Niklas Kokko (born 14 March 2004) 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 ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

for the

Coachella Valley Firebirds The Coachella Valley Firebirds are a professional ice hockey team based in the Coachella Valley. They are members of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference of the American Hockey League (AHL). The Firebirds began play in the 2022–23 AH ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

(AHL) while under contract to the

Seattle Kraken The Seattle Kraken are a professional ice hockey team based in Seattle. The Kraken compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The t ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL). He was drafted in the second round, 58th overall, by the Kraken in the 2022 NHL entry draft.

Playing career

Liiga

Oulun Kärpät

Kokko played

junior hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from t ...

with

Oulun Kärpät Oulun Kärpät (Finnish language, Finnish for "Oulu Stoat, Ermines", sometimes referred to as Kärpät Oulu) is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Oulu and playing in the top-tier Finnish Liiga. Kärpät have won the Finnish champion ...

's under-20 team in the

SM-sarja SM-Sarja was the top level of ice hockey in Finland from 1928 to 1975. SM-sarja is a common abbreviation for ''Suomen mestaruussarja'', "Finnish Championship Series". There was variable number of teams playing for the Finnish championship dur ...

, starting in the 2018–19 season. He was chosen as the player of the month for February 2022. Kokko then joined Kärpät's

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 ...

team, forming a tandem with Joel Blomqvist in the 2021–22 season. He won his first and only Liiga game of the season on 19 November 2021, away against

JYP Jyväskylä JYP is an ice hockey team playing in the Finnish top division Liiga. They play in Jyväskylä, Finland, at the Synergia-areena, LähiTapiola Areena. History JYP was founded in 1923. First it was the ice hockey section of the sports club ''Jyväsk ...

, when Kokko replaced Stanislav Galimov in the Kärpät goal at 58:50. He made one save in the remaining time. Kärpät won the game 10–1. Kokko's debut was also made special by the fact that 17-year-old

Topias Leinonen Topias Leinonen (born 25 January 2004) is a Finnish professional ice hockey goaltender for the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League while under contract to the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). Leinonen was selecte ...

also made his Liiga debut with JYP. In December 2021, Kokko signed a three-year SM-Liiga contract with Kärpät. The

drafted Kokko in the second round (58th overall) in the 2022 NHL entry draft.

Hermes and SaiPa

In August 2022, Kärpät loaned Kokko to the

Mestis Mestis (from , meaning 'Championship series', stylized as MEST1S) is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division ...

team

Kokkolan Hermes Kokkolan Hermes is a Finnish semi-professional ice hockey club based in Kokkola that plays in the Mestis, the second-tier men's league in Finland after Liiga. The club was founded in 1953 and plays their home games at the Kokkolan jäähalli, w ...

. He played there for most of the beginning of the 2022–23 season and recorded four wins and one shutout in fourteen regular season games. Kokko also played with Kärpät for part of the early season, when both Joel Blomqvist and

Leevi Meriläinen Leevi Meriläinen (born 13 August 2002) is a Finnish professional ice hockey goaltender for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). Meriläinen previously played with the Oulun Kärpät of the top-tier Finnish Liiga and at the m ...

suffered injuries. In February 2023, Kärpät loaned Kokko to

SaiPa SAIPA (, ''SAIPA'') is an Iranian automaker headquartered in Tehran. The SAIPAC (an acronym for the French ''Société anonyme iranienne de production des automobiles Citroën'' lit. ''Iranian Limited Company for the Production of Citroën Autom ...

, with a contract covering the rest of the season. He played a total of eight regular season games with SaiPa, managing two wins. However, in the final game of the regular season, Kokko was injured when a

Lahti Pelicans The Lahti Pelicans are a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the Liiga, Finland. Founded in 1996, they play in the city of Lahti at Isku Arena. The team is co-owned by (among others) former National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender Pasi ...

player bumped into him after only three minutes of play, where Kokko had only managed three saves. Ten days later, Kokko returned for the rest of the season on loan to Hermes, where he played three playoff games.

Return to Kärpät

In May 2023, Kokko signed a three-year,

entry-level contract An entry-level job is a job that is normally designed or designated for recent graduates of a given discipline and typically does not require prior experience in the field or profession. These roles may require some on-site training. Many entr ...

with the Seattle Kraken. However, Kokko started the 2023–24 season still on loan with Kärpät. He started the season as the team's backup goaltender to Niclas Westerholm. Kokko got the first shutout of his Liiga career in his sixth game of the season on 2 November 2023, at Tampere Ilves. He made 25 saves in the game, which ended in a 4–0 victory. He played ten regular season games with Kärpät, getting two wins, until Kokko went to the

IIHF World Junior Championships The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), sometimes referred to as World Juniors, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is traditionally ...

, for which Kärpät replaced him with

Tomi Karhunen Tomi Karhunen (born 29 October 1989) is a Finnish professional ice hockey goaltender. He is currently playing with Oulun Kärpät of the Finnish Liiga. Playing career Karhunen made his SM-liiga debut playing with Oulun Kärpät during the 2010 ...

from HIFK. In January 2024, Kokko's loan agreement with Kärpät was terminated when the club signed Karhunen for the rest of the season, leaving Kokko as Kärpät's third goaltender. Later that day, it was announced that he had transferred to the

under a comprehensive loan agreement for the rest of the season. He had only played 10 games with Kärpät in the first portion of the season, achieving a .906 save percentage. He would take Lahti to the Finals, before losing to

Tappara Tappara (; Finnish language, Finnish for "Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the SM-liiga. They play at ''Nokia Arena (Tampere), Nokia Arena'' in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 20 Finnish league championships, wh ...

. On 10 May 2024, the Kraken would call him up to their

(AHL) affiliate

International play

Kokko competed in the

IIHF World U18 Championship The IIHF U18 World Championship is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation for national under-18 ice hockey teams from around the world. The tournament is usually played in April and is organized according to a sys ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, where he won bronze. Kokko served as Finland's main second goaltender, behind

. He only played in the opening match against Switzerland, stopping 17 of 19 shots. Kokko then represented

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

in the

IIHF World Junior Championship The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), sometimes referred to as World Juniors, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is traditionally ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, although he served as his team's third goaltender and did not play in a single game. Kokko also played in the

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

installment, where he acted as Finland's main goaltender and played five games.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kokko, Niklas 2004 births Living people Coachella Valley Firebirds players Finnish ice hockey goaltenders Kokkolan Hermes players Lahti Pelicans players Oulun Kärpät players SaiPa players Seattle Kraken draft picks Seattle Kraken players 21st-century Finnish sportsmen