Hietamaki during the past seven seasons as become one the longest tenured import players in league history. The Finnish defender came up through the Assat youth system where he was teammates with future NHL players such as Leo Komarov and Jesse Joensuu, before making his debut in the Liiga with Assat. After playing parts of five seasons in the Mestis with various teams he signed with Ferencváros for the 2011-12 season in which he was the Defenseman of the Year. In the offseason he left to play for Brasov for three seasons before he coming back to Budapest, this is his third straight season with Fradi and his seventh in the league. The Fradi defender answered some questions after practice.
You had 3 goals and 4 assists in the first two games of the season, what was the reason for this scoring outburst?
I played almost the entire season injured and it was not exactly a fun season for me. This season I am healthy and I feel great on the ice. Things started to go really well for me right from the first practice, which has given me great self confidence for the start of the season.
How much has the team changed from last season, both on and off the ice?
I think there has been great changes! Now we have a coach for off ice conditioning and we work just about every day in the gym, this did not happen that much last season. Overall we have improved our team speed and we have concentrated on improving that as well. The team is working harder everyday and we have great team chemistry, we are having fun everyday when we are doing our job.
What was the reason you decided to stay with Ferencváros?
I like it here, Budapest is a great city and I am familiar with the people and the club knows me. I did not see any reason for me to change.
The season is only two games old, but will Ferencváros be able to keep this pace going?
I think that we have team who can beat anyone in the league! The past two seasons we had some pretty big ups and downs and I hope we can be more of a balanced team than before.
How much has the league changed since you first played here?
The league is 500% better now than in 2011. The league has improved every season, the players and the teams have improved tremendously.