Joseph Scott Finley (born June 29, 1987) is an American 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 h ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference to ...

. He played twenty-one games 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 ...

(NHL) with the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

and New York Islanders between 2011 and 2013. The rest of his career, which lasted from 2009 to 2018, was spent in the minor leagues and ended with three seasons with

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

in the Finnish

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 ...

. Finley was selected by the

Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, a ...

27th overall in the

2005 NHL Entry Draft The 2005 NHL Entry Draft was the 43rd NHL Entry Draft. Originally scheduled to be held on June 25, the 2004–05 NHL lockout led to the draft being postponed to July 30. Special procedures were required to determine the order of picks, because ...

Playing career

Finley played for the Edina Peewee A state championship team in 1999–2000. Finley was a standout playing Minnesota High School hockey for the Edina Hornets. Due to Finley's strong play and leadership his freshman year, he made the White line the following year. In 2005, he said that making the White Line may well have been the greatest accomplishment of his hockey career. Finley missed the majority of the 2009–10 season on injured reserve when on November 21, 2009, in a game with the Stingrays against the

Gwinnett Gladiators The Atlanta Gladiators are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Duluth, Georgia. The Gladiators play in the South Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. They play their home games at Gas South Arena, approximately northeast o ...

, he ruptured an artery in his hand which required surgery. On September 18, 2011, Finley accepted an invitation to training camp by the Buffalo Sabres. He impressed enough that he was signed to an AHL contract, and assigned to the Rochester Americans. Through the first quarter of the season, Finley was impressive as one half of the Americans shut-down defensive pairing. He led the Amerks in +/- with a +10. The Sabres and Finley reached a three-year contract on November 28, 2011, that will allow Finley to be called up by Sabres organization. Two days after the deal was completed, Finley was called up by the Sabres where he made his NHL debut against the Red Wings on December 2, 2011. Finley was the 475th player to play in the NHL after starting his career in the ECHL. Prior to the lockout shortened

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

NHL season, Finley was claimed off waivers from the Sabres by the New York Islanders on January 14, 2013. On July 29, 2014, Finley signed as a free agent to a one-year AHL contract with the

Hamilton Bulldogs The Hamilton Bulldogs are a major junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League that began to play in the 2015–16 season. Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the Bulldogs play their home games at FirstOntario Centre. They were purcha ...

. In the 2014–15 season, Finley appeared in 54 games with the Bulldogs, contributing with 3 assists and 132 penalty minutes. On October 8, 2015, Finley continued in the AHL, signing a one-year AHL deal with the Iowa Wild, an affiliate to the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

. In the 2015–16 season, Finley appeared in 56 games with Iowa, recording a professional high of 5 goals from the blueline. On June 21, 2016, Finley opted to pursue a career abroad, agreeing to a one-year deal with Finnish club, HIFK, of the Liiga. Before Finley had arrived to Helsinki in 2016 he already got a nickname, "The Red #3" after Lalli Partinen, a former defenseman who played for

in 1969–1977. On February 3, 2017, HIFK announced a two-year contract extension with Finley.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Finley, Joe 1987 births Living people American men's ice hockey defensemen Bridgeport Sound Tigers players Buffalo Sabres players Edina High School alumni Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) players Hershey Bears players Ice hockey players from Minnesota Iowa Wild players National Hockey League first-round draft picks New York Islanders players North Dakota Fighting Hawks men's ice hockey players Rochester Americans players Sioux Falls Stampede players South Carolina Stingrays players Sportspeople from Edina, Minnesota Washington Capitals draft picks