It has been tough times for the 29 year old player from Finland, he is without a doubt one of the best players in the NHL right now, nevertheless, he is not even in the top 50 players list in the league.
Olli Jokinen started his career playing in his country with the KalPa and the HFK Helsinki, he also represented Finland in different tournaments, including a few World Championships. In 1998, he helped his country to win the gold at the World Junior Championship and was also named the best forward in that tournament and made it to the tourney’s All-Star team.
Back in 97’, he received the Finnish Rookie of the year award and it was chosen by the Los Angeles Kings as the 3rd overall pick in the NHL entry draft.
He moved to the New York Islanders in a trade for Zigmund Palffy but after a poor season, he was dealt to the Florida Panthers.
Many experienced players have a lot of good stuff to say about Joniken, including former Panther Marcus Wilson:
"He's big, strong, can skate, shoot. I'd say he's one of the top centremen in the league. At least he should be in the 50 top players in the league." He said.
He had a slow start with the Panthers, but after his second season, he scored 36 goals and 65 points stablishing himself as the Panthers first-line centre.
Jokinen recently broke the Panthers franchise records in goals (36), assists (29) and points (65)
The undisputable captain of Florida is going through an excellent period and has been a constant menace to rivals but that really hasn’t helped his team to achive some outstanding results as The Panthers haven’t qualified for the playoffs in the seven seasons he has being part of the team.
In many ways, Jokinen is the Allen Iverson of hockey, they guy gives 110% but is never enough, we hope to see the Panthers to finally get into the right track so the forgotten star can wear his first championship ring.
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