Teemu Selänne invited polar bears to his mansion.
Then he made a super daring bet.
– It was a cool moment. He is an icon, says former teammate Andreas Lilja.
Teemu Selänne is without a doubt Finland’s greatest ice hockey player – and probably an athlete – of all time. He was selected as the tenth player in the 1988 draft, but that would prove to be an absolutely fantastic choice of Winnipeg Jets.
Senseless career
Already during his debut year – which he did as a 22-year-old – he scored an incredible 76 goals and a total of 132 points, and he carried the Jets all the way to the playoffs. Such a debut year is not often seen in the NHL, and that was just the beginning of something very special.
When Teemu Selänne ended his career in 2014, he did so with 1,457 points in 1,451 games, and one of the NHL’s foremost of all time. But he has not only been good on the ice. He was a beloved teammate and everyone around him liked him.
Dare to bet
The Swede Andreas Lilja played with Selänne in the Ducks during the 2010-2011 season, and remembers an event particularly well.
– We were invited to his place, and he had a huge house. So we are talking a real “mansion”, with pool, tennis courts and putting greens. He had three golf holes on his back, says Lilja in the podcast Släpp Sargen.
The teammates were of course eager to test the golf holes, and started hitting. Suddenly Selänne came with a daring bet.
– He had about 20 cars and five or six motorcycles. Suddenly he put only one of his motorcycles on the green, and said: “Whoever makes the hole-in-one gets the motorcycle”. We stood there for a long time and hit ball after ball. No one even came close, but it was a cool moment after all. He is an icon.
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