Eero Kilpeläinen (born May 7, 1985) is a
Finnish former 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 ...
goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...
who last played for
KalPa in the
SM-liiga. He was selected by the
Dallas Stars
The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. The Stars compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The Stars ...
in the 5th round (144th overall) of the
2003 NHL Entry Draft.
Kilpeläinen leads the SM-liiga in played games (519) and shutouts (56). His number, 37, is retired by KalPa.
Career
Kilpeläinen started his hockey career with his hometown club
Juvan Pallo's juniors, but moved he to the
Jukurit juniors before finally joining the
KalPa juniors in 2001. He played one
Mestis game for KalPa in the 2002–03 season. He joined the
Peterborough Petes of the
OHL for the 2004–05 season.
Kilpeläinen joined the
Porin Ässät of the
SM-liiga for the 2005–06 season, but he got sent down to the Mestis with
Hermes Kokkola, playing 38 games with a save percentage of .912. For the 2006–07 season, he got the role of the starting goaltender with the Porin Ässät. He played 36 games with a save percentage of .907 and a goals against average of 3.27. In the 2008–09 season, Ässät finished 12th in the SM-liiga, and had to play the
playouts to keep their spot in the league. Kilpeläinen played 10 playout matches with a save percentage of .938 and GAA of 2.69, keeping Ässät in the SM-liiga after beating
Vaasan Sport in game seven of the relegation series.
He joined the SM-liiga team
Jokerit Helsinki for the 2011–12 season.
After playing the
2013–14 season in Switzerland with
EV Zug of the
National League A
The National League (NL) is a professional ice hockey league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss league system. Prior to the 2017–18 season, the league was known as National League A. During the 2018–19 season, the league h ...
, He returned to Finland in signing an optional four-year contract with his youth club, KalPa, on March 27, 2014.
In the 2016–17 season, Kilpeläinen won SM-liiga silver with KalPa. He was chosen into the All-Star team and he won the
Urpo Ylönen trophy, which is awarded for the best SM-liiga goalie each year.
Kilpeläinen played the years 2017–2019 in the
SHL with
Örebro HK. Kilpeläinen returned to KalPa in 2019.
Kilpeläinen retired in 2022, leading the SM-liiga in career games played (519) and shutouts (56).
His number was retired by KalPa in 2023.
References
External links
*
1985 births
Living people
Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) players
Dallas Stars draft picks
Finnish ice hockey goaltenders
Jokerit players
KalPa players
Peterborough Petes (ice hockey) players
EV Zug players
Örebro HK players
21st-century Finnish sportsmen
{{Finland-icehockey-goaltender-stub