In the 102-year history of the National Hockey League, 348 individuals have played 1,000 or more regular season games. 44 of them, or 12.6%, have played some part of their career with the Atlanta or Calgary Flames. We call these players Long-Timers.
Let’s take a look at Olli Jokinen.
A star forward as a youngster in his native Finland, Jokinen was the third overall selection in the 1997 NHL Draft (going to the Los Angeles Kings). He immediately came over to North America and went pro in 1997-98.
Jokinen was good but not great as a rookie. Two seasons into his NHL career his time with the Kings ended, as he was traded to the Islanders with Josh Green, Mathieu Biron and a first round pick for Zigmund Palffy, Bryan Smolinski, Marcel Cousineau and a fourth round pick. He spent just one season with the Islanders before he was swapped again, this time going to Florida with Roberto Luongo for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha.
Jokinen’s best years were as a Panther. He had four 30+ goal seasons in Florida and received Selke and Lady Byng consideration during his eight season in South Florida. But his tenure ended in 2008 when he was sent to Phoenix for Keith Ballard, Nick Boynton and a second round pick.
This began a section of Jokinen’s career where he moved frequently. He spent one incomplete season with the Coyotes, as he was traded to Calgary with a third round pick for Matthew Lombardi, Brandon Prust and a first round pick. A season later, the Flames sent him to the Rangers with Brandon Prust for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik. (This is a rare case for Prust of being traded for and with the same player in successive seasons.) Jokinen went to unrestricted free agency and re-signed with the Flames anyway, begging the question of what exactly was the point of trading him to the Rangers in the first place (aside from acquiring Kotalik’s albatross-like contract.) He was a reliable, if unspectacular, scorer for the Flames.
Two seasons later Jokinen signed with Winnipeg as a free agent. After two seasons there he signed with Nashville and had a final NHL campaign that saw him traded twice. First, he was sent by Nashville to Toronto with Brendan Leipsic and a first round pick for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli. Then a few weeks later, Toronto traded him to St. Louis for Joakim Nordstrom and a sixth round pick. He retired following that season.
He lives in Florida now and coaches youth hockey, which isn’t a terrible thing to be doing. All-told, Jokinen had a strong (but not quite elite) career. But he was constantly on solid international teams, capturing three Olympic medals, two World Championship medals, and gold at the World Juniors.
