Sami Hannu Antero Kapanen (born 14 June 1973) 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 ...

coach and former player. He played 12 NHL seasons for the

Hartford Whalers The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its 25-year existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1 ...

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Hurricanes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Con ...

and

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team play ...

. He is the majority owner of

KalPa Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) is a professional ice hockey team which competes in the Finnish Liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Niiralan monttu, Olvi Areena. Team history Established in 1929 as ''Sortavalan Palloseura'' in Sortavala, the club r ...

in the Finnish league. Kapanen's son, Kasperi Kapanen, is a member of the

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

Playing career

Kapanen was drafted 87th overall in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft by the

. His first NHL season was in 1995–96, when he played 35 games with Hartford. The Whalers relocated to become the

following the 1996–97 season and Kapanen averaged 24 goals and 35 assists in his next five seasons with Carolina. His best season was in 2001–02 when he scored 27 goals and 42 assists for 69 points. He was selected twice for the NHL All Star Game (2000, 2002), winning the Individual event for "the Fastest skater" on both occasions. On 7 February 2003, Kapanen was traded to the

along with Ryan Bast for Pavel Brendl and Bruno St. Jacques. In his first two seasons with Philadelphia, Kapanen played 31 playoff games, scoring 17 points. Kapanen has played three times for

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, ...

at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

. In 18 Olympic games he scored 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points. In the NHL, Kapanen has played 831 regular season games, scoring 189 goals and 269 assists for 458 points. He has also played in 87 playoff games, scoring 13 goals and 22 assists for 35 points. Kapanen also won a gold medal at the 1995

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 ...

. Since 2003, Kapanen has also been the majority owner of the Finnish hockey team

Kuopio, the same club that gave him his start as a professional. One of the minority owners is Kimmo Timonen who in 2007 became Kapanen's teammate on the Flyers. Following the 2007–08 season, Kapanen announced that he was retiring from the NHL and he would be returning to Finland to play for KalPa. He retired as a player after the 2009–10 season. On 7 April 2011, Kapanen announced that he would be doing a comeback as a player in KalPa, playing on a two-year contract. He, however, stepped down as the club's

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

(CEO) and instead handed that role over to his brother Kimmo Kapanen.

Coaching career

Kapanen started his coaching career in 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 ...

with

(2017-2019). On 2 April 2019, Kapanen was named head coach of HC Lugano in the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 season, but was dismissed on 18 December 2019.

Awards

* Bronze Medal at the Winter Olympics in 1994. * Named to the SM-liiga First All-Star Team in 1994. * Gold Medal at the World Championships 1995. * Bronze Medal at the Winter Olympics in 1998. * Played in the NHL All-Star Game in 2000. * Named Best Forward at World Championships 2001. * Played in the NHL All-Star Game in 2002. * Awarded the Yanick Dupre Memorial in 2004. * Awarded the Gene Hart Memorial Award in 2007.

Records

* Tied a record for scoring two consecutive overtime goals in two consecutive games. (Subsequently broken by Andrew Cogliano) * Two-time NHL All Star game individual event Fastest Skater winner (2000, 2002) completing a lap around an NHL rink in 13.649 resp. 14.039 seconds. * Fastest Man on ice awarded when he completed a lap around an NHL rink in 12.7 seconds.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kapanen, Sami 1973 births Living people Carolina Hurricanes players Finnish ice hockey right wingers Finnish ice hockey world championship gold medalists Hartford Whalers draft picks Hartford Whalers players HC Kometa Brno players HIFK (ice hockey) players Ice hockey players at the 1994 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics KalPa players Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics National Hockey League All-Stars Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players for Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Ice hockey people from Vantaa Philadelphia Flyers players Springfield Falcons players Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in the Czech Republic Finnish expatriate ice hockey coaches Finnish ice hockey coaches Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Philadelphia Flyers scouts Finnish ice hockey administrators Ice hockey executives 21st-century Finnish sportsmen