Ville Nieminen
Ville Juhani Nieminen ( born April 6, 1977 in Tampere ) is a Finnish professional ice hockey player who is since May 2012 at Tappara Tampere of the SM - liiga under contract.
Career
Ville Nieminen began his career in 1993 at the Junior B of Tappara Tampere. The following year he played for the A- juniors and was allowed to complete his first games with the professionals in the SM- liiga. In the 1995/96 season he reached in 20 games in the junior 43 points and thus made the final leap to the pros. After his first full season in the SM- liiga, he was selected by the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL Entry Draft in 1997 in the third round at position 78.
In the fall of 1997 he went to North America and played for the Hershey Bears, the farm team of Colorado in the American Hockey League. During the season 1999/2000 he was allowed his first game for the Avalanche in the National Hockey League contest. It remained for this season but also the only one. But he played his best season in the AHL and scored a total of 51 points in 74 games.
In the 2000 /01 season he played in part for the Hershey Bears, but mainly he belonged to the NHL squad the Colorado Avalanche. With them he won at the end of the season the Stanley Cup. The following season, he took part with the Finnish team at the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Shortly thereafter, he was transferred from Colorado to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In Pittsburgh, he played one and a half years and signed in the summer of 2003, a contract with the Chicago Blackhawks, who transferred him to the Calgary Flames in February 2004. With Calgary, he moved from one to the Stanley Cup final, subject to there but just the Tampa Bay Lightning. As the NHL season was canceled in 2004/05 because of the lockout, Nieminen moved to Finland to his hometown club Tappara.
In autumn 2005, again the NHL started the game Operation and Ville Nieminen signed a contract with the New York Rangers. In February 2006, he won the Finnish national team, the Olympic silver medal in Turin. A month later transferred him the New York Rangers to the San Jose Sharks. However, in San Jose, he remained only one year, when he was transferred to the St. Louis Blues in late February 2007. After the end of the season, he returned to Europe, where he signed a contract with the Malmö Redhawks in the HockeyAllsvenskan. After a year he left the club and moved back to his hometown club Tappara Tampere in the SM- liiga.
As of 2010, played Nieminen in the Kontinental Hockey League, first in the 2010/11 season for the HK Sibir Novosibirsk and from May to October 2011 for Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. In early November 2011, he was obliged by the Latvian KHL Dinamo Riga participants. Two months later he was engaged to the Swedish second division side Örebro HK. For the 2012/13 season, the Finn was again obliged by his youth club Tappara Tampere.
Ville Nieminen is considered as a striker who can deal very well with the puck and both offensively and defensively has a good game, but shoots too few goals.
Awards and achievements
- 2001 Stanley Cup win with the Colorado Avalanche
- 2004 Silver medal at the World Cup of Hockey
- 2006 Silver medal at the Olympic Winter Games
Career Stats
Internationally
Represented Finland at:
- World Youth Championship 1997
- 2002 Winter Olympics
- World Cup of Hockey 2004
- 2006 Winter Olympics
( Key to Career statistics: Sp or GP = Games Played, T or G = goals scored, V or A = achieved assists; Pts or Pts = scored points scorer, SM or PIM = received penalty minutes, / - = Plus / Minus balance sheet; PP = scored majority gates; SH = scored shorthanded goals, GW = achieved victory gates; Play-downs/Relegation 1 )