Erkki Laine

In Sweden, he played 277 games in the Elitserien, producing 275 points, and his 192 career goals rank 19th all-time in the league and second for a Finn.

His points per game rank sixth all time for Färjestad BK and sixteenth all-time for Leksands IF, at 1.035 and 0.948 PPG respectively (players appearing in fewer than 30 games excluded from rankings).

Erkki Juhani Laine (13 September 1957 – 22 August 2009) was a Finnish professional ice hockey forward.

The first full season of his professional career was spent with the senior men's representative team of Kiekkoreipas in the 1975–76 I-divisioona season.

He led the team in scoring, earning 47 points (40 goals + 7 assists) in 36 regular season games, and ranked second for most goals scored in the I-divisioona (behind Markku Perkkiö‘s 45 goals with Kärpät).

With the infusion of Laine’s goal scoring, Kiekkoreipas finished the season at the top of the league and gained promotion to the top-tier SM-liiga.

The winger spent the subsequent two seasons with Kiekkoreipas in the SM-liiga.

Laine's international debut came with the Finnish national under-19 team at the IIHF European Junior Championship in 1976, where Finland won bronze.

Laine posted one goal in three games played.

The following year, he was selected to the Finnish national junior team at the 1977 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Czechoslovakia.

Laine had an excellent performance, posting nine points (5+4) in seven games and earning the second-most points on the team, bested only by the 11 points tallied by Juha Jyrkkiö.

Despite quality scoring, the Finns were plagued by poor goaltending and finished the tournament in fourth place.

Laine twice represented Finland with the national team (Leijonat) at the Winter Olympic Games.

Laine signed with Leksands IF of the Swedish Elitserien in 1978 and remained with the club for four seasons.

In the 1980–81 season, he was the top goal scorer of the Elitserien and his 30 goals accounted for nearly a quarter of all goals scored for Leksands.

In 1982, Laine returned to his home club, Kiekkoreipas, where he was the team’s captain and leading goal scorer in both the 1982–83 and 1983–84 seasons, ranking second and third in the SM-liiga for goals scored respectively.

He netted a career high five hat-tricks in the 1982–83 season.

He is one of seven players to ever score more than 40 goals in a SM-liiga season, a feat he accomplished in 1982–83.

The Finn signed with Färjestad BK (FBK) of the Elitserien in 1984 and was the leading goal scorer in the top Swedish league for the 1984–85 season.

In the following season, he was Färjestad’s highest regular season point earner, with 34 points in 31 games, and tied for the league’s most playoff goals with teammate Kent-Erik Andersson and Brynäs‘ Kenneth Andersson.

During the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, he played in all six games and notched three assists.

The Finns were beaten by in the group stage and then lost the fifth place game against West Germany, ranking sixth at the conclusion of the tournament.

Laine's totals helped Färjestad claim the Swedish Championship (SM) and win the Le Mat Trophy in 1985–86.

In the 1986–87 season, he topped Färjestad's statistics for most points and most goals in both the regular season and playoffs.

Laine ranked second in the Elitserien in 1986–87 for goals scored, beaten only by Lars-Gunnar Pettersson in the regular season and Ulf Dahlén in the playoffs, both members the 1987 Le Mat winner, IF Björklöven.

Färjestad reclaimed the championship title in the subsequent season, boosted by Laine's league-leading seven goals in the playoffs.

The club had been competing in the I-divisioona since being relegated in 1986 but Laine's 27 points (16+11) in sixteen games of the regular season, in addition to incredible seasons from Matti Hagman and Oldřich Válek, allowed Hockey-Reipas to finish the season at second place in the league.

A two time Olympian, he won a silver medal with the Finnish national team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

He is the Lahti Pelicans franchise top all-time career point earner and goal scorer.

As a child, Erkki Laine began playing ice hockey with the youth department of Kiekkoreipas in his hometown of Lahti.

For the 1988–89 season, Laine joined the Berliner Schlittschuhclub Preussen (BSC Preussen) of the German Eishockey-Bundesliga.

He ranked third on the team for points, notching 14 goals and 25 assists in 36 games, marking the first season in his career in which he earned more assists than goals.

Laine returned to the Finnish roster for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, playing in seven games and contributing six points (4+2) to Finland's silver medal-winning performance.

He rose to national prominence after scoring two goals in a minute and 51 seconds against, laying the groundwork for an eventual 3–1 victory over the team which was stocked with NHL talent.

The following season Laine signed with HC Davos in the Swiss National League B, where he posted 24 points in 18 games before returning to Finland mid-season to rejoin his home club, Hockey-Reipas (the men's representative team of Kiekkoreipas was renamed “Hockey-Reipas” in 1989).

By finishing in one of the top two positions, Hockey-Reipas qualified for the 1990 SM-liiga relegation series, in which they beat KooKoo and gained promotion to the SM-liiga.

Laine was named captain of Hockey-Reipas for the 1990–91 season and remained in the role until his retirement.

Hockey-Reipas was relegated to the I-divisioona at the end of the 1993–94 SM-liiga season and Laine retired at the conclusion of the following season, at age 37.

Over the span of his twenty-year professional career, Laine played with five clubs across six leagues in four different countries.

With the Lahden Pelicans franchise (Kiekkoreipas/Hockey-Reipas) in Finland, he earned 309 points (185+124) in 324 SM-liiga regular season games and posted 92 points (67+25) in 70 I-divisioona regular season games.