Jori Lehterä named European Player of the Month for September 2012

Early it became clear that Jori Lehterä might win the race as he had a huge advantage in votes after the first two days. Only then Derek Ryan and Tobias Stephan became a real challenge for Europe's top player but in the end the initial decision of our voters stood - Jori Lehterä made the race.

For those who follow ice hockey in Finland or Russia the Finnish Center is a notable ice hockey player already. For those who don't know him already, here is a short summary of what he's done so far.

Born in Helsinki Jori Lehterä followed the footsteps of his uncle Tero who was also a professional ice hockey player and was part of the first Finnish team that won a gold medal at a World Championship in 1995. Jori himself played junior hockey for Jokerit where he made it to the SM-liiga team in 2006-2007. At the end of the season he went to Tappara Tampere where he developed to become a key player and one of the best scorers in the whole league. In 2010 he was rewarded with the Golden Helmet as best player in SM-liiga. His performances in Finland also produces interest in other parts of the world and in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft he was chosen by the St. Louis Blues in the 3rd round as 65th player but to this date he never played for them. He only had a short stint with their farmteam Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League in 2009.

For the 2010-2011 season Jori Lehterä joined the Kontinental Hockey League where he made the semi finals with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Especially in the regular season he could convince with 37 points in 53 games. A year later he was part of the Sibir Novosibirsk team that finished last in their division. Thanks to his stellar performance in September with 16 points (5+11) in 11 matches Sibir had a top start and was first in Chernyshyov Division.

 

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