Arto Markus Laatikainen (born May 24, 1980) is a Finnish 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 ...

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

. He is currently playing with HPK of the Finnish

Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mesti ...

. Laatikainen was selected by the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

in the 7th round (197th overall) of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. Laatikainen played the 2013–14 season for hometown club,

Espoo Blues Kiekko-Espoo is a Finnish professional ice hockey club founded in 2018 as a continuation of the Kiekko-Espoo team originally founded in 1984. Kiekko-Espoo men's team plays in the Liiga, where they were promoted for the 2024–25 Liiga season, 20 ...

in the

. He played 614 league games for

, which is more than any other player ever played for the team.

Notable awards and honours

*2007-08: Pekka Rautakallio trophy for best defenceman of the season in the

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* 1980 births Living people Espoo Blues players Färjestad BK players JYP Jyväskylä players New York Rangers draft picks Södertälje SK players Finnish ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Espoo 21st-century Finnish sportsmen {{Finland-icehockey-defenceman-stub