Athlete Bios
Hockey
Selanne led Finland to gold medal game in 2006
Last Updated: Monday, February 8, 2010 | 1:10 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Selanne suffered a broken jaw in a game on Jan. 14, 2010, calling his status into question for the Vancouver Games. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)Teemu Selanne, nicknamed the Finnish Flash when he burst into the National Hockey League and scored 76 goals in his rookie season for the Winnipeg Jets in 1992-93, has long been one of the most popular players in the league, as much for his outgoing, genial personality as for his head-turning talent.
Selanne, 39, has stretched that talent into a 17th NHL season. A member of the Anaheim Ducks, he is 18th on the career goal-scoring list, one spot behind his countryman Jari Kurri. He has six 40-plus goal seasons.
Selanne became a sentimental favourite when the Ducks were playing the Ottawa Senators in the 2007 Stanley Cup final.
"We just all want to win it for him after the career he's had," his teammate Andy McDonald said during the Stanley Cup finals, which the Ducks won. "He's just such a classy individual. He's a classy guy with everybody. He takes time for the fans and he has such an amazing following, not just here, but everywhere. He always has a smile on his face, and you can just see how much he enjoys the game."
Selanne grew up in Helsinki with his twin brother, Paavo, and his talent got him noticed by the NHL quickly. He was the Jets' first-round draft pick in 1988, after his Jokerit junior team won the Finnish junior championship and Selanne scored 43 goals in 33 games.
Despite his spectacular debut in Winnipeg, the financially struggling team (it would eventually move and become the Phoenix Coyotes) traded Selanne to Anaheim in 1996. There, he twice won the goal-scoring title and teamed with Paul Kariya to form one of the league's most exciting scoring tandems. But the Ducks were a young expansion franchise and had little team success before Selanne was traded to San Jose in 2001. He played with the Sharks for two full seasons and teamed with Kariya again with the Colorado Avalanche for another season together before returning to the Ducks after the NHL lockout in 2005.
Led by Selanne, Finland nearly won the Olympic gold medal in 2006 but lost an excruciatingly close game to Sweden in the final game. That made the Ducks' championship in 2007 that much sweeter for Selanne.
"There were so many times that I wasn't sure if this was ever going to happen," Selanne said after the victory. "It's been 15 years and over 1,000 games. That's why the last two or three minutes in the game, I was crying on the bench because I was so happy.
"I've been so close to winning an Olympic gold medal, and world championship gold medal, and it's never happened. I'm so happy that I finally won something."
Randy Carlyle, his coach in Anaheim who was also once his teammate in Winnipeg, said there is nothing fake about Selanne's appeal.
"Winnipeg found out early that he was a genuine human being and it's worked both ways ever since," Carlyle said. "The personality he displays is true. He lives it. That's Teemu."
Selanne's status for the Vancouver Games remains uncertain after he suffered a broken jaw in a game against Boston on Jan. 14, 2010.
