player for

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, ...

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 lea ...

. He has also played for the

Växjö Lakers Växjö Lakers Hockey Club (often referred to as the Växjö Lakers or VLH) is a Swedish ice hockey club from Växjö in Sweden. The club plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top-level league of Swedish ice hockey, and ...

of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), KHL outfit Dinamo Minsk,

Ilves Tampere 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 cit ...

of the Finnish Liiga 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 Anaheim Ducks of 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 ...

(NHL). Born and raised in Canada, Platt played

major junior Junior hockey is a level of competitive ice hockey generally for players between 16 and 21 years of age. Junior hockey leagues in the United States and Canada are considered amateur (with some exceptions) and operate within regions of each cou ...

in the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overa ...

before spending several years between the NHL and its minor league affiliate the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

(AHL). In 2008 Platt received an offer to join Ilves in Finland, briefly playing in Belarus beforehand. He played in Finland for one season before returning to Minsk the following year, and spent nearly five full seasons with Dinamo before being traded to Lokomotiv in 2013. Platt had previously played for the Canadian national under-18 team, winning a gold medal at the

2003 IIHF World U18 Championships The 2003 IIHF World U18 Championships were held in Yaroslavl, Russia. The championships began on April 8, 2003 and finished on April 18, 2003. Games were played at Arena 2000 and Avtodizel Arena in Yaroslavl. Canada defeated Slovakia 3-0 in the fin ...

, but in 2012 he acquired Belarusian citizenship, and having satisfied the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

(IIHF) criteria, was able to represent

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

starting at the

2014 IIHF World Championship The 2014 IIHF World Championship was hosted by Belarus in its capital, Minsk, held from 9–25 May 2014. Sixteen national teams were competing in two venues, the Minsk-Arena and Chizhovka-Arena. It was the first time Belarus hosted the tournamen ...

held in Minsk.

Playing career

As a youth, Platt played in the 1999

Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament (french: Tournoi international de hockey pee-wee de Québec) is an annual minor ice hockey event in Quebec City. The tournament was founded in 1960 to coincide with the Quebec Winter Carnival, ...

with a

minor ice hockey Minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from c ...

team from North York. Platt played junior ice hockey in the

for the

North Bay Centennials The North Bay Centennials were a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League, who played from 1982–2002. The team was based in North Bay, Ontario. History The North Bay Centennials or "Cents" as they were popularly known, were named afte ...

Saginaw Spirit The Saginaw Spirit are a major junior ice hockey team based in Saginaw, Michigan. They are members of the West Division of the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), one of the Major Junior leagues of the Canadian Hockey League ...

and the

Erie Otters The Erie Otters are a Major junior ice hockey team based in Erie, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Midwest division of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), one of only three American teams in the circuit. The team name refers to the North Am ...

. He has played in the NHL with the

and the Anaheim Ducks. On February 26, 2012, after playing for five years with

Kontinental Hockey League 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 ba ...

's (KHL) Dinamo Minsk, Platt accepted Belarusian citizenship. In the 2013–14 season, as leading scorer of Dinamo Minsk in the midst of his 6th season with the club, Platt was traded to

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Hockey Club Lokomotiv (russian: ХК Локомотив, en, Locomotive HC), also known as Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, is a Russian professional ice hockey team, based in the city of Yaroslavl, playing in the top level Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) ...

for monetary compensation on December 30, 2013. He was later signed to a two-year contract extension with Lokomotiv through to the 2016 season on January 3, 2014. On August 16, 2015, a few days before the start of the new KHL season,

broke the contract with him. Lokomotiv's general manager explained this by the uncertain legal status of foreign players in KHL (Lokomotiv had signed 6 foreign players including him while the limit of foreign players for the Russian clubs is only 5 players in the roster) and by Geoff's lack of the Russian passport. Two days later he signed a contract with

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet era, it was a central piece of the big So ...

. Platt left Moscow upon the conclusion of the 2015–16 campaign and took his game to Sweden, signing with the

of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) on June 23, 2016. On December 14, 2016, he returned to CSKA Moscow for a second stint. On May 7, 2019, Platt signed as a free agent to a two-year contract to continue in the KHL with

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg HC Avtomobilist (russian: Автомобилист Екатеринбург) are a professional ice hockey team based in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. They replaced Khimik Voskresensk in the Kontinental Hockey League in 2009. Histo ...

. In the midst of his final year under contract with Avtomobilist in the

2020–21 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 b ...

, Platt left the club after collecting six points through 28 games and signed for the remainder of the season with

Salavat Yulaev Ufa Hockey Club Salavat Yulaev (russian: Хоккейный клуб «Салават Юлаев», Hokkejnyj klub «Salavat Julajev»; ba, «Салауат Юлаев» хоккей клубы, «Salawat Yulayev» xokkey klubı), commonly referred ...

on December 21, 2020. After the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

, he elected to leave the team. As a free agent, Platt opted to continue his career by returning to the Finnish

and agreed to a one-year contract with

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

, on July 11, 2022. However, on December 1, he and JYP Jyväskylä agreed to mutually terminate the contract, and then Platt signed with

for the rest of the 2022–23 season.

International play

Platt was a member of the Canadian national under-18 team during the

. He scored three goals in seven games as Canada won the gold medal. After acquiring Belarusian citizenship in 2012 and playing the required amount of time in Belarus, Platt became eligible to represent

in 2014. His first IIHF tournament at which he represented Belarus was the 2014 World Championship, which was held in Minsk. Platt scored three goals and two assists as Belarus finished seventh in the tournament.

Personal life

Platt is married to Finnish native Mia Platt since June 2015. They reside in Tampere, Finland during the off-season.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Platt, Geoff 1985 births Living people Anaheim Ducks players Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies players Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg players Belarusian ice hockey centres Canadian emigrants to Belarus Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Belarus Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Russia Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Canadian ice hockey centres Columbus Blue Jackets players Erie Otters players HC CSKA Moscow players HC Dinamo Minsk players Ice hockey people from Ontario JYP Jyväskylä players Lokomotiv Yaroslavl players Naturalized citizens of Belarus North Bay Centennials players Portland Pirates players Saginaw Spirit players Salavat Yulaev Ufa players Sportspeople from Toronto Syracuse Crunch players Tappara players Undrafted National Hockey League players Växjö Lakers players