Niko Hovinen

Niko Hovinen
Born (1988-03-16) 16 March 1988
Helsinki, Finland
Height 6 ft 7 in (201 cm)
Weight 200 lb (91 kg; 14 st 4 lb)
Position Goaltender
Catches Left
Liiga team
Former teams		 KalPa
Jokerit
Pelicans
Oklahoma City Barons
Metallurg Novokuznetsk
Admiral Vladivostok
EC Red Bull Salzburg
Luleå HF
Oulun Kärpät
Medveščak Zagreb
National team  Finland
NHL Draft 132nd overall, 2006
Minnesota Wild
Playing career 2005–present

Niko Hovinen (born 16 March 1988) is a Finnish professional ice hockey goaltender. He is currently signed with KalPa of the Liiga, the top league in Finland.

Playing career

Jokerit

Niko Hovinen's SM-liiga career started during the 2005-06 season when Hovinen dressed for a single regular-season Jokerit game as backup to Joonas Hallikainen, after Tim Thomas abruptly left the team only a day before the start of the 2005–06 regular season. Hovinen returned to the junior team for the rest of the season. He made his first SM-liiga start on 23 November 2006, against SaiPa, again called up when three Jokerit goaltenders were injured.

During the 2007–08 season, Hovinen served as backup to Jussi Markkanen. Hovinen was relegated to no. 3 goaltender when Jokerit acquired Joni Puurula from SaiPa just before the end of regular season. Hovinen dressed up to serve as backup for Joni Puurula in several games during the 2007–08 playoffs as Jussi Markkanen got himself injured during the first game of playoffs.

Pelicans

During the off-season of 2007–08 SM-liiga season, Niko Hovinen was contracted to Pelicans. For the first time, Niko Hovinen will play outside of Jokerit-organization in 2008-09 season.

A tall goaltender at 196 cm, Hovinen covers the net very well and is considered a highly promising goaltender prospect.

Niko Hovinen with the Oklahoma City Barons.

Hovinen was ranked #10 on the International Scouting Service's list of goaltender prospects for the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. He was drafted in the fifth round, 132nd overall, by the Minnesota Wild.

North America

Hovinen signed a two-year entry level contract with the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers on 17 May 2011.[1] He remained with the Pelicans through the 2011–12 season.[2]

On 25 January 2013 the Edmonton Oilers claimed Hovinen off unconditional waivers.[3] He was assigned to AHL affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons, where he remained to end the 2013–14 season.

Back to Europe

On 2 July 2013, Hovinen's NHL rights were retained by the Oilers after he was tendered a qualifying offer. He opted to return to Europe signing a contract with Metallurg Novokuznetsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), before moving on to fellow KHL team Admiral Vladivostok.

He split the 2014–15 season between EC Salzburg of Austria and Swedish teams Luleå HF and Malmö Redhawks. In the 2015–16 campaign, Hovinen was back in his native Finland for a second stint with the Pelicans. On 13 June 2016, he put pen to paper on a deal with Medvescak Zagreb of the Kontinental Hockey League[4] and parted ways with the club in November 2016. Later that month, he was picked up by KalPa of the Finnish top-flight Liiga.[5]

Medal record
Representing Finland Finland
Ice hockey
World Championships
2011 Slovakia

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP W L T/OT MIN GA SO GAA SV% GP W L MIN GA SO GAA SV%
2006–07 Jokerit SM-l 1 0 1 0 60 4 0 4.00 .871 — — — — — — — —
2007–08 Jokerit SM-l 4 0 1 0 125 12 0 5.78 .833 — — — — — — — —
2008–09 Pelicans SM-l 21 7 12 1 1110 54 2 2.92 .896 1 0 0 11 3 0 15.72 .667
2009–10 Pelicans SM-l 18 5 7 3 944 47 1 2.99 .914 — — — — — — — —
2010–11 Pelicans SM-l 49 17 25 5 2826 122 3 2.59 .921 — — — — — — — —
2011–12 Pelicans SM-l 41 21 12 6 2358 89 5 2.26 .921 8 5 2 442 17 2 2.30 .925
2012–13 Trenton Titans ECHL 16 4 6 3 841 44 0 3.14 .889 — — — — — — — —
2012–13 Oklahoma City Barons AHL 10 5 3 2 612 30 1 2.94 .892 — — — — — — — —
2013–14 Metallurg Novokuznetsk KHL 18 2 13 0 856 43 0 3.01 .916 — — — — — — — —
2013–14 Admiral Vladivostok KHL 7 1 4 0 382 16 0 2.51 .921 — — — — — — — —
2014–15 EC Red Bull Salzburg EBEL 5 4 0 0 248 5 2 1.21 .955 — — — — — — — —
2014–15 Luleå HF SHL 1 0 1 0 40 4 0 6.00 .692 — — — — — — — —
2014–15 Malmö Redhawks Allsv 9 6 3 0 543 21 0 2.32 .916 12 — — — — — 2.38 .915
2015–16 Oulun Kärpät Liiga 1 0 0 0 16 3 0 11.30 .500 — — — — — — — —
2015–16 Pelicans Liiga 23 5 9 3 1080 59 1 3.28 .876 4 2 2 241 8 0 1.99 .932
Liiga totals 158 55 67 8 8519 390 12 2.69 .908 13 7 4 695 28 2 2.58 .920

References

  1. ↑ "Flyers sign (G) Hivonen". philadelphiaflyers.com. 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
  2. ↑ Sarah Baicker (2011-05-17). "Flyers sign goalie Hovinen to entry-level contract". CSNPhilly.com. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
  3. ↑ "Oilers claim G Niko Hovinen off waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers - Edmonton Oilers - Transactions". edmontonoilers.com. 2013-01-25. Retrieved 2013-01-25.
  4. ↑ "Finn Hovinen will be in goal in Zagreb's Den". www.medvescak.com. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
  5. ↑ "Uutiset - Eero Kilpeläinen sivussa jouluun asti, Niko Hovinen KalPa-paitaan". www.kalpa.fi. Retrieved 2016-11-15.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.