Finnish star’s election to Hall of Fame expands recognition of women’s game
When Riikka Sallinen was announced as a 2022 Hockey Hall of Fame pick, first thoughts were that the selection committee must have stumbled off their search grid.
Who? From where? Those questions were raised after the June announcement of the ninth female added in the player category. That Sallinen herself didn’t join the initial conference call and chose to steer clear of the Hall festivities this past week hasn’t helped bring her story to light.
But committee chairman Mike Gartner hailed the addition of the 49-year-old Finnish forward as key to expanding recognition of the women’s game beyond Canada and the United States.
“I think it needs to,” Gartner said Friday at the Hall of Fame ring ceremony in Toronto. “We know there’s a catch-up period that has to happen.”
It’s now been more than a decade since the first women were recognized by the Hall, starting with Angela James and Cammi Granato, increasing by one in each of the past five selection years. That reflects Granato and Cassie Campbell-pascall joining the 18-person committee.
“They have both lent a lot of credence to the women’s game,” Gartner said. “We really lean on them a lot as to who should be in the Hall. They give us a block of those who should be considered, but one of the names that kept coming to the top of the list was Riikka.”
Like many in the early days of competitive girls’ hockey, Sallinen first played on a boys’ team. However, by her teens, she was among her country’s best and left to play pro on a women’s club in Switzerland. She scored 50 goals in a 17-game season, then spent time in both Finnish and Swedish leagues. When the first women’s Olympic tournament was held in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, she led all scorers with seven goals and five assists. She proudly wore No. 13 through her career, as did Finnish Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne.
But her home nation’s best just couldn’t unseat the two perennial North American champions.
“She didn’t get that type of attention (as Granato, Campbell-pascall and others),” Gartner said. “And so this is a recognition of a quality player on what was a bronze medal team (eight total finishes in third place in the world championship and Olympics). Just imagine how dominant she would have been if surrounded with other Hall of Famers.”
That’s not all there is to the Sallinen saga.
Due to knee injuries and concussions, she retired from 2003-13 to raise a family and launch a career in the physiotherapy field. But the mother of two sons (both now club players in Finland) was drawn back to the national program. She helped the Finns to capture Olympic bronze in 2018, at age 44 the oldest hockey player, male or female, to wear a medal.
“As men, we can’t even imagine doing that,” Gartner marvelled. “I can only think what it would be like just to leave the game for one year and then come back. I know Nhlers, Hall of Fame players, have had a tough time doing that and not many have succeeded. And that’s just being away, let alone having a child, the whole physical part of that.
“With Riikka, it’s remarkable, and I’m really glad that we’re making these types of recognitions.
“We’re not trying to just get the best Finnish player or the best Swedish player (or the best player) from all the different countries. But if there is someone who steps up, who is dominant within the whole game, that’s different.
“It puts out the notice that the Hall and our committee are broadening the scope of who we look at. It was thought for years and years that it’s just an NHL type of selection. It’s not anymore.”
Dedicated to her physio work, particularly helping the disabled, Sallinen won’t attend Monday’s official ceremony, accepting in a pre-recorded video.
“Being chosen by the Hall is the greatest honour a hockey player can receive,” she said. “I am grateful for the recognition as the first European female to go in.”