Jarmo Kekäläinen

Jarmo Kekäläinen (born July 3, 1966) is a Finnish professional ice hockey executive and former player who briefly played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators. Kekäläinen serves as the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Jarmo Kekäläinen
Kekäläinen (right) in 2012
Born (1966-07-03) July 3, 1966
Tampere, Finland
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 190 lb (86 kg; 13 st 8 lb)
Position Left wing
Shot Right
Played for Ilves
Boston Bruins
KalPa
Tappara
Ottawa Senators
Västerås IK
National team  Finland
NHL Draft Undrafted
Playing career 1985–1995

Playing career

Kekäläinen began his hockey career in his native Finland, playing for four years in Finland with a number of teams as well as for Finland in the 1986 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. Kekäläinen then played for the Clarkson Golden Knights for three years, establishing himself and gaining interest from professional teams. In his second year with the Knights, he scored 44 points in 31 games and was named to the ECAC Hockey League first all star team. In his third year with the Knights, he scored 18 points in eight games before signing with the Boston Bruins. Kekäläinen played parts of two seasons with the Bruins before returning to Finland, where he played for another two years. For the 1993-1994 season, Kekäläinen went back to North America, where he signed with the Ottawa Senators. He played briefly with the Senators that season, playing in 28 games. The following season, Kekäläinen played in Sweden before retiring in 1995 because of knee problems which were caused by injuries.

Executive career

Immediately after retirement Kekäläinen became involved with front office work in many capacities. He was general manager of IFK Helsinki in the Finnish Elite League from 1995 to 1999, during which time IFK won one Kanada-malja and finished as the runner-up to TPS the following year. During this time with IFK, Kekäläinen also worked in several capacities with the Ottawa Senators. After he left Finland in 1999 Kekäläinen became director of player personnel for the Senators until 2002. While with the Senators he helped in selecting future NHL stars Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, and Ray Emery. In 2002 Kekäläinen joined the St. Louis Blues as assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting, where he helped draft much of the core of the team in the early 2010s, including defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and forwards T. J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund, David Perron, and David Backes. After being passed over for the Blues' general manager job for Doug Armstrong, Kekäläinen returned to Finland to take the general manager job with Jokerit.

While with Jokerit, Kekäläinen had an unwritten escape clause with ownership that permitted him to leave if he was offered a general manager job in the NHL. That opportunity came on February 13, 2013, when after Scott Howson was fired the previous day, the Columbus Blue Jackets' president of hockey operations John Davidson, under whom Kekäläinen had worked while with the Blues, hired Kekäläinen to be the new general manager of the Blue Jackets.[1] As a result, Kekäläinen became the first European general manager in the National Hockey League.

On April 28, 2021 Kekäläinen was named assistant general manager of Finland's national team for the 2022 Olympic Games.[2]

Personal life

Kekäläinen has a bachelor's degree in management from Clarkson, and graduated with a M.Sc. (Econ.) in marketing from the University of Tampere in 2000. He was selected as the alumnus of the year in 2018.[3] Kekäläinen has a wife and two daughters.[4]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1983–84 KalPa FIN.2 23 0 1 1 2 — — — — —
1984–85 KalPa FIN.2 35 10 7 17 6 — — — — —
1985–86 Ilves FIN U20 9 12 6 18 4 3 0 1 1 0
1985–86 Ilves SM-l 29 6 6 12 8 — — — — —
1986–87 Ilves FIN U20 12 12 10 22 16 4 0 3 3 6
1986–87 Ilves SM-l 42 3 4 7 4 — — — — —
1987–88 Clarkson University ECAC 32 7 11 18 38 — — — — —
1988–89 Clarkson University ECAC 31 19 25 44 47 — — — — —
1989–90 Boston Bruins NHL 11 2 2 4 8 — — — — —
1989–90 Maine Mariners AHL 18 5 11 16 6 — — — — —
1990–91 Boston Bruins NHL 16 2 1 3 6 — — — — —
1990–91 Maine Mariners AHL 11 2 4 6 4 1 0 1 1 0
1991–92 KalPa SM-l 24 2 8 10 24 — — — — —
1992–93 Tappara SM-l 47 15 12 27 34 — — — — —
1993–94 Ottawa Senators NHL 28 1 5 6 14 — — — — —
1993–94 PEI Senators AHL 18 6 6 12 18 — — — — —
1993–94 SC Rapperswil–Jona SUI.2 — — — — — 1 0 0 0 0
1994–95 Västerås IK SEL 32 2 6 8 32 1 0 0 0 0
SM-l totals 142 26 30 56 70 — — — — —
NHL totals 55 5 8 13 28 — — — — —
AHL totals 47 13 21 34 28 1 0 1 1 0

International
Year Team Event   GP G A Pts PIM
1986 Finland WJC 7 4 3 7 2
1991 Finland CC 6 0 1 1 0
Senior totals 6 0 1 1 0

Awards and honors
Award Year
All-ECAC Hockey First Team 1988–89 [5]

References
  1. "Blue Jackets name Jarmo Kekalainen General Manager". Columbus Blue Jackets. 2013-02-13.
  2. "Jarmo Kekalainen named GM of Team Finland at 2022 Olympics". Boxscore World Sportswire. 2021-02-28.
  3. "Vuoden alumni" (in Finnish). University of Tampere. 2018-09-07.
  4. "How Jarmo Kekalainen is playing all the right notes in Blue Jackets' historic run". The Athletic. 2019-04-17.
  5. "ECAC All-Teams". College Hockey Historical Archives. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
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