Roope Laavainen (born 23 August 1998) 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 ...

who is currently playing for 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 ...

. He was selected by the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (N ...

in the fourth round, 119th overall, of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.

Playing career

Laavainen played as a youth with Jokerit's U20 team in the Jr. A, prior to his selection to the Blackhawks. He left the Jokerit organization to remain in Finland and sign a three-year contract with HPK of the Liiga on 28 April 2017. During the 2018–19 season, Laavainen registered 2 points in 10 games with HPK before he was loaned for two months to fellow Liiga club,

Mikkelin Jukurit Mikkelin Jukurit is a professional ice hockey team in Liiga, the top tier Finnish ice hockey league. They play in Mikkeli, Finland, at the Kalevankankaan jäähalli (also known as Let's Go Areena for sponsorship reasons). The team has won seven ...

, on 27 November 2018. Adding 1 assist in 5 games with Jukurit, Laavainen returned to HPK on 8 January 2019.

Career statistics

Awards & honors

References

External links

* 1998 births Living people Chicago Blackhawks draft picks Finnish ice hockey defencemen HPK players Ice hockey people from Helsinki Lempäälän Kisa players Mikkelin Jukurit players TuTo players KooKoo players 21st-century Finnish sportsmen {{Finland-icehockey-defenceman-stub