Group B of the Ice Hockey World Championship: Finland – Slovenia, May 10 in Paris. From left Sabahudin Kovačević from Slovenia, Jani Lajunen from Finland.
Prague – Finnish hockey forward Jani Lajunen strengthened Sparta Prague. The 32-year-old world champion from 2011 spent the last two seasons in Sweden's Örebro. Lajunen is Sparta's fifth new acquisition after forwards Filip Chlapík from Ambri-Piotta and Ondřej Najman from Mladá Boleslav and defenders Aaron Irving from Davos and Vojtěch Mozík from Rögle.
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“Jani Lajunen is a very high-quality center who went through great hockey seasons. In addition, he is the type of player that we lacked in the team. A player who knows how to win,” Sparta's head of sports, Tomáš Divíšek, told the club's website.
Last season, Lajunen collected 24 points for five goals and 19 assists in 61 games from Örebro, including the playoffs. He didn't score in two duels at the Spengler Cup in Davos.
“We already watched him at the Spengler Cup in December, we have been in contact since then. Jani showed a great interest in playing for Sparta, it was a very quick agreement ,” said sports manager Jaroslav Hlinka.
Lajunen also has silver from the 2016 World Championships, he also competed at the World Championships a year later and at the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.
The native of Espoo played in the Finnish league for the Blues there and later also for two seasons for Tappara Tampere, with whom he won the championship in 2016 and 2017. In 2008, he was drafted by Nashville in the 7th round at the 201st position, but he did not play in the NHL. He only worked on the Predators farms in Milwaukee and in the reserve team of St. Louis in Peoria also in the AHL. During his career, he spent two years in Sweden's Växjö, with whom he triumphed in the Swedish league in 2015, and four years in Switzerland's Lugano.
