Tony Virta (born June 18, 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 ...

forward. He was drafted by the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Confer ...

as their fourth-round pick in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. On December 5, 2005, Virta received a serious knee injury from a failed hip check against him in a game against

Ilves Tampereen Ilves, commonly known as Ilves, (; Finnish language, Finnish for "Eurasian lynx, Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Nokia Arena (Tampere), Nokia Arena. The colors of Ilves, ...

, but recovered to play in the last games of the season. In the summer of 2001 Virta signed with Färjestads BK, but before the season had started he signed with the

NHL 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 ...

club

, who had drafted the same summer, and therefore never played a game for Färjestad.

Awards

Lasse Oksanen trophy The Lasse Oksanen trophy is an ice hockey trophy awarded by the Finland, Finnish Liiga to the best player of the season during regular season play. Trophy winners: 1993-94: Esa Keskinen (TPS (ice hockey), TPS) 1994-95: Saku Koivu (TPS) 1995-96 ...

for best player during the SM-liiga regular season - 2001

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Virta, Tony 1972 births Ice hockey people from Hämeenlinna Finnish ice hockey right wingers Frankfurt Lions players Houston Aeros (1994–2013) players HPK players Jokerit players Färjestad BK players GCK Lions players Leksands IF players Living people Minnesota Wild draft picks Minnesota Wild players Södertälje SK players HC TPS players ZSC Lions players