Jori Lehterä

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Jori Lehterä is a Finnish professional ice hockey center, born on December 23, 1987, in Lempäälä, Finland. He is 6 ft 2 in tall and weighs 212 pounds, shoots left, and has played for teams in Finland, Russia’s KHL, and North America. He has represented Finland at the Olympics.

Lehterä came through Jokerit’s junior system and joined Tappara in 2007, where he was the SM-liiga MVP after scoring 69 points. He was drafted 65th overall by the St. Louis Blues in 2008. He moved to North America for the 2008–09 season with the Blues’ AHL affiliate Peoria Rivermen, but returned to Tappara that season. He later played in the KHL for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and Sibir Novosibirsk, leading Sibir in points with 44 in 2013–14.

In 2014 Lehterä signed with the Blues in the NHL and was named First Star of the Week in November 2014. He was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2017. He then played for SKA Saint Petersburg (2019) and Spartak Moscow (2020) in the KHL. In 2022 he returned to Finland to play for Tappara and later joined HIFK in Liiga.

Lehterä won a bronze medal with Finland at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. His uncle Tero Lehterä was part of Finland’s 1995 World Championship gold team. In 2018 Finnish police raided his home as part of a drugs investigation; Lehterä was not home, and in 2019 reports said he was not involved in distribution, only purchasing.