Sanni Vanhanen has had a lot of ice time over the last 14 months. The 17-year-old from Nokia, Finland is in Brampton at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship representing her country in her fifth major international tournament since February 2022, when she made her Olympic debut in Beijing.

In the summer of 2022, she competed in both the U18 and senior Worlds, and this January put on an impressive performance at the 2023 U18 Worlds. On top of all that, Vanhanen was a game changer in her inaugural season with the Naisten Liiga’s HIFK—and somewhere in there she has school as well.

“I’m not mentally tired, but physically a little bit,” said Vanhanen. “But I like to play, and [this Finnish team in Brampton], we have a good feeling.”

While Vanhanen was first named to the U18 national team in 2020 and went on to win bronze with the senior team in 2021, it was the 2022 season in which she made a name for herself. Not only did she complete the rare feat of competing in the Olympics, Women’s Worlds and U18 Women’s Worlds all within one year, but she made the podium two mores times. She was one of the youngest athletes to medal in Beijing with her Olympic bronze, and was the driving force behind Finland’s bronze medal at U18 Worlds, scoring all three goals in Finland’s 3-0 win over Sweden.

“I moved from boys hockey into the women’s league, so I get more puck,” said Vanhanen, who cites this change as one of the key factors behind her rapid skill development. After spending 2021-22 in the U16 SM-sarja, playing a few games in Finland’s women’s league on loan to Ilves, she joined the Naisten Liiga full-time for 2022-23. “[It gives] confidence for me to play here also with the puck.”

Vanhanen had a storybook ending to her first season with HIFK, helping the club to its first ever Naisten Liiga championship by breaking a 2-2 tie in the last 30 seconds of the final against Kiekko-Espoo. This was her league leading twelfth playoff goal, and she was granted recipient of the Karoliina Rantamäki Award for playoff MVP.

Playing alongside Team Finland teammates Julia Liikala and Emilia Vesa, as well as France’s Athena Locatelli and Clara Rozier and Czechia’s Michaela Pejzlova, Vanhanen had a strong regular season performance as well, contributing 18 goals and 22 assists through 22 games.

Having won the Naisten Liiga championship just over two weeks ago on March 21, Vanhanen hopes to ride that momentum into and throughout Women’s Worlds, and she knows full well what’s at stake. While she’s won multiple medals, she’s also experienced crushing lows, such as Finland’s sixth place finish at the 2022 Women’s Worlds. She says the goal is to not simply mimic or match the performance of her opponents, but to outplay them using Finland’s strengths.

“I think that we just have to play our own game and not go in with the opposite team’s speed and just keep our own."

With the Finns aiming to get back on the podium, Vanhanen has already made her mark in Brampton. Playing on a line with the likes of Petra Nieminen and HIFK teammate Liikala, Vanhanen had three assists (already most points than at her two previous Women’s Worlds combined) and over 18 minutes of ice time in Finland’s opening 14-1 win over France.

Turning 18 this July, the sky’s the limit for Vanhanen—but she isn’t spending too much time dwelling on what the rest of her hockey career could look like, instead focusing on the here and now. “I’m trying to live in the moment and just try to get better in every training and not thinking about the future.”