In 1984 Summanen, who was born in Jyväskylä, joined the Edmonton Oilers from Europe at the end of the regular season. He played 2 regular season games and 5 playoff games. Summanen has a 1984 Stanley Cup ring and is part of the Edmonton Oilers' first Stanley Cup winning picture. His name was left off the Cup because he did not officially qualify.
Summanen coached the Finnish national team to a 2nd-place finish in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. However, his reported abrasiveness with players and management led to his dismissal. Even during Finland's successful World Cup performance, defenceman Janne Niinimaa left the team after "conflicts with the coaching staff." He also had a testy relationship with the national team's manager, Timo Jutila.
In 2010, Summanen succeeded Igor Nikitin as the head coach of Avangard Omsk, a leading KHL side. The team went from strength to strength and ended up as the top team of the regular season (largely due to an impressive 18-game winning streak lasting from December to February). However, some players were reportedly unhappy with Summanen's abrasive coaching methods. He was relieved of his coaching duties before game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, which the team went on to lose. The club cited health issues as an official explanation.[1] However, according to anonymous sources within the team, the real reason behind it was a major conflict with the players. There were reports that Summanen even tried to challenge Avangard's star Jaromír Jágr to a fight.[2]
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Finland 
