EV Zug have signed Finnish centre Jarkko Immonen to a two-year contract. Immonen is an SM-liiga champion, a Gagarin Cup champion and an IIHF World Champion.
Club News
Swiss club and CHL founding member EV Zug made big news on Monday morning with the announcement of their signing of Finnish centre Jarkko Immonen to a two-year contract. Immonen, who turns 33 in April, has spent the past six seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League.
In the announcement on the club's website, sports director Reto Kläy described, "Jarkko Immonen is an experienced, intelligent, strong and prolific centre and plays in all three zones at a high level. An absolute leader type."
Immonen was born in Rantasalmi, Finland and grew up playing for the SapKo club in nearby Savonlinna. He later played for Ässät Pori and JYP Jyväskylä before heading to North America in 2005. In two seasons there he scored at nearly a point-per-game pace in the AHL and also played 20 games for the New York Rangers, recording eight points.
After two more seasons with JYP, where he scored at better than a point-per-game and helped the team win the SM-liiga title in 2009. He then went to the KHL in 2009, winning the Gagarin Cup in his first season with Ak Bars Kazan. He played three more seasons in Kazan and the last two for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. He's coming off a 2014-15 campaign where he recorded 39 points in the regular season, then four points in five playoff games.
Internationally, Immonen was a member of the Finnish team that won the 2011 World Championship, leading the tournament in goals (9) and points (12) and getting named to the tournament All-Star Team. He's also a two-time Olympic bronze medalist.
For Zug, signing a centre the stature of Immonen is certainly a coup. This past season they finished fourth in the league with 92 points before falling to HC Davos in the quarter-finals. In the Champions Hockey League, they finished second in Group H with 10 points, barely missing the cut-off for the Playoff Stage.