Jan-Mikael Juutilainen
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Jan-Mikael Juutilainen (born: January 5, 1988 in Espoo, Finland) is a Finnish ice hockey centre who currently plays in the United States Hockey League.
Juutilainen began his hockey career at the age of five with his hometown team, Espoo Jaaklubi. He was later transferred to Jokerit Helsinki where he would spend the next fifteen years of his hockey career. Juutilainen patterned his play after Otakar Janecký, a player from the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) who spent ten years in the Finnish SM-liiga, one year with SaiPa and then the other nine years with Jokerit.
As he moved up toward Jokerit's under-18 team, one player that Juutilainen played with for a season was Kari Lehtonen, who is now a goalie with the Atlanta Thrashers. At the time, Juutilainen was ten years old and Lehtonen was 15 years old. By 1997, Juutilainen also began to focus on NHL hockey, especially on the Chicago Blackhawks, the Edmonton Oilers and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Juutilainen especially focused on the play of two Jokerit graduates, Teemu Selänne and Tuomo Ruutu.
Juutilainen eventually made his way to Jokerit's under-18 team. He played there for two years and he also played on Jokerit's junior team, for hockey players aged 18 to 21. In April 2006, he also played one game for the Suomi Under-20s, a national development team. Juutilainen captained the Finnish Under-18 team to a silver medal at the 2006 World Under-18s in Sweden and a silver at the 2006 Junior World Cup of Hockey in the Czech Republic and Slovakia that August.
In May of 2006, Juutilainen was chosen in the ninth round of the 2006 USHL Draft by the Waterloo Blackhawks. The University of Nebraska at Omaha sealed his NCAA rights and he will start to attend classes there in September of 2007. A month later, Juutilainen was chosen in the sixth round (156th overall) of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks.
Despite all of these accolades, Juutilainen was not chosen to represent Finland at the 2007 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.
Juutilainen is currently in his rookie season with Waterloo.
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