Ice Hockey Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Tony Salmelainen
Position LW/RW
Shoots Right
Height
Weight
5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
185 lb (84 kg)
Nationalliga A Team
F. Teams
Genève-Servette HC
Edmonton Oilers
Chicago Blackhawks
Toronto Maple Leafs
Nationality FIN
Born (1981-08-08)August 8, 1981,
Espoo, FIN
NHL Draft 41st overall, 1999
Edmonton Oilers
Pro Career 2003 – present

Tony Salmelainen (born August 8, 1981 in Espoo, Finland) is a Finnish professional ice hockey forward who plays for Genève-Servette HC and formerly for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the Russian Super League. He was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers as their second-round pick in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft.

Salmelainen started his ice hockey career as a junior player in the Blues organisation, and moved to HIFK for his SM-liiga debut in the 1999-2000 season. In an eventful debut, Salmelainen scored his first goal in his very first shift, and was injured later in the game. He played 19 games for HIFK next season, and transferred to Ilves to get more ice time.

After two seasons with Ilves, Salmelainen moved to North America, where he spent three years with the Edmonton Oilers organization, playing in 13 NHL games in the 2003–04 NHL season.

When the NHL resumed play in 2005, Salmelainen returned to HIFK. He played an excellent season, including setting a personal record by scoring a five-goal, six-point night against the Pelicans in a home game on October 10, and culminating in being chosen best player of the regular season after leading the league in points and goals.

Salmelainen also made headlines during the 2005–06 season when he was sent off during a game against HPK, and threw a trashcan down the corridor to the dressing rooms in anger. After narrowly missing goaltender Jan Lundell, the trashcan accidentally hit his team's bus driver, who was injured in the face. Salmelainen was interrogated by the police and received a two-game suspension.

Salmelainen's NHL player rights were traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Chicago Blackhawks for defensman Jaroslav Špaček on January 26, 2006. In the summer of 2006, he signed a new contract with the Blackhawks. On June 16, 2007, he was traded, with Jassen Cullimore, to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange of Sergei Samsonov.

On August 31, 2007, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Salmelainen to a one year, two-way contract.

On October 23, 2007, Tony Salmelainen was suspended by the Toronto Maple Leafs for failing to comply with the terms of his contract. It was reported that he had signed to play for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv of the Russian Super League for almost $1.5-million (U.S.).[1]

His father, Tommi Salmelainen, was the first European ever to be drafted by an NHL team.

Awards[]

Career statistics[]

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1999–00 HIFK SM-liiga 1 1 0 1 0 -- -- -- -- --
2000–01 HIFK SM-liiga 19 1 0 1 6 -- -- -- -- --
2000–01 Ilves SM-liiga 26 3 10 13 4 3 0 0 0 0
2001–02 Ilves SM-liiga 49 10 9 19 30 3 0 0 0 2
2002–03 Hamilton Bulldogs AHL 67 14 19 33 14 17 6 8 14 0
2003–04 Toronto Roadrunners AHL 58 19 25 44 27 3 0 1 1 0
2003–04 Edmonton Oilers NHL 13 0 1 1 4 -- -- -- -- --
2004–05 Edmonton Road Runners AHL 76 22 24 46 26 -- -- -- -- --
2005–06 HIFK SM-liiga 53 27 28 55 63 4 1 0 1 2
2006–07 Chicago Blackhawks NHL 57 6 11 17 26
NHL Totals 70 6 12 18 30 -- -- -- -- --

References[]

External links[]

Preceded by
Tim Thomas
Winner of the Lasse Oksanen trophy
2005–06
Succeeded by
Cory Murphy
Preceded by
Steve Kariya
Winner of the Veli-Pekka Ketola trophy
2005–06
Succeeded by
Martin Kariya
Preceded by
Pasi Saarela
Winner of the Aarne Honkavaara trophy
2005–06
Succeeded by
Jani Rita
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Tony Salmelainen. 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).


Advertisement