Jyri Niemi

Jyri Niemi ( born June 15, 1990 in Hämeenkyrö ) is a Finnish professional ice hockey player who is since May 2013 in Hämeenlinna HPK in the SM- liiga under contract.

Career

Jyri Niemi started his career as a hockey player in the junior department of Tappara Tampere. For the 2006/07 season, he left them and joined the A- juniors from HPK Hämeenlinna. Then the defender played for three years for the Saskatoon Blades in the Canadian junior Western Hockey League. During this period, he was selected first in the NHL Entry Draft in 2008 in the third round than a total of 72 players from the New York Islanders and the KHL Junior Draft 2009 in the second round as the 39th player from the SKA Saint Petersburg. On 25 May 2010 the Islanders Niemi exchanged transfer rights against a sixth- round option for the NHL Entry Draft 2010, the New York Rangers. This was the first transfer between players of the two arch-rivals for nearly 38 years. In the season 2010/11, denied the Finn for the farm team of the Rangers, Connecticut Whale, 46 games in the American Hockey League, where he scored three goals and had six assists.

In the following two seasons Niemi was still active for the Whale, but was mostly used in the Greenville Road Warriors in the ECHL. After he could not prevail in North America, he returned in May 2013 to Finland to HPK Hämeenlinna back.

Internationally

For Finland, Niemi took part in the U20 World Junior Championships in 2009 and 2010. At the tournament in 2009, he was an assistant captain, a year later, Team Captain.

Awards and achievements

• 2008 CHL Top Prospects Game

AHL stats

(End of season 2010/11)