Ex-Leafs winger Kapanen suspected of aggravated drunk driving charge: report

Former Toronto Maple Leafs winger Kasperi Kapanen is the suspect in a serious legal investigation in his home country.

According to an article published in the Finnish outlet Yle, Kapanen is suspected of aggravated drunk driving in the North Savo region of eastern Finland.

Kapanen, who is currently a member of the St. Louis Blues, is scheduled for a district court appearance next February, after the case was initially heard this August.

“The prosecutor will not comment on the course of events to Yle until the matter becomes public in connection with the court hearing in February,” Yle reported, as per Google Translate. “Yle has not reached [Kapanen] or his agent Markus Lehto to comment on the matter.”

According to Yle, drunk driving charges in Finland are raised to the aggravated level if “the driver’s blood alcohol concentration is at least 1.2 per thousand or he has at least 0.53 milligrams of alcohol per litre of exhaled air during or after driving.”

A 27-year-old winger from Kuopio, Finland, and the son of longtime NHLer Sami Kapanen, Kasperi was selected in the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2014 draft, though it’s Toronto where he first broke into the National Hockey League.

Kapanen originally came to the Leafs in 2015 from the Penguins as one of the pieces in a blockbuster deal centred around Toronto forward Phil Kessel. Most notably, Kapanen scored an overtime-winning goal for Toronto in the second game of the first round of the 2017 playoffs, giving the team a 1-1 series score against the heavily favoured Washington Capitals.

He spent five seasons in the city before being sent back to Pittsburgh in August 2020, where he spent parts of three more seasons.

The Penguins placed him on waivers earlier this year, before he was picked up by the Blues.

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