He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, and the Washington Capitals, and won the Stanley Cup five times in his career, including in 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990 with the Oilers, and 1994 with the Rangers.

Tikkanen made his NHL debut with the Edmonton Oilers during the second game of the 1985 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Tikkanen excelled at distracting and confusing opponents with his Tiki-Talk and shadowed Gretzky when he was with the Los Angeles Kings.

In March 1993, Tikkanen was traded to the New York Rangers for Doug Weight,[5][6][7][8] and he was part of that team's 1994 Stanley Cup victory, scoring 22 goals and 54 points in 83 regular-season games.

In July 1994, Tikkanen was traded with Doug Lidster to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Petr Nedvěd.

[9][10][11] The start of the NHL's 1994–95 season was delayed by a lockout, during which Tikkanen returned to Finland to play for HIFK Helsinki.

After the lockout Tikkanen, played with the Blues during the shortened 1994–95 season, and appeared in 11 games in 1995–96 before a trade sent him to the New Jersey Devils.

The Rangers eliminated the Florida Panthers and New Jersey Devils before falling to the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals.

Tikkanen is remembered for missing a wide-open shot on goal that would have iced Game 2, which has been described as a turning point of the Series.

[24][25] Before the start of the 1999–2000 season, Tikkanen attended the Oilers' training camp and was offered a role of playing coach in the minors.

In 2000–01, Tikkanen moved to Germany, where he played what was to be his last season in a recognized professional league for Essen Mosquitoes of the DEL.

During the 2004–05 season, Tikkanen resurfaced again, this time as a player-coach for the Anyang Halla, a South Korean team in the Asia League Ice Hockey.

On 27 December 2010 Jokipojat from Joensuu, Finland, announced that Tikkanen would be the head coach of the team for the rest of the 2010–11 season.

He was nicknamed "The Grate One" (a pun on teammate Gretzky's moniker "The Great One") for his ability to irritate opposing players, often just by talking to them in his Finnish-English "Tikkanese" or "Tiki-Talk."

In 2004, Esa Tikkanen married Tua Backman; the couple had three children together (two sons and a daughter) before divorcing in 2014.

In 17 December, the district court of Länsi-Uusimaa has sentenced Esa Tikkanen to one year's conditional imprisonment for gross tax fraud.

The 1994 Breeders' Cup Turf was won by Tikkanen, a Thoroughbred racehorse named in Esa Tikkanen's honor by George W. Strawbridge, Jr., owner of Augustin Stable and an active director of the Buffalo Sabres NHL ice hockey club and a member of the team's executive committee for more than thirty years.