Kai Kantola

Kai Kantola (born September 11, 1987) is a Finnish-American professional ice hockey forward who currently plays for KalPa of the Finnish Liiga.

Playing career Kantola was born in North York, Ontario, Canada, to Finnish parents, and he has dual citizenship of Finland and the United States. He was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., and first played midget hockey with the East Coast Eagles. Kantola played the U-18 level for Kiekkoreipas for a season before continuing his junior career in America with the Fargo-Moorhead Jets of the North American Hockey League. After two seasons with the Jets, Kantola committed to play collegiate hockey with Bowling Green State University.

Following completion of his full four-year tenure with the Falcons, Kantola played 2 games to end the 2009-10 season with the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League. As an undrafted free agent, Kantola opted to continue his career in the familiar surroundings of Finland, signing his first professional contract with Ilves of the SM-liiga on June 1, 2010.

After four seasons with Ilves, and improving his points totals in each season whilst providing a power based style, Kantola moved to Liiga rival, the Espoo Blues on a two-year contract on April 16, 2014. Kantola was selected as the Best Player of September 2014 in the SM-liiga.

Career statistics Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 2003–04 Kiekkoreipas U18 U18 SM-sarja 30 5 9 14 26 6 0 0 0 0 2004–05 Fargo-Moorhead Jets NAHL 37 5 7 12 20 5 0 0 0 4 2005–06 Fargo-Moorhead Jets NAHL 52 24 28 52 116 8 3 4 7 6 2006–07 Bowling Green University NCAA 36 5 6 11 14 — — — — — 2006–07 Suomi U20 Mestis 2 0 0 0 2 — — — — — 2007–08 Bowling Green University NCAA 28 6 7 13 60 — — — — — 2008–09 Bowling Green University NCAA 36 12 6 18 63 — — — — — 2009–10 Bowling Green University NCAA 35 5 7 12 44 — — — — — 2009–10 Norfolk Admirals AHL 2 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 2010–11 Ilves SM-liiga 56 5 8 13 24 5 1 1 2 0 2011–12 Ilves SM-liiga 47 3 9 12 34 — — — — — 2012–13 Ilves SM-liiga 37 11 11 22 86 — — — — — 2013–14 Ilves Liiga 59 19 14 33 32 — — — — — 2014–15 Espoo Blues Liiga 39 12 10 22 26 4 0 0 0 4 2015–16 Espoo Blues Liiga 10 1 1 2 2 — — — — — 2015–16 Ilves Liiga 49 7 12 19 52 — — — — — 2016–17 KooKoo Liiga 50 14 9 23 38 — — — — — 2016–17 HIFK Liiga 10 1 2 3 4 11 2 1 3 8 2017–18 KalPa Liiga 53 7 16 23 32 6 4 1 5 26 2018–19 KalPa Liiga 29 6 13 19 18 — — — — — 2019–20 KalPa Liiga 58 20 19 39 32 — — — — — 2020–21 KalPa Liiga 57 19 17 36 38 4 1 0 1 8 2021–22 Black Wings Linz ICEHL 24 5 5 10 6 — — — — — 2022–23 HC TPS Liiga 10 0 0 0 2 — — — — — 2022–23 KalPa Liiga 37 7 7 14 39 6 0 2 2 4 Liiga totals 601 132 148 280 459 36 8 6 14 50