Onni Hautamäki has already worked an Olympic gold medal game, a World Championship final, and a World Junior final. Tonight, the 31-year-old from Kuopio, Finland, adds the one assignment missing from his résumé: an NHL game.  When he takes the ice tonight. Hautamäki will become the first Finnish official in league history, working New Jersey Devils vs. Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Aren.

Hautamäki will take the ice wearing #62 alongside fellow linesperson Libor Suchanek (#60), with referees Wes McCauley (#4) and Jordan Samuels-Thomas (#37) rounding out Tuesday’s crew…  on his birthday.

A Finnish First 

The NHL simply doesn’t hire many European-trained officials. In more than a century, only three made the jump before Hautamäki: Swedish referee Marcus Vinnerborg, the first European-trained official in league history (2010-12); Russian referee Evgeny Romasko (2015-18); and Czech linesperson Libor Suchanek, hired in 2017 and, two years later, became the first non-North American official to earn full-time NHL status.

Hautamäki is the fourth – and just the second European-trained linesperson, after Suchanek. Tonight, fittingly, the league’s only two European-trained officials will work the same game, on the same lines crew.

For a country that produces elite players by the dozen, there has never been a Finnish official wearing an NHL striped jersey…  until tonight.

The Road from Kuopio

Hautamäki’s playing career in KalPa’s junior system stalled in his teens. By his own admission, the jump to the top junior level was a leap too far. A former teammate who had taken up officiating talked him into a refereeing course, and at 17 he worked his first junior game. 

“I remember I gave out one penalty in my first game,” Hautamäki recalled, “and it was too many men on the ice.”

Five years later came his Liiga debut –  in his hometown, on his birthday, with less than an hour’s warning:

“The other linesman got injured in warm-ups, so 55 minutes before the game they called and asked if I could work the line for KalPa–KooKoo. Of course I could.”

Birthday debuts are apparently his thing: tonight’s NHL debut falls on his 31st birthday, October 13.

From that emergency call-up, Hautamäki built one of the finest officiating careers in Finland: 357 Liiga games (wearing #66) plus roughly 130 more in Mestis over nine seasons, and the Pentti Isotalo Award as Liiga’s linesperson of the year twice.

Coming to America

Hautamäki got an early look at the NHL standard last December, when he crossed the Atlantic for a five-game AHL audition – one game in Laval, two in Belleville, and two in Toronto over six days.

The league placed him right alongside NHL-caliber – and NHL-contracted – officials: his line partner for his first two North American games was Jeremy Faucher, an NHL linesperson who worked 56 NHL games last season. His final two games of the trip were refereed by then-AHL/NHL officials Mike Sullivan and Stephen Hiff, the latter of whom was just bumped to full-time NHL duties. Referee Hayden Verbeek, who worked two of those five games, has since joined him in the NHL’s 2026-27 hire class.

A Spotlight Assignment

If the NHL had any doubts about how Hautamäki would handle North American speed, his international record answered them. His IIHF résumé includes three World Championships (2023, 2025, 2026) – including the 2025 Gold Medal game – two World Junior Championships (2023, 2025), where he also worked the 2025 final between the USA and Finland, the 2022 U18 World Championship, the 2023 Spengler Cup, and Champions Hockey League duty.

Then came the audition that sealed it. Through the IIHF’s Road to Milano program, which placed six international linesmen alongside NHL officials, Hautamäki earned a spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina – and, on the strength of his work there, a spot in the gold medal game, working the lines with Canada’s Scott Cherrey with referees Gord Dwyer and Chris Rooney as the USA beat Canada 2-1 in overtime.

“It was a massive honor to get to the Olympics. The pace was something else. The players’ skill and speed don’t get any higher than that.”

His NHL contract offer followed in the summer.

“It was a great honor, and so the decision was easy,” said Hautamäki. “I’ve never focused too much on how far I could reach in my career… I’ve always done my best, and that carries you forward.”

As a part-time hire, Hautamäki will split the season between the NHL and AHL, working roughly 40 games in each. He’s already been on AHL lines this month wearing #7, handling Springfield at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on October 3 and Chicago at Grand Rapids on October 11. After tonight, expect to see plenty more of #62.

For a man making history, Hautamäki gives a ton of credit to the officials who never will.

“Big leagues are always talked about, but it’s the local referees in the officials’ clubs who are the most important. They deserve respect, because that invisible work makes it possible for people to play.”

Congratulations to Onni Hautamäki on the start of his National Hockey League officiating career!