Mikko Eloranta
Mikko Eloranta ( born August 24, 1972 in Aura ) is a retired Finnish professional ice hockey player.
Career
Mikko Eloranta began his professional career in the Finnish SM- liiga for Ilves Tampere and, after a season to TPS Turku. Here he spent three seasons. In his final season in 1997/98 he was top scorer in the league. He was selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 1999 in the ninth round as the 247th of the Boston Bruins. For the following season, he joined the NHL for the Boston Bruins, where he spent two full seasons. Earlier in his third NHL season, he was traded from the Bruins to the Los Angeles Kings. There he played until 2003. Then he returned to Europe to play again in the SM- liiga with TPS Turku. After only one season, he joined the Swiss National league team Rapperswil -Jona Lakers, where he was for three years under contract.
For the season 2007/ 08 Eloranta joined the Malmö Redhawks of the HockeyAllsvenskan, the Swedish second division. In the following season, he ran again on for his former team, TPS Turku in the SM- liiga before he finished his career. In the 2010/11 season he returned for a single game once again back on the ice, scoring a goal and two assists for the fourth division PaKa.
Internationally
Eloranta played in 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2005 at the Ice Hockey World Championships, at the 2002 Winter Olympics and the World Cup of Hockey 2004 for Finland. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, he could not participate due to injury.