Ari Ahonen (born February 6, 1981) is a Finnish former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) 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. In ice hockey, two o ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

. He was drafted in the first round, 27th overall, by the

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The club was founded as the Kans ...

in the

1999 NHL Entry Draft The 1999 NHL Entry Draft was the 37th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 26 at the FleetCenter in Boston. According to ''Sports Illustrated'' and other sports news agencies, at the time the 1999 draft was considered one of the deepest in talen ...

. Ahonen is the only goaltender in SM-liiga history to have represented all three teams in the greater

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

area: HIFK, Jokerit and Blues.

Playing career

After playing three seasons in Finland's

SM-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 leagu ...

, representing JYP and

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 ...

, Ahonen joined the Devils'

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 ...

affiliate, the

Albany River Rats The Albany River Rats were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Albany, New York at the Times Union Center. History Before the formation of the franchise Without a viable indoor arena with an ...

. After five seasons with the River Rats, Ahonen returned to Finland in 2006 to represent Blues, but when he found himself serving as backup to

Bernd Brückler Bernd Brückler (born August 26, 1981 is an Austrian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the Austrian Hockey League (EBEL), the Finnish Liiga, and the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Playing career Brückler started hi ...

, Ahonen signed with

Jokerit Helsingin Jokerit (English: Jokers or Jesters) are a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team won six league championships as a member of the Finnish SM-liiga (1973, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2002). Jokerit plays its ...

when no less than three of their goaltenders were injured. With

Ahonen have won silver medals in 2007. During the 2011–12 season Ahonen signed a two-year deal with

Metallurg Magnitogorsk Metallurg Magnitogorsk (russian: Металлург Магнитогорск) is a professional ice hockey team based in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. They are members of the Kharlamov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League. They a ...

of the

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 b ...

(KHL). Ahonen later continued in the KHL, joining

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

based,

Barys Astana Hockey Club Barys ( kk, Барыс хоккей клубы , translit=Barys Hokkei Kluby), also referred to as Barys Astana or HC Barys, is a professional ice hockey team based in Astana, Kazakhstan. It is one of the founding members of the Kontine ...

, for the 2013–14 season.

Career statistics

Regular season

Awards and honours

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahonen, Ari 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Jyväskylä Albany River Rats players Espoo Blues players Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Kazakhstan Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Russia Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Finnish ice hockey goaltenders Frölunda HC players HIFK (ice hockey) players Jokerit players National Hockey League first-round draft picks New Jersey Devils draft picks KalPa players Barys Nur-Sultan players Metallurg Magnitogorsk players