Over the illustrious history of the Calgary Flames, there are some players that have been maligned in some circles – unfairly, in our minds – for what they weren’t rather than celebrated for what they were. A great example of that phenomenon is Jay Bouwmeester: he was a smooth-skating, minute-munching blueliner… but he never quite moved the needle offensively enough with the Flames to justify his hefty acquisition cost or contract.

Another player that falls into this category is the delightful Olli Jokinen. It’s hard to not enjoy Jokinen’s whole vibe. There’s the waffle meme. The Big Mac meme. And the amazing “How to draw Olli Jokinen” meme. Jokinen was a hero built for the internet age. But his acquisition cost and inability to shift the balance in games consistently enough earned him some fan scorn over the years.

With Ryan Lomberg returning to the Flames (as a Stanley Cup champion) this season after some time away, we’re delving into the history of other two-time Flames. Let’s dig into the lore of Jokinen!

A very well-regarded young player in Finland, Jokinen was the third overall selection in the 1997 NHL Draft. He played a handful of NHL games in 1997-98 and spent the rest of the season in Finland, but came over the following season full-time and emerged as one of the most reliable producers of his era. He wasn’t overly flashy, but he was always doing smart things on the ice.

He had brief stints with Los Angeles and the NY Islanders before a seven season run in Florida, including four as captain. He joined the struggling Phoenix Coyotes in 2008-09 before being traded to Calgary at the trade deadline. The Flames sent Matthew Lombardi, Brandon Prust and a condition first-round pick (ultimately their 2010 pick) to Phoenix for Jokinen and a 2009 third-round pick.

The hope was that Jokinen could just do what he had always done, produce offensively like clockwork, and provide some offensive cover for Jarome Iginla – y’know, make the Flames a deeper team that was harder to match against. At first, it really worked, and the first dozen games or so saw Jokinen rack up the points. But that dried up and the Flames ended up getting knocked out of the playoffs early for the umpteenth time. (The bittersweet thing is that Jokinen ended a league-record streak of games without appearing in the playoffs that season.)

The following season, Jokinen’s offensive foibles continued. He had just 35 points over 56 games headed into the trade deadline, and with a $5.25 million cap hit… fans and Flames brass alike weren’t exactly thrilled with the gamble they had made the previous year.

A month prior to the 2010 trade deadline, the Flames traded Jokinen and Prust to the NY Rangers in exchange for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik. Jokinen finished out the season with the Rangers, missing the playoffs. He wasn’t retained by the Blueshirts and became a free agent…

…and then he signed a two-year deal with the team that had just traded him. What happened was that Daymond Langkow, who was great, had gone through neck surgery after taking a shot off the back of his neck and it was unclear how quickly he would recover from the procedure. So needing somebody that could step in and play big minutes, the Flames signed Jokinen. (Langkow ended up playing just four games in 2010-11, so it was a good gamble.)

Jokinen was perfectly fine with the Flames in 2010-11 and 2011-12, posting 54 and 61 points respectively.

After his deal with the Flames ended, Jokinen played two seasons with the Winnipeg Jets and then another split between Nashville, Toronto and St. Louis before hanging up his skates.

Since retiring, Jokinen has gotten into coaching. First he stuck around Florida and coached high-end prep school hockey, but over the past few years he’s returned to Europe and coached in Liiga and the Swedish Hockey League. (He’s currently bench boss with Timra in the SHL.)