Jenni Hiirikoski (born 30 March 1987) is a Finnish ice hockey player and captain of the Finnish national team and Luleå HF/MSSK in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL).
She is widely considered one of the best active ice hockey defensemen in the world, having won the IIHF Directorate Best Defenceman award seven times during the 2010s. She is currently the second all-time leading scorer among SDHL defenders and the third all-time leading scorer for Luleå, winning three SDHL championships with the club, has been named SDHL Defender of the Year twice, and is one of only two players to have been named top Olympic defender twice.
Playing career Hiirikoski grew up in Lempäälä, Finland, and played youth ice hockey with the local club Lempäälän Kisa (LeKi). She began her premier league career in 2001, at age 14, with the Tampereen Ilves Naiset of the Naisten SM-sarja (renamed Naisten Liiga in 2017). With Ilves, she won the Finnish Championship in 2006 and the Finnish Championship silver (runner-up) medals in 2004 and 2005.
After achieving Finnish Championship gold with Ilves, Hiirikoski joined the 2006–07 Espoo Blues, which had a roster overflowing with talent; in addition to Hiirikoski, the team included Karoliina Rantamäki, Noora Räty, Emma Terho, Marjo Voutilainen and other all-stars of the Finnish national team. With so much accumulated skill, it was no surprise when Espoo Blues claimed the Finnish Championship in 2007.
Hiirikoski returned to Ilves for the 2007–08 season and won her third Finnish Championship silver medal with them in 2008.
For the 2008–09 season, Hiirikoski joined her first club outside of Finland, signing with SKIF Nizhny Novgorod in the Russian Women's Hockey League (replaced by the Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL) in 2015). The roster included two other Finns, her teammates from the Espoo Blues Karoliina Rantamäki and Marjo Voutilainen. SKIF was dominant and won both the Russian Championship and the 2009 IIHF European Women's Champions Cup.
In June 2016, she announced that she was moving to Sweden to sign with Luleå HF/MSSK as the club prepared to defend their SDHL championship. She scored 45 points in 36 games in her debut SDHL season, the league's leading scorer among defenders and fourth overall, serving as an assistant captain for the team. She added another 4 points in four playoff games as Luleå was eliminated in the semi-finals by HV71.
She was named Luleå captain ahead of the 2017–18 season.
After going without a point in her first twelve games of the 2019–20 season, despite leading the league in shots, she finished the season with 40 points in 34 games. Luleå would make it to the playoff finals before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden.
She was nominated for Luleå resident of the year in 2019. She was named the eighth best women's hockey player of the decade by The Hockey News in December 2019, with the magazine stating that it was possible to "make a case that she’s been the most criminally underrated player of the decade and maybe in women’s hockey history." Both she and Ronja Savolainen were nominated for the 2019–20 SDHL Best Defender Award, though the award ultimately went to Sidney Morin of HV71.
Style of play Hiirikoski's speed, on-ice awareness, and passing ability have drawing comparisons to Erik Karlsson at the height of his career.
International play Hiirikoski made her debut with the Finnish national team at age 17 in the 2004 IIHF Women's World Championship (her birthday coincided with the first day of the tournament) and has appeared in every major international tournament since. She has served as team captain continuously since the 2011–12 season.
Representing Finland, she has won three Olympic bronze medals: at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She also competed with the Finnish national team in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, at which Finland placed fifth.
, Hiirikoski has participated in fifteen IIHF Women's World Championships, winning a silver medal at the tournament in 2019 and eight bronze medals, at the tournaments in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2021, and 2024.
She was involved in the controversial no-goal call in overtime of the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship gold-medal game, which cost Finland the victory after the goal scored by Finland's Petra Nieminen was waved off because Hiirikoski had made contact with American goaltender Alex Cavallini outside of the crease.
On 2 January 2026, she was named to Finland's roster to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular season PlayoffsSeasonTeamLeagueGPGAPtsPIMGPGAPtsPIM2001–02IlvesNSMs822428022142002–03IlvesNSMs236396630322003–04IlvesNSMs246111714713422004–05IlvesNSMs203172010520202005–06IlvesNSMs15077187202142006–07Espoo BluesNSMs228162420713422007–08IlvesNSMs198212912826862008–09SKIFRWHL13851310–––––2009–10IlvesNSMs1943943611471142010–11JYPNSMs184121628300002011–12JYPRWHL268172516–––––2011–12JYPNSMs8312154–––––2012–13JYPNSMs28191837128268102013–14JYPNSMs25202646128381142014–15JYPNSMs2818436110717842015–16JYPNSMs2817627986391222016–17Luleå/MSSKSDHL3612334528422442017–18Luleå/MSSKSDHL3622335518713402018–19Luleå/MSSKSDHL3419446336114101442019–20Luleå/MSSKSDHL3412284020614522020–21Luleå/MSSKSDHL34938471293694 2021–22 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 34 11 34 45 14 12 1 7 8 0 2022–23 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 31 5 32 37 15 7 1 5 6 4 2023–24 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 36 9 24 33 4 9 2 6 8 0 2024–25 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 28 4 19 23 4 4 0 3 3 2Naisten SM-sarja totals 285 118 289 407 162 91 24 51 75 64SDHL totals 303 103 285 388 151 69 15 46 61 20
International Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM 2004 Finland WC 5 0 0 0 0 2005 Finland WC 4th 5 1 0 1 4 2007 Finland WC 4th 5 0 1 1 8 2008 Finland WC 5 1 2 3 4 2009 Finland WC 5 1 2 3 2 2010 Finland OG 5 0 2 2 4 2011 Finland WC 6 0 2 2 2 2012 Finland WC 4th 6 0 5 5 2 2013 Finland WC 4th 6 0 1 1 2 2014 Finland OG 5th 6 3 2 5 2 2015 Finland WC 6 2 2 4 4 2016 Finland WC 4th 6 1 3 4 2 2017 Finland WC 6 3 2 5 2 2018 Finland OG 6 0 2 2 2 2019 Finland WC 7 2 8 10 0 2021 Finland WC 7 0 3 3 0 2022 Finland OG 7 0 5 5 4 2022 Finland WC 6th 7 0 1 1 4 2023 Finland WC 5th 7 3 8 11 2 2024 Finland WC 7 1 5 6 4 2026 Finland OG 6th 4 0 0 0 2 Senior totals 124 18 56 74 56 Sources:
Honors and achievements Award / Honour YearInternational World Championship Bronze Medal 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2024 World Championship Top 3 Player on Team 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021 World Championship Best Defenceman 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 Olympic Bronze Medal 2010, 2018, 2022 Olympic All-Star Team 2014, 2018, 2022 Olympic Best Defenceman 2014, 2018 World Championship All-Star Team 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 World Championship Silver Medal 2019 World Championship MVP 2019 Naisten SM-sarja Aurora Borealis Cup Champion 2006, 2007, 2010, 2016Naisten SM-sarja All-Star First Team2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Päivi Halonen Award (Defenseman of the Year) 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Riikka Nieminen Award (Player of the Year) 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Marianne Ihalainen Award (Most points) 2016SDHL SDHL Champion 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 SDHL Defenseman of the Year 2018, 2019 SDHL Playoffs MVP 2018, 2019 Other European Women's Champions Cup Best Defenceman 2009
References
External links
Jenni Hiirikoski at Milano Cortina 2026