Boston Pere Marquette picks:
Pekka Marjamaki
defense
• Shoots: Left • Height: 6-1 • Weight: 207 lbs. •
• Born: December 18, 1947 • Tampere, Finland •
• Played: 1964/65 - 1983/84 (Finland) •
• Hall of Fame: 1990 (Finland) \\\ 1998 (IIHF) •
•
Championships •
1975 Championship (SM Sarja)
1977 Championship (SM Liiga)
1979 Championship (SM Liiga)
1982 Championship (SM Liiga)
1984 Championship (SM Liiga)
•
All-Star Teams •
1975 World Championships All-Star Team
1974-1975 SM-Sarja All-Star Team
1975-1976 SM-Liiga All-Star Team
1977-1978 SM-Liiga All-Star Team
•
Honors •
1975 Finnish Player of the Year
1975 SM-Sarja Lynces Academici Defenseman Award
1975 Best Defenseman (World Championships)
1977 Best Defenseman (Izevestia Tournament)
•
Achievements •
• Games Played
- Career Finland • 476
- Career PLAYOFFS • 50
- Career International • 251
• Goals
1974-75 SM-Sarja 16 (1 for Defensemen)
1975 World Championships 6 (1 for Defensemen)
1975-76 SM-Liiga 9 (T3 for Defensemen)
1976-77 SM-Liiga 14 (1 for Defensemen)
1977-78 SM-Liiga 14 (2 for Defensemen)
- Career Finland • 125
- Career PLAYOFFS • 14
- Career International • 40
• Assists
1974-75 SM-Sarja 9 (T4 for Defensemen)
1975-76 SM-Liiga 11 (T5 for Defensemen)
1976-77 SM-Liiga 12 (3 for Defensemen)
1977-78 SM-Liiga 14 (T4 for Defensemen)
- Career Finland • 129
- Career PLAYOFFS • 16
- Career International • 25
• Points
1974-75 SM-Sarja 25 (2 for Defensemen)
1975 World Championships 8 (1 for Defensemen / T13 overall )
1975-76 SM-Liiga 20 (T3 for Defensemen)
1976-77 SM-Liiga 26 (2 for Defensemen)
1977-78 SM-Liiga 28 (2 for Defensemen)
- Career Finland • 254
- Career PLAYOFFS • 30
- Career International • 65
•
Accolades •
Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame said:
Defenceman Pekka Marjamäki’s blueline slapshot was the most fearful weapon of the Finnish Lions in the 1970’s. In a national team career spanning two Olympic Games and 10 World Championship tournaments Marjamäki scored a total of 40 goals and 65 points.
Pekka Marjamäki was only 16 when made his league debut at Tappara in his home town Tampere in 1964. He stayed loyal to Tappara all through his career except for a two-year spell at HV-71 in Sweden in 1979-81.
Marjamäki’s best year was 1975. After winning the first of his five Finnish championship titles with Tappara he scored six goals for Finland at the World Championships in West Germany and was named Best Defender of the tournament. At the end of the year he was duly elected Hockey Player of the Year in Finland.
Pekka Marjamäki In 1998 Marjamäki became the second Finnish player to be inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame.
St. Joseph's Gazette / US coach Bob Johnson - 2/12/1976 said:
The Finns' second goal which tied the match wasn't his fault/ It was a brilliant move by Pekka Marjamaki, their world class all-star team defender, who scored on a break when we were shorthanded....
World Hockey Archives said:
PEKKA MARJAMAKI (7), who spent most his time with Tappara Tampere but did skate two seasons with HV 71 Jonkoeping in the Swedish top flight, still holds a share of the all-time mark for Finland defenseman having shot 17 goals at major international tournaments over the course of his accomplished career.
NHL.com said:
Ice hockey became a fully professionalized sport in Finland in 1975, with the creation of the SM-liiga. Not surprisingly, the Finns did not emerge as a major power on the international hockey scene for almost another 15 years, as there was a steep drop-off in its talent depth beyond NHL-caliber stars such as Matti Hagman, Jari Kurri and Pekka Rautakallio when compared to the mighty Soviet Union, Canadian, Czechoslovakian and Swedish teams.
During the transitional years of Finnish hockey, few stars burned brighter than Tappara Tampere defenseman Pekka Marjamaki, who died earlier this month at the age 64 after suffering a fatal heart attack. While he was later surpassed by Teppo Numminen as the greatest defenseman to emerge from the city of Tampere, "Marja" enjoyed a sterling career of his own.
A member of the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame (inducted in 1998, becoming the first Finn after goaltender Urpo Ylonen to be so honored) and the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame (inducted 1990), Marjamaki's No. 3 jersey hangs in the rafters of Tappara's famous Hakemetsä Ice Hall as a retired number.
"Pekka Marjamaki was one of the players that I grew up admiring," Numminen said in a 2009 interview for YLE. "He played the game with a lot of skill and character."......
......The prime of Marjamaki's career unfolded in the early to mid-1970s, overlapping with the emergence of center Hagman as the first Finnish-trained player to reach the NHL as well as the World Hockey Association careers of forward Veli-Pekka Ketola and defenseman Heikki Riihiranta . During those years, Marjamaki was perennially a key member of Team Finland's blue line. He was one of the national team's players who more than held his own when pitted against elite-caliber competition.
A silky smooth skater and offensively gifted talent who played with an occasional physical edge,......
......However, under the leadership of new head coach Kalevi Numminen (Teppo's father) and Marjamaki's on-ice brilliance, the club returned to the top the league in the 1970s.
The defenseman's peak season came in 1974-75. That year, the 27-year-old won the championship with Tappara, took league MVP honors and was named to the World Championships All-Star team after scoring six goals and eight points in 10 games.
After the season, the player reportedly received an NHL offer from the Minnesota North Stars, as well as a pair of offers from WHA clubs. He turned down the invitations.
"The timing was not right for me for leave," Marjarmaki said in 1998. "It was not common yet for Finnish players to go over there."......
