Sanni Hakala (born 31 October 1997) is a Finnish retired

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) 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. In ice hockey, two o ...

player and former member of the Finnish national team. She played more than seven seasons with

HV71 HV71 (), often referred to as just HV, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Jönköping, playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the first tier of Swedish ice hockey. The team played in the 2008–09 Champions Hockey League s ...

in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) after beginning her career in the Finnish Naisten SM-sarja (NSMs; renamed Naisten Liiga (NSML) in 2017) with

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

and

Oulun Kärpät Oulun Kärpät (Finnish for "Oulu 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 championship title eight times ...

. In 2023, Hakala suffered a serious injury during a SDHL match that left her paralyzed from the chest down, ending her career at the age of 26.

Playing career

As a youth player, Hakala played on boys' teams until she was 15, at which point she signed with JYP Jyväskylä in the Naisten SM-sarja, the top flight of Finnish women's hockey. She won the Emma Laaksonen Award for Fair Play in the 2015–16 season. In November 2016, she left Finland to sign with HV71 in the SDHL. She was named HV71's fan player of the year for the 2019–20 season. After missing the first third of the 2020–21 SDHL season, she scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wi ...

in her first game back, a 6–1 victory over

Brynäs IF Brynäs IF is a Swedish ice hockey team from Gävle. The club currently plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the top tier of ice hockey in Sweden. The club has played in the top-tier league since 1960, longer than any other team. History ...

in November 2020. Hakala sustained severe neck injuries in a headfirst collision with a goal post during an HV71 match versus Djurgården IF on 24 November 2023. She was "conscious, talking and in pain" when medical personnel stretchered her from the ice. After being rushed to by ambulance, it was reported that she was able to move her arms but "didn't seem to have any feeling in her legs." The following day, she underwent surgery at

Linköping University Hospital Linköping University Hospital ( sv, Universitetssjukhuset i Linköping; abbreviated ''US'' in Sweden) is a university hospital in Linköping, Sweden, operated by Östergötland County. Its scientific activities are integrated into the medical ...

and the surgeons shared that the operation went well but emphasized that Hakala would have a long period of rehabilitation ahead. In a press release on 26 November 2023, HV71 made clear that further information about Hakala's condition would not be provided and asked that the public respect her need for peace and quiet during rehabilitation. On 30 November 2023, Hakala announced that she had been paralyzed, ending her career.

International play

She made her senior national team debut at the

2016 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2016 IIHF Women's World Championship was the 17th such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in Kamloops, Canada from 28 March to 4 April 2016. Venues included the Sandman Centre, and the McArthur Island S ...

. She has represented the Finnish national team at the World Championships every year since including the team's first-ever silver medal at the

2019 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship was an international Ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in Espoo, Finland from 4 to 14 April 2019 at the Espoo Metro Areena. The United States won thei ...

. She scored one goal in six games as Finland won bronze at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 동계 올림픽, Icheon sip-pal nyeon Donggye Ollimpik), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (french: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; ko, 제23회 동계 올림픽, Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpi ...

Personal life

Hakala is in a relationship with Canadian ice hockey player and former HV71 teammate Danielle Stone.

Career statistics

International

References

External links

* * 1997 births Living people Finnish expatriate ice hockey people in Sweden Finnish LGBT sportspeople Finnish women's ice hockey forwards HV71 (women) players Ice hockey people from Jyväskylä Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics JYP Jyväskylä Naiset players LGBT ice hockey players Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players for Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Oulun Kärpät Naiset players Wheelchair users {{Finland-Winter-Olympic-medalist-stub