Denver – The University of Denver hockey team announced on Monday that the forward: Sam Salminen will join the Pioneers as a transfer student in the 2024-25 campaign.
Salminen heads to Denver after spending the past two seasons at the University of Connecticut Hockey East. He scored 34 points (16g/18a) in 62 games with the Huskies, scoring 17 points in each campaign.
The Helsinki, Finland, native added seven goals and 10 assists to tie for third on the team and fifth on the team in scoring as a sophomore in 2023-24. He earned a plus-3 rating in 35 games as a sophomore and logged 10 penalty minutes. As a freshman in 2022-23, he had nine goals, eight assists, and 14 penalty minutes, earning a plus-4 rating.
Salminen, selected 68th overall in the third round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils, comes from Finland's Jokalit organization. He played three seasons with the under-20 junior team from 2019 to 2022, scoring 19 goals and 29 assists for 48 points in 44 games, and was named to the league's first All-Star team in 2021-22. .
Salminen played a full season with the U-18 team in 2018-19, contributing 18 goals and 18 assists in 33 games, helping the team win the league title. He also played in 20 games for Jokerit's U-16 team (20g/37a), totaling 7 goals and 15 points (7g/8a) in 7 postseason games, winning a silver medal.
Internationally, Salminen represented Finland at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championship, where he scored seven goals and two assists in seven games as team captain, posting the highest faceoff rate in the tournament at 70.2 percent. He also played in the 2019 World U-17 Hockey Challenge, scoring 5 points (3g/2a) in 5 games.
ticket: Fans can click here to purchase their season ticket deposit for the 2024-25 season now.
