Juhamatti Aaltonen

Juhamatti Tapio Aaltonen (born 4 June 1985) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey winger. Known for his skill and skating speed, Aaltonen was drafted by the St. Louis Blues as the 248th selection overall in the 2003 NHL entry draft.

Playing career Aaltonen started his professional career with Oulun Kärpät, playing with the team from 2002 to 2009, winning Finnish championship twice. After the years he spent with Kärpät, Aaltonen moved to Lahti to play for Pelicans, where he played his breakthrough year, scoring 28 goals and 49 points in 58 games in the regular season. He signed a five-year contract with the Pelicans, but the contract also gave Aaltonen the possibility to play in other leagues.

This option in his contract was exercised on 15 June 2010, when he was loaned from the Pelicans to Russian club, Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. Aaltonen was an integral part of Metallurg's offense in his two seasons in the KHL before he opted to sign with Swedish club, Rögle BK of the then Elitserien on 15 October 2012. He made his debut in Sweden two-days later and in the 2012–13 season, contributed with 31 points in 42 regular season games.

After a season-long return with his original Finnish club, Kärpät, Aaltonen signed for his third Finnish team, and only KHL participant, Jokerit, on 1 August 2014. After Jokerit he had a season with Helsinki IFK in Liiga moving to SHL with Rögle BK for the 2017–18 season. After the 2022–23 SHL season he left Scandinavia for a new experience and joined BK Mladá Boleslav playing the Czech Extraliga.

On 8 August 2025, Aaltonen announced his retirement from professional hockey playing over 1,000 games.

International play Following the season 2009–10 season, he was selected to join the Finland men's national ice hockey team and he played at the 2010 IIHF World Championship. He won the World Championship in 2011 IIHF World Championship. He also played in the 2014 Winter Olympics, scoring the game-tying goal against Russia in the quarterfinal and went on to win bronze.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular seasonPlayoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 2001–02 Kärpät FIN U18 23 9 20 28 2 0 0 0 0 2002–03 Kärpät FIN U18 2 5 1 6 6 — — — — — 2002–03 Kärpät FIN U20 33 19 3 22 30 1 0 0 0 7 2002–03 Kärpät SM-l 1 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 2003–04 Kärpät FIN U20 32 30 15 45 32 3 1 0 1 2 2003–04 Kärpät SM-l 8 0 0 0 2 — — — — — 2004–05 Kärpät FIN U20 34 27 23 50 38 5 0 2 2 22 2004–05 Kärpät SM-l 6 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 2005–06 Kärpät SM-l 50 13 12 25 28 9 0 0 0 0 2006–07 Kärpät SM-l 53 11 21 32 48 10 1 4 5 6 2007–08 Kärpät SM-l 44 9 17 26 20 15 3 2 5 4 2008–09 Kärpät SM-l 53 11 21 32 14 15 3 6 9 2 2009–10 Pelicans SM-l 58 28 21 49 56 — — — — — 2010–11 Metallurg Magnitogorsk KHL 54 20 19 39 22 20 6 3 9 16 2011–12 Metallurg Magnitogorsk KHL 54 22 9 31 26 8 1 2 3 2 2012–13 Rögle BK SEL 42 12 19 31 22 — — — — — 2013–14 Kärpät Liiga 35 12 19 31 38 16 8 7 15 6 2014–15 Jokerit KHL 48 10 24 34 28 10 4 2 6 22 2015–16 Jokerit KHL 45 15 13 28 14 6 0 1 1 0 2016–17 HIFK Liiga 52 19 20 39 28 13 0 5 5 2 2017–18 Rögle BK SHL 35 8 11 19 14 — — — — — 2017–18 SC Bern NL 2 1 1 2 0 3 1 1 2 0 2018–19 Skellefteå AIK SHL 35 1 8 9 6 — — — — — 2018–19 Pelicans Liiga 11 9 4 13 8 6 1 4 5 0 2019–20 Pelicans Liiga 48 17 20 37 22 — — — — — 2019–20 Kärpät Liiga 12 2 5 7 2 — — — — — 2020–21 Kärpät Liiga 32 7 20 27 16 5 2 4 6 2 2021–22 Kärpät Liiga 58 14 21 35 30 7 1 2 3 2 2022–23 Jukurit Liiga 51 10 24 34 18 — — — — — 2023–14 BK Mladá Boleslav ELH 25 5 11 16 8 — — — — — 2023–24 Esbjerg Energy DEN 7 3 6 9 2 — — — — — 2023–24 Pelicans Liiga 11 2 4 6 4 17 1 3 4 2 2024–25 Jokerit Mestis 30 10 14 24 8 13 5 13 18 4 Liiga totals 583 163 229 392 334 113 20 37 57 26 KHL totals 201 67 65 132 90 44 11 8 19 40

International

Year Team Event GP G A Pts PIM 2003 Finland U18 6 0 1 1 4 2010 Finland WC 7 1 2 3 2 2011 Finland WC 9 1 2 3 6 2013 Finland WC 10 4 7 11 4 2014 Finland OG 4 1 0 1 2 2015 Finland WC 8 1 3 4 2 2017 Finland WC 5 0 3 3 0 Junior totals 6 0 1 1 4 Senior totals 43 8 17 25 16