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Mikko Sakari Koivu (born March 12, 1983) is a Finnish professional ice hockey center currently playing for, and serving as captain of, the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL). Koivu was drafted sixth overall in 2001 by the Wild, and has spent his entire NHL career with Minnesota. Internationally, Koivu served as captain of the gold medal-winning Finnish national team at the 2011 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. ==Playing career== After playing in the Finnish junior leagues, Koivu began playing for TPS of the SM-liiga as a 17-year-old in the 2000–01 season, the same team for which older brother Saku also once played. He was selected sixth overall in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild and continued to play with TPS for three more seasons. Koivu moved to North America in the 2004–05 to play for Minnesota's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Houston Aeros, while that NHL season was canceled. The next season, he made his NHL debut with the Wild, scoring 21 points in his rookie season. In 2006–07, Koivu improved to a career-high 20 goals, 34 assists and 54 points. Injuries slowed him down in his third season, however; in a game against the Vancouver Canucks, defenceman Mattias Öhlund retaliated to an unpenalized elbow from Koivu and slashed him, breaking a bone in Koivu's leg. Öhlund was given a four-game suspension and Koivu missed 24 games as a result of the injury. Before the 2008–09 season commenced, Koivu was announced as a permanent alternate captain for the entire season, along with teammate Andrew Brunette, assuming they were not captain for the month (the Wild captaincy was rotated among the players on a monthly basis, each season). But Koivu started the 2008–09 season as team captain for the months of October and November. Though rumors swirled that then-Wild Head Coach Jacques Lemaire was close to ending the captain rotation and naming Koivu the permanent captain, he was replaced by Kim Johnsson in December, reverting to his role as alternate captain. In January 2009, Koivu was once again honoured with the Wild captaincy after only a month's hiatus. On October 16, 2008, Koivu tied a Wild franchise record for most assists in a game with four against the Florida Panthers. He also added a goal for a career-high five-point game as the Wild defeated Florida 6–2. In July 2009, it was announced that Koivu would be on the cover of Finland's version of EA Sports' video game ''NHL 10''. He was also voted the best Finn in the League by NHL.com. Koivu was named the first permanent captain in Wild franchise history on October 20, 2009, and during the ensuing off-season, he signed a then-franchise-record seven-year, $47 million contract extension on July 16, 2010, which went into effect during the 2011–12 season. On January 12, 2012, Koivu was selected to his first NHL All-Star Game.〔 http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/01/12/wild-captain-koivu-picked-for-nhl-all-star-game/〕 However, he was unable to participate due to injury. On March 18, 2014, Koivu recorded three points in a 6–0 win over the New York Islanders, in the process becoming the Wild's all-time leading scorer with 438 points in 588 games. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mikko Koivu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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