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Anssi Salmela
Position Defence
Shoots Left
Height
Weight
6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
190 lb (86 kg)
NHL Team
F. Teams
Atlanta Thrashers
Tappara
Pelicans
New Jersey Devils
Born (1984-08-13)August 13, 1984,
Nokia, FIN
NHL Draft Undrafted
Pro Career 2003present


Anssi Salmela (born August 13, 1984 in Nokia, Finland) is a Finnish professional ice hockey defenceman currently playing for the Atlanta Thrashers of the National Hockey League.

Playing career[]

Undrafted, Salmela's professional career started in the 2003–2004 season with Finnish SM-liiga side Tappara, where he made his debut on January 24, 2004. His place was settled in Tappara for another year, but the next year he was transferred to Pelicans. In 2007 he moved back to Tappara again.

Salmela was a member of the Finnish team that won a bronze medal in the World U20 Championship. He made his debut for the senior national team in the 2008 World Championship held in Canada in 2008. On May 22, 2008, he signed a one-year, two-way contract with the New Jersey Devils of the NHL.

In the 2008–09 season, Salmela made his NHL and North American debut with New Jersey in the season opener on October 10, 2008, in a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders. However, Salmela spent the majority of his time with the Devils affiliate the Lowell Devils of the American Hockey League (AHL). On March 2, 2009, Salmela was traded by the Devils to the Atlanta Thrashers for Niclas Hävelid. In his second game with the Thrashers Salmela scored his first career NHL goal in a 5-1 win against the Washington Capitals on March 16, 2009.

Awards and achievements[]

  • 2007–08 SM-Liiga Bronze Medal
  • 2007–08 Juha Rantasila -palkinto (most goals for defender in SM-Liiga)

Career statistics[]

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2003–04 Tappara Tampere SM-l 10 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 2
2004–05 Tappara Tampere SM-l 48 1 5 6 49 8 0 0 0 0
2005–06 Tappara Tampere SM-l 8 0 1 1 0
2005–06 Pelicans SM-l 48 8 8 16 59
2006–07 Pelicans SM-l 56 11 12 23 58 6 1 1 2 4
2007–08 Tappara Tampere SM-l 56 16 16 32 40 11 0 6 6 14
2008–09 New Jersey Devils NHL 17 0 3 3 6
2008–09 Lowell Devils AHL 38 8 16 24 41
2008–09 Chicago Wolves AHL 2 0 0 0 0
2008–09 Atlanta Thrashers NHL 9 1 2 3 2
SM-l totals 226 36 42 78 208 28 1 7 8 20
NHL totals 26 1 5 6 8

International play[]

Medal record
Competitor for Flag of Finland Finland
Ice hockey
World Championships
Bronze 2008 Quebec City Ice hockey
World Junior Championships
Bronze 2004 Helsinki Ice hockey

Played for Finland in:

International statistics[]

Year Team Comp GP G A Pts PIM
2004 Finland WJC 7 1 2 3 6
2008 Finland WC 8 0 0 0 37
Junior int'l totals 7 1 2 3 6
Senior int'l totals 8 0 0 0 37

External links[]


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Anssi Salmela. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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