Sanni Vanhanen
Finnish ice hockey player (born 2005)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sanni Vanhanen (born 1 July 2005) is a Finnish ice hockey player for the Ohio State Buckeyes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and member of the Finnish national team.
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Vanhanen was the youngest player to represent Finland at the 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship and was the youngest player to compete in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics.[1][2]
Playing career
Vanhanen began playing ice hockey with the youth department of HC Nokia in her hometown of Nokia, in the Pirkanmaa region of southwestern Finland. As HC Nokia did not have a girls' ice hockey section, she played with HC Nokia's top boys' teams for her age. In the 2017–18 season, her last with HC Nokia, she played with the club's boys' teams in the under-12 (U12; E1) AAA league and the U13 (D2) AA and U13 (D2) AAA leagues (see minor ice hockey).[3]
Vanhanen joined the youth department of Tappara hockey club in Tampere, a neighboring municipality some 15 km (9.3 mi) east of Nokia, ahead of the 2018–19 season.[4] Like HC Nokia, Tappara did not have a girls' ice hockey section, and in her first season with the club, she played in the boys' D1 (U14) AAA with Tappara Musta (lit. 'Tappara Black') and also appeared in a few matches as a substitute with Tappara's other D1 AAA team, Tappara Sininen ('Tappara Blue'). In the D1 AAA preliminary series (alkusarja), she ranked sixth of all Tappara Musta players for scoring, with 10 points in 16 games, and tied for third in team assists, with 7. Facing new and more challenging opponents in the regular season (jatkosarja), her scoring was limited to 2 goals and four assists for 6 points in 15 games.
During the 2021–22 season, she played in the U16 SM-sarja with the men's under-16 team of Tappara and on loan with the Tampereen Ilves Naiset in the Naisten Liiga (NSML; rebranded as Auroraliiga in 2024).
She later won two Aurora Borealis Cup championships with IFK Helsinki.[5]
In November 2024, Vanhanen committed to play college ice hockey with the Ohio State Buckeyes women's ice hockey program as an incoming freshman for the 2025–26 season.[6]
International play
Vanhanen participated in the 2019 Women's U16 European Cup, winning silver with the Finnish team.[7] She joined the Finnish national under-18 team in the 2019–20 season, playing in nineteen international matches in addition to competing at the 2020 IIHF U18 Women's World Championship, where Finland finished fourth.[8]
Vanhanen's first invitation to a senior national team training camp was the roster selection camp for the World Championship in March 2021. National team head coach Pasi Mustonen described her as a player with "absolutely tremendous potential" and identified her adaptability as a key attribute that led to her selection.[9]
On 2 January 2026, she was named to Finland's roster to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics.[10]
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 2017–18 | HC Nokia Black | U13 AA | 6 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2017–18 | HC Nokia Orange | U13 AAA | 25 | 11 | 14 | 25 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2018–19 | Tappara Black | U14 AAA | 31 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2018–19 | Tappara Blue | U14 AAA | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2019–20 | Tappara Black | U14 AAA | 22 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2019–20 | Tappara Blue | U14 AAA | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2020–21 | Tappara Black | U15 AAA | 15 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2020–21 | Tappara Blue | U15 AAA | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2020–21 | Ilves (L) | NSML | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 2021–22 | Tappara Black | U15 AAA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2021–22 | Tappara U16 | U16 SM-sarja | 28 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2021–22 | Ilves (L) | NSML | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 2022–23 | HIFK | NSML | 22 | 18 | 22 | 40 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 8 | 20 | 0 | ||
| 2023–24 | HIFK | NSML | 32 | 27 | 39 | 66 | 12 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 0 | ||
| 2024–25 | Brynäs IF | SDHL | 35 | 12 | 14 | 26 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 0 | ||
| Naisten Liiga totals | 60 | 49 | 64 | 113 | 16 | 27 | 19 | 17 | 36 | 0 | ||||
Sources:[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
International
| Year | Team | Event | Result | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Finland | U18 | 4th | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2021 | Finland | WC |  |
4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2022 | Finland | OG | |
7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2022 | Finland | EYOF | |
2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | |
| 2022 | Finland | U18 | |
5 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 2 | |
| 2022 | Finland | WC | 6th | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| 2023 | Finland | U18 | 4th | 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | |
| 2023 | Finland | WC | 5th | 7 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | |
| 2024 | Finland | WC | |
7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2025 | Finland | WC | |
7 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2026 | Finland | OG | 6th | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| Junior totals | 19 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 6 | ||||
| Senior totals | 44 | 2 | 13 | 15 | 6 | ||||
Awards and honors
| Award | Year |
|---|---|
| Naisten Liiga | |
| Aurora Borealis Cup Champion | 2023 |
| 2024 | |
| Karoliina Rantamäki Award (Playoff MVP) | 2023[26] |
| Noora Räty Award (Rookie of the Year) | 2023[27] |
| International | |
| World Championship Bronze Medal | 2021, 2024, 2025 |
| Olympic Bronze Medal | 2022 |
| EYOF Bronze Medal | 2022 |
| World U18 All-Star Team | 2022[28] |
| World U18 Bronze Medal | 2022[29] |
| World U18 Top-3 Player on Team | 2022[30] |
| 2023[31] | |
