Teemu Ilmari Selänne: Nicknamed "The Finnish Flash" (born July 3, 1970) is a Finnish professional ice hockey player and an alternate captain of the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He won the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks and holds the NHL's all-time rookie goal and point scoring records (76 and 132 respectively). He was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy with the Winnipeg Jets, the team in which Selänne was originally drafted into the NHL in the 1st round, 10th overall in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft. Selänne is a ten-time NHL All-Star and a three-time top goal-scorer in the NHL. He is the all-time points leader in men's Olympic ice hockey with 37 points in 31 games.[1] He scored his 600th goal on March 21, 2010 against the Colorado Avalanche.
Winnipeg Jets (1992--96)Teemu Selänne was selected by the Winnipeg Jets 10th overall in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft (the last player selected in the first round by Jets general manager John Ferguson, Sr., who was fired four months later) and was contracted by the Jets for the 1992--93 NHL season. Selänne initially asked to wear number 8, however, it was already taken by defenseman Randy Carlyle (Selänne's future coach with the Ducks) in his final playing season; thus Selänne wore number 13 instead. Selänne's first NHL goal came against Jeff Hackett of the San Jose Sharks on October 8, 1992. He went on to score an all-time rookie record of 76 goals in his rookie season (shattering the previous record of 53 set by Mike Bossy), which made him the second European to lead the league in goal scoring (after Jari Kurri), along with Alexander Mogilny, and also makes him one of only eight players, and to date, the last player (along with Mogilny) to have scored 70 or more goals in one NHL season. The rookie season, for which Selänne was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy for the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the NHL, saw him also becoming the holder-to-date of the rookie point scoring record with 132 points.
Following his rookie season, Jets players Keith Tkachuk and Alexei Zhamnov formed a line known as "The Olympic Line," as all three were Olympians. This was notable in that it was prior to the NHL signing an agreement with the IIHF, providing for a break to allow select players to compete for their respective countries in the quadrennial Olympic Tournament. Selänne suffered a torn Achilles tendon in his second season, limiting him to 51 games. The Jets had suffered a six-game quarterfinal loss to the Vancouver Canucks in 1993; and with Selänne injured, missed the 1994 playoffs.
Along with fellow Finnish NHL-star Jari Kurri, Selänne played for Jokerit during the 1994--95 NHL lockout. Selänne scored 7 goals and assisted 12 others in 20 games for Jokerit. Selänne was part of Jokerit when the team won the 1995 European Cup in Finland.
After the lockout, Selänne returned to the Winnipeg Jets and played the remainder of the 1994--95 season and started the 1995--96 season with the Jets.
On February 7, 1996, he was traded, along with Marc Chouinard and a fourth-round draft pick, to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in return for Chad Kilger, Oleg Tverdovsky, and a third-round pick. Selänne was first angered at the Jets management for trading him, but it all subsided when he learned of the situation in Anaheim.
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