Marko Kristian Kiprusoff (born June 6, 1972) is a Finnish former 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 an assistant junior coach in Finnish hockey club TPS.

Draft

He was drafted by the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

as their third-round pick, 70th overall, in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft.

Playing career

SM-liiga Career

Marko Kiprusoff started his hockey career with

TPS TPS or Tps may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Télévision Par Satellite, a French satellite television company *Third-person shooter, a game genre * Torsonic Polarity Syndrome, in ''South Park'' animation * Trailer Park Sex, a band from ...

. Kiprusoff also had a three-game visit to HPK during his earlier seasons 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 ...

. Kiprusoff earned a reputation as a solid offensive defenceman at TPS and after his successful performances for the Finnish National team and TPS, Kiprusoff was contracted by the

. Kiprusoff won the SM-liiga championship twice, in 1993 and 1995. Kiprusoff also captured the

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

with TPS in 1994.

First NHL visit

Kiprusoff spent the 1995–96 season with the

but he didn't make much of an impact in the NHL. Kiprusoff played 24 games for the Canadiens and 28 more for Montreal's AHL-affiliate, the

Fredericton Canadiens The Fredericton Canadiens, or the 'Baby Habs', were a professional ice hockey team in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The Canadiens played their home games at the Aitken Centre. They were a member of the American Hockey League from 1990 to 1999, and ...

Return to Europe

After his initial season in the NHL, Kiprusoff played two seasons in the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Elitserien Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan. Elitserien leagues at present: * Elitserien (badmint ...

for

Malmö IF Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, after which he returned to TPS in 1998. Kiprusoff won two more SM-liiga championships with TPS, making him a four-time SM-liiga champion. Kiprusoff then played the 2001–02 with the

New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (N ...

and played after that for

EHC Kloten EHC Kloten is an ice hockey team based in the city of Kloten in Switzerland. The team plays in the National League (NL). It has one of the best youth systems in Swiss ice hockey as its youth teams have won 19 championships during the last 50 year ...

in Switzerland. In 2004 Kiprusoff returned again to TPS, where he played until the end of the 2008-09 season. On 21 May 2009 he signed a contract with French team

Ducs d'Angers The Association des Sports de Glisse d'Angers is a French professional ice hockey team based in Angers playing in the Ligue Magnus. The team currently use the name of "Les Ducs d'Angers". The team's mascot is an eagle-owl, or grand duc (literally ' ...

of the

Ligue Magnus The Ligue Magnus, currently known as Synerglace Ligue Magnus for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's division of the French ice hockey pyramid, established in 1906. The league operated under a variety of names before taking that of its champio ...

. Kiprusoff made a two-year player/coach-contract with the Kuusamon Pallo-Karhut in June 2011. He played in Kuusamo in January 2011, one game, making two points.

International play

Kiprusoff was a mainstay on the Finnish national team during most of the '90s. Kiprusoff played 198 National Team games and was on the Finnish national team when they won Finland's first

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the I ...

gold medal in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. Kiprusoff's last international tournament callup was during the 2003 World Championship Tournament.

Awards

Pekka Rautakallio trophy The Pekka Rautakallio trophy is an ice hockey award given by the Finland, Finnish Liiga to the best defenceman of the season. In 1995 the award was renamed to carry the name of its first winner Pekka Rautakallio. In 2019 it was awarded to Oliwer Ka ...

for best defenceman in the SM-liiga - 1995 * Raimo Kilpiö trophy for gentleman player in the SM-liiga - 1999

Personal life

He is the older brother of

Miikka Kiprusoff Miikka Sakari Kiprusoff (; born October 26, 1976), nicknamed "Kipper", is a Finnish former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League for the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames between 2000 and 2013. He was select ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiprusoff, Marko 1972 births Cleveland Barons (2001–2006) players Ducs d'Angers players Finnish ice hockey defencemen Finnish ice hockey world championship gold medalists Finnish people of Russian descent HPK players Ice hockey players at the 1994 Winter Olympics EHC Kloten players KooKoo players Living people Malmö Redhawks players Montreal Canadiens draft picks Montreal Canadiens players New York Islanders players Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players for Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Ice hockey people from Turku HC TPS players TuTo players Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics