GENEVA – The Eagles confirm Sakari Manninen

The Genève-Servette Hockey Club announces the signing of Sakari Manninen (31) for next season. The Finnish international center, Olympic champion and double world champion, will find some of his compatriots in the team. Sakari Manninen will undoubtedly be one of the attractions of the next championship.

The Finnish Olympic champion and double world champion has signed a one-season contract with the Genève-Servette Hockey Club. He will find his compatriots from the national team Sami Vatanen, Teemu Hartikainen and eventually Valtteri Filppula. Greatly courted across the country, Sakari Manninen finally decided to come to Geneva.

In addition to his medals with the national team, he played 223 Liiga games (113 points) and 48 in SHL (28 points) in his first professional years before exploding in KHL with Helsinki (2018-2019) then Salavat Yulaev Ufa ( 2019-2022) for a total of 233 games and 176 points (54 goals and 122 assists).

During his years in Ufa he played all three seasons with Teemu Hartikainen! The two friends share the same line also with the national team of Finland. The reunion is likely to sparkle on the ice of the National League next season.

Sakari Manninen is a versatile center whose offensive talent is well established. He has a precise and devastating wrist shot. But his greatest strength is the quality of his skating. This allows him to be able to make the most of his game intelligence to create scoring chances. The Finnish center is also capable of playing on the wing and both powerplay and boxplay.

Mark Gautschi: “We are very happy to have been able to recruit Sakari. He is an extremely dynamic player with excellent playmaking qualities and a very high “hockey IQ”. For the past three years, he has been the number one center for the Finnish national team, with which he has enjoyed great success. It gives him a winning mentality and that’s exactly what we were looking for. Thanks to him, our game will be even more varied and his integration will go well since he already knows a few players in the locker room. »