Stanley Cup winner Valtteri Filppula is to carry Olympic Team Finland's flag at the Opening Ceremony ©Olympic Team Finland

Ice hockey player Valtteri Filppula has been selected to carry Finland’s flag at the Beijing 2022 Opening Ceremony.

Filppula played as a centre for the Detroit Redwings in the National Hockey League (NHL), making 1,056 appearances in a career which lasted from 2005 to 2021.

"This is an honourable task and a wonderful thing," Filppula said.

This will be his second Olympic appearance.

He won a bronze at the 2010 Games in Vancouver but missed out on Pyeongchang through injury. 

"The last time I was at the Olympics, I didn’t even get to the opening ceremony," Filppula added.

"It feels good to have such an honour."

This will be Valtteri Filppula's second Winter Olympic Games ©Getty Images
This will be Valtteri Filppula's second Winter Olympic Games ©Getty Images

Filppula had been part of the Detroit Redwings side which won the Stanley Cup in 2008.

No NHL players are allowed to compete in the Olympics but Filppula joined Genève-Servette HC in Switzerland last year. 

At 37, he is now thought of as the elder statesman of the Finnish team.

He becomes the fourth ice hockey player to carry the Finnish flag.

The first was Jorma Valtonen in 1984, followed by Timo Blomqvist in 1992 and Ville Peltonen in 2010.

Finland open their Olympic campaign against Slovakia next Thursday at Beijing’s Indoor Stadium.