Kapanen was drafted 87th overall in the
1995 NHL entry draft by the
Hartford Whalers. His first NHL season was in
1995–96, when he played 35 games with Hartford. The Whalers relocated to become the
Carolina Hurricanes following the
1996–97 season and Kapanen averaged 24 goals and 35 assists in his next five seasons with Carolina. His best season was in
2001–02 when he scored 27 goals and 42 assists for 69 points. He was selected twice for the
NHL All Star Game (2000, 2002), winning the Individual event for "the Fastest skater" on both occasions. On 7 February 2003, Kapanen was traded to the
Philadelphia Flyers along with
Ryan Bast for
Pavel Brendl and
Bruno St. Jacques. In his first two seasons with Philadelphia, Kapanen played 31 playoff games, scoring 17 points. Kapanen has played three times for
Finland at the
Winter Olympics. In 18 Olympic games he scored 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points. In the NHL, Kapanen has played 831 regular season games, scoring 189 goals and 269 assists for 458 points. He has also played in 87 playoff games, scoring 13 goals and 22 assists for 35 points. Kapanen also won a gold medal at the 1995
Ice Hockey World Championships. Since 2003, Kapanen has also been the majority owner of the Finnish hockey team
KalPa Kuopio, the same club that gave him his start as a professional. One of the minority owners is
Kimmo Timonen who in 2007 became Kapanen's teammate on the Flyers. Following the
2007–08 season, Kapanen announced that he was retiring from the NHL and he would be returning to Finland to play for KalPa. He retired as a player after the 2009–10 season. On 7 April 2011, Kapanen announced that he would be doing a comeback as a player in KalPa, playing on a two-year contract. He, however, stepped down as the club's
chief executive officer (CEO) and instead handed that role over to his brother
Kimmo Kapanen. ==Coaching career==