Ari Haanpää
Ari Eerik Haanpää ( born November 29, 1965 in Nokia ) is a retired Finnish professional ice hockey player who played in his playing days from 1981 to 2002 among others for the New York Islanders in the National Hockey League.
Career
Ari Haanpää began his career as a hockey player in the junior department of Tappara Tampere. From there, he moved in 1982 to the city neighbors Ilves Tampere |, for its first team winger from 1983 to 1985 in the SM- liiga, the top Finnish league, was active and with whom he master was in the 1984/85 season. During his time at Ilves Tampere he was also selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 1984 in the fourth round as a total 83 players from the New York Islanders, for whom he regularly came from 1985 to 1987 in the National Hockey League action. Although he was also in the 1987/88 season with the Islanders under contract, but he completed this season only one game for the team from New York, while the entire rest of the season with their farm team, the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League spent.
After he no longer belonged to the permanent staff in the NHL, Haanpää returned to his Finnish homeland, where he went from 1988 to 1990 for Lukko Rauma and then three years each for JYP HT and his former club Tappara Tampere hunting for goals. With JYP he was in the 1991/92 season runner-up and failed with his team until the playoff finals at Jokerit Helsinki. From 1996 to 1999, former youth international was at various clubs in Europe under contract and played one after another for one year for the Vienna EV in the Austrian Hockey League, the GEC Nordhorn in the first league, the then second highest German league, and the Hockey Club de Reims in the French Ligue Magnus. After two year break he played in the 2001/ 02 season once in three games for the Finnish fourth division Kiekko - Ahma.
Since 2010 he has worked as a scout for the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League.
Internationally
For Finland Haanpää participated in the Junior European Championships in 1982 and 1983 and the Junior World Championships in 1984 and 1985 in part.