Antero Niittymäki, Date of Birth, Place of Birth
TweetAntero Niittymäki
Finnish ice hockey goaltender
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Turku, South-Western Finland Regional State Administrative Agency, Finland
About Antero Niittymäki
- Antero Pertti Elias Niittymäki (Finnish pronunciation: ['antero 'ni?t?ymæki]; born June 18, 1980) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey goaltender who last played for TPS of the SM-liiga (Finnish elite league).
- He additionally played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks.
- At the 2006 Winter Olympics, while playing for Team Finland, he was voted the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the entire ice hockey tournament. Partway through his four-year junior career with TPS in the junior SM-liiga, Niittymäki was selected by the Flyers 168th overall in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft.
- He continued to play in Finland with TPS for his first year out of the junior leagues, and he won the Finnish elite league's Rookie of the Year trophy.
- After two more seasons with TPS, Niittymäki moved to North America to join the Philadelphia Phantoms in the American Hockey League (AHL).
- When the Phantoms won the AHL Calder Cup championship, he was named the MVP of the playoffs.
- He then played four seasons for the Philadelphia Flyers before signing as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
- One year later, he signed as a free agent with the San Jose Sharks, but he did not play many games for them over the next two years due to hip injuries.
- He played his final season with his youth team TPS, and he announced his retirement in 2013.
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