Birth Date: | 29 July 1972 |
Birth Place: | Helsinki, Finland |
Height Cm: | 174 |
Weight Kg: | 75 |
Position: | Defense |
Shoots: | Left |
Played For: | Jokerit Ässät KalPa Newcastle Jesters Pingouins de Morzine-Avoriaz Bisons de Neuilly-sur-Marne |
League Coach: | Liiga |
Team Coach: | SaiPa (assistant) |
Coached For: | Pingouins de Morzine-Avoriaz Gothiques d'Amiens (assistant) Forssan Palloseura Espoo Blues U20 (assistant) Jokerit U20 Rovaniemen Kiekko |
Career Start: | 1993 |
Career End: | 2011 |
Career Start Coach: | 2009 |
Santeri Immonen (born 29 July 1972) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey defenceman and current assistant coach of SaiPa of the Liiga.
Immonen played in the SM-liiga for Jokerit, Ässät and KalPa, playing 237 regular seasons in total between 1994 and 2000.[1] He also played in the British Ice Hockey Superleague for the Newcastle Jesters, the Swedish HockeyAllsvenskan for IK Nyköpings and the French Ligue Magnus for the Pingouins de Morzine-Avoriaz and the Bisons de Neuilly-sur-Marne.
His coaching career began while he was still an active player – he served as player-coach in his final two seasons with Morzine-Avoriaz, 2009–10 and 2010–11, before ending his playing career and remaining the team's head coach through the 2011–12 season. From Morzine-Avoriaz, he moved on to the Gothiques d'Amiens, serving as assistant coach through the 2013–14 season.
Immonen returned to his native Finland in 2014, taking over as head coach for Forssan Palloseura (FPS) of the third-tier Suomi-sarja. In 2016, he accepted an assistant coaching position with the Espoo Blues' under-20 junior team of the U20 SM-sarja and, in 2017, he became head coach of Jokerit's under-20 team, also of the U20 SM-sarja.
In 2018, Immonen was appointed head coach of the Mestis team Rovaniemen Kiekko (RoKi).[2]