Jarkko Immonen (born April 19, 1982) is a Finnish professional ice hockey forward currently playing for Mikkelin Jukurit of the Liiga.

Jarkko Immonen
Immonen with the Hartford Wolf Pack in 2006
Born (1982-04-19) April 19, 1982 (age 42)
Rantasalmi, Finland
Height 5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight 201 lb (91 kg; 14 st 5 lb)
Position Centre
Shot Right
Liiga team
Former teams
Jukurit
Ässät
JYP Jyväskylä
New York Rangers
Ak Bars Kazan
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
EV Zug
National team  Finland
NHL draft 254th overall, 2002
Toronto Maple Leafs
Playing career 1998–2024

Playing career

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Immonen made his debut in Finland's second-tier league Mestis with TuTo Hockey during the 2000–01 season. For the following year, he joined Ässät of the country's top-tier Liiga. He then signed with fellow Liiga side JYP Jyväskylä in 2002 and remained three years at the club.

Immonen was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft as their eighth round pick, 254th overall.

On March 3, 2004, Immonen was traded by the Maple Leafs to the New York Rangers as part of the Brian Leetch trade.[1] He made his NHL debut for the Rangers during the 2005–06 season. In the course of his two-year stint with the Rangers, he played a total of 20 games in the NHL and mostly gained playing time in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Hartford Wolf Pack. In his 141 AHL contests played, he scored 54 goals and had 75 assists.[2]

He returned to Finland for the 2007-08 campaign, again joining JYP, where he spent another two years and won the Finnish championship in 2009, before signing with Ak Bars Kazan of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) shortly after. In his first year, he won the championship with Kazan. After four years with Ak Bars, Immonen decided to move on and join fellow KHL team Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod for the 2014–15 season.

On March 30, 2015, he agreed to a two-year contract with Swiss club, EV Zug of the NLA.[3] At the conclusion of his contract with Zug, Immonen returned to Finland to play with his original club, JYP on a three-year contract from the 2017–18 season. [4]

On 14 April 2021, Immonen extended his professional career, leaving JYP as a free agent and signing a one-year contract with fellow Liiga club, Mikkelin Jukurit.[5]

ON 5 May 2024, Immonen announced his retirement via an Instagram post.[6]

International play

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Immonen won the bronze medal with Finland at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.[7] He won the gold medal with Finland at the 2011 IIHF World Championship, where he scored the most goals (9 in 9 games) and the most points (12) in the tournament. He was also named to the all-star lineup.

Career statistics

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Regular season and playoffs

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Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1997–98 SaPKo FIN.2 U20 14 8 12 20 0
1998–99 SaPKo FIN.2 U20 12 6 10 16 14
1998–99 SaPKo FIN.2 36 2 2 4 6
1999–2000 SaPKo FIN.2 U20 2 1 1 2 10
1999–2000 SaPKo FIN.2 42 18 16 34 34
2000–01 TuTo FIN U20 1 0 1 1 0
2000–01 TuTo Mestis 41 20 20 40 22 11 5 7 12 10
2001–02 Ässät SM-l 44 0 2 2 6
2001–02 Ässät FIN.2 U20 5 4 0 4 6
2002–03 JYP SM-l 56 10 23 33 34 7 1 1 2 8
2003–04 JYP SM-l 52 23 26 49 28 2 0 0 0 0
2004–05 JYP SM-l 54 19 28 47 24 3 0 2 2 2
2005–06 Hartford Wolf Pack AHL 74 30 40 70 34 6 2 3 5 2
2005–06 New York Rangers NHL 6 2 0 2 0
2006–07 Hartford Wolf Pack AHL 54 20 26 46 30 7 2 6 8 2
2006–07 New York Rangers NHL 14 1 5 6 4
2007–08 JYP SM-l 54 26 37 63 54 6 1 8 9 8
2008–09 JYP SM-l 58 23 41 64 40 15 1 10 11 24
2009–10 Ak Bars Kazan KHL 56 13 26 39 26 22 4 10 14 8
2010–11 Ak Bars Kazan KHL 53 21 17 38 30 9 2 4 6 2
2011–12 Ak Bars Kazan KHL 53 14 12 26 8 12 0 2 2 0
2012–13 Ak Bars Kazan KHL 50 11 20 31 10 18 4 4 8 12
2013–14 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod KHL 54 14 24 38 18 7 3 1 4 2
2014–15 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod KHL 57 17 22 39 26 5 2 2 4 2
2015–16 EV Zug NLA 49 24 17 41 22 4 0 2 2 4
2016–17 EV Zug NLA 49 12 14 26 28 15 4 6 10 41
2017–18 JYP Liiga 59 13 37 50 14 6 3 1 4 14
2018–19 JYP Liiga 60 15 32 47 42 3 0 1 1 2
2019–20 JYP Liiga 59 21 23 44 14
2020–21 JYP Liiga 59 13 15 28 14
2021–22 Jukurit Liiga 60 18 10 28 24 7 1 1 2 2
Liiga totals 615 182 274 456 294 49 7 24 31 60
NHL totals 20 3 5 8 4
KHL totals 323 90 121 211 118 73 15 23 38 26
Medal record
Representing   Finland
Ice hockey
Olympic Games
  2014 Sochi
  2010 Vancouver
World Championships
  2011 Slovakia
  2014 Belarus
World Junior Championships
  2002 Czech Republic

International

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Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM
2000 Finland WJC18   7 3 4 7 4
2002 Finland WJC   7 4 3 7 6
2009 Finland WC 5th 7 1 4 5 2
2010 Finland OG   6 0 0 0 0
2010 Finland WC 6th 7 3 1 4 4
2011 Finland WC   9 9 3 12 2
2012 Finland WC 4th 10 3 2 5 0
2014 Finland OG   5 2 0 2 2
2014 Finland WC   10 3 3 6 2
2015 Finland WC 6th 7 0 0 0 2
Junior totals 14 7 7 14 10
Senior totals 61 21 13 34 14

References

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  1. ^ "Rangers trade Brian Leetch to Toronto". USA Today. March 3, 2004. Retrieved March 3, 2004.
  2. ^ "TheAHL.com | The American Hockey League". theahl.com. Retrieved 2016-05-08.
  3. ^ "Zug signs Finnish World Champion Jarkko Immonen for the next two seasons". swisshockeynews.ch. March 30, 2015. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  4. ^ "Jarkko Immonen has signed a three-year contract with JYP". swisshockeynews.ch. June 4, 2017. Archived from the original on November 10, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  5. ^ "Jukurit sign veteran Jarkko Immonen" (in Finnish). Mikkelin Jukurit. 14 April 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  6. ^ "Jarkko Immonen retires". The Hockey News. 5 May 2024. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  7. ^ "Finland claim Bronze at Vancouver". National Hockey League. 2010-02-03. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
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