Hannu Aravirta
| Hannu Aravirta | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
March 26, 1953 Savonlinna, FIN |
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| Position | Forward | ||
| Shot | Left | ||
| Played for |
SM-liiga TuTo Kärpät 1. Divisioona SaPKo HockeyAllsvenskan Södertälje SK Kiruna AIF |
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| Playing career | 1973–1983 | ||
Hannu Aravirta (born 26 March 1953, in Savonlinna) is a Finnish ice hockey player and an ice hockey coach for the Finnish national men's team, SM-liiga and Elitserien.
Aravirta debuted in the 1973–1974 season, playing 35 games for TuTo in the SM-liiga. In the following season Aravirta played for his hometown team SaPKo in the Suomi-sarja for one season (1974–1975). Aravirta then headed to Kärpät for a three season stint. Kärpät gained promotion from the first division to the SM-liiga after the 1976–1977 season and Aravirta played for the team in the 1977–1978 season. Aravirta left Oulu and Finland as he went to Södertälje SK to play in Swedish Allsvenskan. Aravirta stayed in Södertälje for a total of 3 seasons (1978–1980), and then played in Kiruna AIF for 1980–1981, his last season in Sweden. Aravirta returned to Finland and played for Kärpät for two seasons (1981–1983) before retiring from playing.
Aravirta's first SM-liiga head coaching job was in the 1988–1989 season at JYP. Aravirta was the head coach of JYP for 5 seasons (1989–1993), winning 2 silver medals, 1 bronze and the Coach of the Year trophy (Kalevi Numminen trophy). More success came when in 1993 Aravirta was hired as the new head coach for Jokerit. In his first season at the helm of Jokerit Aravirta won the Finnish Championship. In the following season (1994–1995) he won silver and at his third season (1995–1996) another Finnish Championship.
After the success of 1996 Aravirta left his position in Jokerit to concentrate in his national team assistant coaching job. Aravirta returned to the SM-liiga for the 2003–2004 season when he was hired to coach former Helsinki rivals HIFK. Aravirta's first season was good as HIFK won bronze but his second season however was to be different. Aravirta was fired during the 2005 SM-liiga playoffs after very poor play from HIFK. Aravirta made his third return to SM-liiga in 2006 when he replaced Jami Kauppi as the head coach of Pelicans(whom he has lifted from a team constantly fighting among the bottom teams to a force to be reckoned with. In the 2007–2008 season, Pelicans led the league for the greater part of the year). During his 10-season SM-liiga coaching career Aravirta has won 2 championships, 3 silver medals and 2 bronze medals.
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