Jokerit

Helsingin Jokerit (English: Jokers or Jesters) are a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team won six league championships as a member of the Finnish SM-liiga (1973, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2002). Jokerit plays its home games at Helsinki Halli. The team was a part of the Bobrov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) Western Conference from the 2014–15 season, making Finland the first Nordic country to have a team in the league.

On February 24, 2022, Jokerit announced it would withdraw from the 2022 KHL playoffs due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Multiple team sponsors including the arena's title sponsor Hartwall announced intentions to end their agreements. On April 5, 2022, Jokerit subsequently announced ending their participation in the KHL completely. And on April 20, 2022, they announced that they are seeking to return to SM-liiga for the 2023–24 season.

History

The beginning

Jokerit would not have existed without the debt-incumbent ice hockey branch of Töölön Vesa amateur sports club, who were faced with having to discontinue their resource-demanding ice hockey activities in 1967. Master-builder Aimo Mäkinen seized the opportunity to establish a semi-professional sports club of his own, and for the price of half of Vesa's ice hockey debts the new ice hockey club inherited everything, including junior players and the vacant position in second highest Finnish series, Suomi-sarja.

Officially, Jokerit were established on 27 October 1967, at their constitutional meeting. The club's sole owner Mäkinen chose to wield sovereign power, becoming in practice also the board and managing director. The insignia, a winking jester, was adapted from jokers of various card decks and drawn by graphic designer Jorma Hinkka. Their home venue was Helsinki Ice Hall.

Mäkinen did not intend his new club to loiter in the lower series. Even though dramatic changes in the line-up did not appear directly, only a few players from Töölön Vesa saw prolonged employment: Timo Turunen would be the most distinguished, remaining even today as the club's all-time goal scoring leader. With him, Pentti Hiiros and Timo Kyntölä would form ''nallipyssyketju'' ("cap gun line", referring to their lack of height – Hiiros was the tallest at 172 cm) until 1975, when the latter retired.

Promotion to SM-sarja

Promotion to the highest level, SM-sarja, took place two years later. Immediately after the promotion was secured, Mäkinen began an aggressive acquisition of star players. Among them were the national team regulars defenceman Ilpo Koskela with forwards Henry Leppä and Timo Sutinen, whose relationship with the club lasted long.

Other, later reinforcements worthy of a mention were forward Jouko Öystilä and defenceman Timo Saari, and finally, head coach Matti Lampainen. In 1969, the IIHF had loosened amateur rules by permitting bodychecking anywhere in the rink (old rules allowed bodychecking only in defensive end). SM-sarja underwent a tactical revolution as physical, mean play became a means to success. Lampainen, however, reckoned physical play unsuitable for the line-up at hand (consider nallipyssyketju). He guided the team, with success, towards a play that demanded technique and clever tactics. This became the trademark of Jokerit that stuck all the way to the late 1990s and resulted in the way Jokerit played as being branded as "neitikiekko", which roughly translates as "playing like women".

To his credit, Mäkinen also enhanced the club's junior organization by launching a competition of their own, called ''Kanada-sarja'', with 500 participating junior players, a figure that cumulatively tripled in a few years. Kanada-sarja didn't survive the 1970s, but Jokerit benefited from it through a steady flow of emerging talent including Jari Kurri, and by gaining a strong popular base in the outer urban zones of Helsinki.

Despite winning Finnish championship silver in 1971 and gold in 1973, Jokerit didn't manage to be financially profitable during Mäkinen's period in charge. He started downsizing the team's budget by methodically replacing departing stars with junior players. Success slowly declined and Jokerit only just managed to avoid relegation from the Finnish elite-level league several times. This, combined with Mäkinen's controversial manner of management – the emphasis being place on non-physical play – led to the club facing an uncertain and turbulent future.

Success and financial troubles

When a replacement candidate turned up in 1980, Mäkinen retired from the ownership, though he went on in the club's junior organization up to the 1990s. New owners, ''Jokeriklubin Tuki Ry'', were a conventional association supervised by its board.

Under new management, the club didn't instantly shake off its wobbliness, but then they peaked for one season. Having signed mainly outcasts of other clubs, they suddenly hit jackpot: for the 1982–1983 season, the club signed Soviet Union's national team defenceman Nikolai Makarov. As a result, Jokerit had a near-perfect season and advanced all the way to the SM-Liiga finals, where they were comprehensively beaten by local rival HIFK.

However, the management ran into unexpected financial problems, and the brief success soon withered. Only a few years later, they had to avert bankruptcy twice, which struck a blow to their credibility, as a mass desertion of the players ensued. The first line was a shambles as wing Risto Kerminen departed and center Jari Lindroos almost did, but though he had signed elsewhere, the contract was illegitimately nullified. Few others, apart from the longtime goaltender Rauli Sohlman, remained. Jokerit faced the imminent relegation in 1987.

In the middle of the bleakest hour of their history, with Jokeriklubin Tuki Ry seeking to discontinue their association, new blood was rushed into Jokerit. In 1988, their 20-year-olds won the Finnish junior championship with several prospective stars: defenceman Waltteri Immonen would be captain of the team 1991–1999; Mika Strömberg the club's all-time best-scoring defenceman; Ari Sulander the main goaltender 1993–1998; forward Keijo Säilynoja a goal scorer and a penalty-shot specialist; and Teemu Selänne the NHL record-breaker.

Now that the club was spiced with such promising, new willing owners turned up to save them. They established ''Jokeri-Hockey Oy'' and became the first limited company based sports club in Finland. Kalervo Kummola, who played the leading role assembling the company, sat in its board up to 2002.

The team, reinforced with the junior champions, orchestrated a quick promotion back to the top level, now called SM-liiga. But once again, despite the phenomenal boost in popularity supported by the prominent scorer Selänne and other young star players, the owners ran into severe financial problems, caused by incompetent management and disagreements within the board.

The Harkimo era

In 1991, an investor withdrew and board member Harry "Hjallis" Harkimo got credentials to a double majority of shares. He appointed himself the chairman of the board, discontinued all managerial positions and nominated his wife Leena Harkimo the managing director (who held the task up to her election to the Parliament of Finland in 1999). This proved to be the final stroke of luck the club needed: the disagreements vanished once and for all and Harry Harkimo established himself as an efficient businessman, being able to conduct a rapid recovery of the economy. In a few years, Jokerit were the wealthiest Finnish sports club.

Thus, they were able to reinforce the team with first class talent. Several successful acquisitions were signed, most memorably Otakar Janecký, who manned the first line center for several seasons, becoming the club's all-time best point scorer; Petri Varis, who became the club's best goal scorer of the 1990s; and forward Antti Törmänen. Together with the above-mentioned junior champions they formed a core of a dynasty of thriving times: Jokerit won the Finnish championship in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1997, the European Cup in 1995 and 1996, plus Finnish silver once and European bronze once.

Harkimo further converted the club from semi-professionalism towards his ideal of professional sports entertainment, which was unmistakably adopted from the NHL. His efforts yielded Jokerit their own home venue, Hartwall Arena, in 1997 – first such privately owned in Europe. Ownership was reformed into ''Jokerit HC Oyj'', a public limited company. They focused on the new European Hockey League expecting it to evolve into a competition more money-making than SM-Liiga, and sought various other ways to expand. Most of these plans did not meet with success, but the new venue turned out to be a gold-mine for the club's business. Meanwhile, Harry Harkimo tried to create an elite team to the British Ice Hockey Superleague, the Newcastle Jesters, but the team was not as successful as hoped, so he sold the franchise back to the League.

As they set foot at Hartwall Arena, the club signed several star reinforcements seen to be required to win the two professional leagues and to replace the now slightly aged core. However, despite having sparkling line-ups, their performance fluctuated, ending up winning "only" Finnish bronze in 1998. To make matters worse, their closest rival, HIFK won the SM-Liiga title in 1998, the first year that Jokerit had occupied the new Hartwall Arena. The club went on to making a losing appearance in the finals in 2000, and repeatedly failed to achieve success in the European Hockey League (which turned out as a major flop in itself).

Into the next millennium

In the 2000s, the management have regained what the supporters consider more reasonable an attitude by concentrating back on SM-Liiga, but the line-ups have had a notable turnover rate between seasons – a distinct core has not developed or been preserved.

For the 1999–2000 season, Jokerit had a good team. The team featured good players like German international Jan Benda, Russian Dmitri Kvartalnov, Czech Miroslav Hlinka, longtime Jokerit alumni Petri Varis, Finnish top players Antti-Jussi Niemi, Tom Koivisto and Pasi Nurminen on goal. The team was soon joined by former NHL'ers Tuomas Grönman and the 5 time Stanley Cup champion Esa Tikkanen. The team was strong and reached the finals, but lost to TPS three games to one.

Jokerit did not have much success in the following season although they had players like Jukka Hentunen and Antti Törmänen to strengthen the team.

In 2001–02, the team featured players like Pavel Rosa, Frank Banham, and 1995 world champion Ville Peltonen. With Kari Lehtonen's terrific form between the pipes and the arrival of Vladimir Machulda from SaiPa, Jokerit won their sixth Finnish championship in 2002.

Kari Lehtonen, the starting goaltender for the Dallas Stars ( NHL), played for Jokerit in 2001. At 21 years old, he was the youngest goaltender to play in SM-liiga.

The 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons yielded no medals for Jokerit. In the spring of 2003, Jokerit acquired forward Glen Metropolit from the Washington Capitals ( NHL) organization; despite his unimpressive NHL record, Metropolit became the scoring leader for Jokerit in both the 2003–04 regular season and playoffs, as well as the 2004–05 regular season. Metropolit became a firm fan favorite, and many were sorry to see him leave the Finnish league after the 2004–05 season. Another important Jokerit acquisition was goalie Tim Thomas from the Boston Bruins ( NHL) organization. Thomas played in every game of the season bar two with a save percentage of 94.59% and a record-breaking 15 shutouts, for which he won the Kultainen kypärä award.

As the 2004–05 NHL lockout was extended, Jokerit hired Brian Campbell, and Ossi Väänänen returned to his hometown team from the Colorado Avalanche in December. Teemu Selänne officially joined the Jokerit lineup in December, but he spent the spring rehabbing his injured knee and was unable to play any games for the team. With a strong team, Jokerit looked set to win the regular season and take the championship when an inexplicable late-season collapse allowed Kärpät to take and keep the regular season lead. The two teams faced off in the finals, with Jokerit losing three games to one and having to settle for the silver.

After the 2005 NHL lockout

When the NHL lockout ended in 2005, many players were lost to NHL teams and to other teams in Europe: Campbell, Väänänen, Selänne, Metropolit, Pasi Häkkinen, Valtteri Filppula and Tomi Mäki. The last departure occurred just one day before regular season play started, when goaltender Tim Thomas signed with the Boston Bruins. Jokerit tried to replace the loss of Thomas with goalkeeper Karl Goehring but Goehring was released soon and replaced by ex-NHL'er Steve Passmore. Passmore was paired mid-season with HIFK's Tom Askey but none of the three was able to fill the empty spot of Tim Thomas. Jokerit also had players like Eric Beaudoin and Justin Mapletoft but neither of them made a positive impact during the season. The spree of departures, combined with rookie coach Waltteri Immonen's coaching debut, led Jokerit to an abysmal early season, with a win–loss–tie record of 5–11–4 after 20 games. Immonen, a long-time Jokerit player but a rookie head coach, was moved from the job in November and Curt Lindström was hired to salvage the team. Mr. Lindström could not change the course of the team and for the first time in 16 years, Jokerit did not qualify for the playoffs.

The Shedden Era

After their worst season ranking in decades, Jokerit acquired the services of HIFK head coach and former NHL'er Doug Shedden. Shedden brought in a key player from HIFK, Kim Hirschovits, who had gained responsibility under Shedden in his former team. The refreshed team also featured Jyrki Louhi from the 2005–06 champions HPK and Juuso Riksman from Ässät, the second placed team of 2006. Jokerit acquired some scoring talent in the form of Tim Stapleton and some NHL-experience as Shedden's former protege from Toronto-era Clarke Wilm moved to Jokerit mid-season. Shedden's first Jokerit season was good as the team returned to the play-offs and infamously defeated the reigning champions HPK in the semi-finals to advance to the finals against Kärpät. Although Jokerit lost to Kärpät in the finals, the 2006–07 season was a good start for Shedden in Jokerit. During the 2007–08 season, Jokerit celebrated their 40th anniversary and on 27 October, Jokerit retired the jersey of former alumni Jari Kurri. Jokerit strengthened their goaltending department by acquiring former NHL and Finnish national team goaltender Jussi Markkanen to replace Scott Langkow before the season and added more NHL experience by contracting former Atlanta Thrashers and Vancouver Canucks center Tommi Santala after the season had started. During the 2007–2008 SM-Liiga season, Doug Shedden announced that he had been contracted to the Swiss team EV Zug and was leaving Jokerit after the season. After a while, it was announced that Shedden's job as the head coach of the team would be taken over by ex-NHL head coach Glen Hanlon after Shedden's contract was to expire. Shedden's last season as the head coach of Jokerit ended worse than expected. Although Jokerit were predicted to be championship contenders, they lost a 3–1 lead in the series against Espoo Blues and lost the series 3 games to 4. Jokerit was dropped to the bronze medal game where they lost to Tappara, thus finishing fourth in SM-liiga for the 2007–08 season. Along with Shedden, Jokerit also lost the services of assistant coach Waltteri Immonen as he followed Shedden to EV Zug.

Glen Hanlon takes over

The former head coach of the Belarus national team and the Washington Capitals, Glen Hanlon, followed Doug Shedden as the head coach for Jokerit at the start of the 2008–09 season. Although fresh from the SM-liiga playoffs, Jokerit announced several signings for the season. Jokerit contracted former Jokerit and Dallas Stars-player Juha Lind, former AHL'ers Janne Lahti along with Tomi Mäki and enforcer and fighter Pasi Nielikäinen. Former Jokerit and Frölunda HC defenseman Tom Koivisto was signed to add some offensive touch to the Jokerit defence and Antti Hulkkonen was signed for his experience. The goalkeeper Juuso Riksman returned to Jokerit after a one-year visit to North America and the AHL, replacing Jussi Markkanen who joined HC CSKA Moscow of the RSL.

The team organization of Jokerit also had some changes after 2007–08 season. The team's general manager Matti Virmanen was moved to work as the director of sports activities for Jokerit, and was replaced as the general manager by former Jokerit-alumni and Finnish international player, Keijo Säilynoja, who started as the GM for Jokerit on 15 June 2008. Jokerit lost their 2008 preseason game against the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins by a 4–1 score. This was the second time Jokerit had faced an NHL-team, the first being the 2003–04 game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Signings, season 2009–2010

Jokerit announced that Hanlon would not be coaching the team, but a former Jokerit head coach from 1993 to 1996, Hannu Aravirta, took over again. The season started badly and they were placed last for some time. Pretty quickly after season start, Jokerit started the 2009–10 season by acquiring Fredrik Bremberg, Alex Brooks, Michael Nylander and Bates Battaglia. On 25 November, Aravirta was sacked and replaced by Hannu Jortikka, who had coached the team in 2003–05. Jortikka also failed and Jokerit was the last team to qualify for the playoffs' wild card -round. Jokerit's season ended rapidly losing the wild card series 1–2 to Tappara.

KHL Era 2014–2022

On 28 June 2013, Harkimo arranged a press conference, where he stated that he had sold Hartwall Arena, the home rink of Jokerit to Finnish-Russian businessmen Gennady Timchenko (president of HC SKA), Arkady Rotenberg (chairman of HC Dynamo Moscow) and Boris Rotenberg (co-owner of SKA), along with an option to buy a share of the team after the 2013–2014 season. Timchenko, along with the Rotenbergs, are dual Finnish-Russian citizens. Also it was announced that Jokerit will leave the SM-Liiga after the 2013–2014 season and start in the KHL for the 2014–2015 season. Harkimo would remain majority owner and manager of the team. Jari Kurri was named as the team's new general manager.
In the 2016–17 KHL season, Jokerit drew an average home attendance of 9,610, the highest of all Nordic ice hockey clubs.

In May 2019 General Manager Jari Kurri became the sole owner of the team. Before that, former majority owner Harry Harkimo had bought all the shares from minor owners Gennadi Timchenko and the Rotenbergs, which along his previously owned shares he sold to Kurri.

In the 2017–18 KHL season, Jokerit and HIFK arranged an outdoor event, called the Helsinki Ice Challenge, where Jokerit met SKA Saint Petersburg at Kaisaniemi Park in Helsinki, Finland on 2 December 2017. SKA won the game 4–3, but Jokerit set a new KHL single game attendance record with 17,645 fans attending the game. On 22 March 2018, in a playoff game against CSKA Moscow, Jokerit was involved in the longest game in KHL history, finally prevailing 2–1 with the winning goal being scored at 2:09 of the 5th overtime period, after 142:09 of play.

On February 25, 2022, Jokerit announced they would forgo the KHL playoffs due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After Russia invaded Ukraine, many sponsors left the team and fans in Finland demanded Jokerit leave the KHL league and return to play in Finland. There have been boycotts towards the team's home arena. Also Jokerit began to offer players to Finnish league teams, and soon the team's head coach moved to Oulun Kärpät. On April 5, 2022, Jokerit officially announced that they are withdrawing from the league and will no longer continue playing for the KHL. Jokerit said team president Jari Kurri had left his post on the KHL board and the team would announce future plans for competition “as soon as possible.”

Post-KHL Era 2022-present

On April 20, 2022, Jokerit announced that they are seeking to return to SM-liiga for the 2023-24 season.

Season-by-season record

''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, OTW = Overtime or shootout wins, OTL = Overtime or shootout losses, L = Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes''

Players

Team captains

* Osmo Kuusisto 1967–69
*Erkki Mononen 1969–71
*Timo Turunen 1971–76, 1978
*Pentti Hiiros 1976–78
*Jari Kapanen 1978–80
* Henry Leppä 1980–81
* Jussi Lepistö 1981–82, 1987
*Risto Kerminen 1982–84
*Markus Lehto 1984–85
* Jari Lindroos 1985–87
* Jarmo Koskinen 1987–89
*Anssi Melametsä 1989–90
*Waltteri Immonen 1991–99
*Antti-Jussi Niemi 1999–2000, 2009–10
*Antti Törmänen 2000–2002
*Ville Peltonen 2001–02, 2002–03
*Sami Helenius 2003–04
*Juha Lind 2004–05
*Petri Varis 2005, 2006–09
*Marko Jantunen 2005–2006
*Ossi Väänänen 2010–2014
* Niko Kapanen 2014–2016
*Peter Regin 2016–2020
* Marko Anttila 2020–2022

Retired numbers

Coaches

Current staff

* Head Coach:
* Assistant Coach:
* Assistant Coach:

All-time head coaches

* Jorma Salmi 1967–68
* Martti Sarlin 1968–69 (half season)
* Jorma Kyntölä 1968–69 (half season)
* Aulis Hirvonen 1969–70
* Matti Lampainen 1970–73, 1973–74
* Rauli Virtanen 1973
*/ Boris Majorov 1974–76, 1990–93
* Jorma Borgström 1976–77
* Pentti Katainen 1977–78
* Timo Turunen 1978
* Matti Väisänen 1978–80, 1985–87
* Olli Hietanen 1980–82
* Reino Ruotsalainen 1982–85
* Henry Leppä 1987–88
* Kari Mäkinen 1988–90
* Alpo Suhonen 1993
* Hannu Aravirta 1993–96
* Curt Lundmark 1996–97, 1997–98
* Sakari Pietilä 1997
* Hannu Kapanen 1998–99
* Timo Lahtinen 1999
* Erkka Westerlund 1999–2001, 2010–12, 2014–16
* Raimo Summanen 2001–03
* Hannu Jortikka 2003–05, 2009–10
* Waltteri Immonen 2005
* Curt Lindström 2005–06
* Doug Shedden 2006–08
* Glen Hanlon 2008–09
* Hannu Aravirta 2009
* Tomi Lämsä 2012–14 (half a season)
*/ Tomek Valtonen 2014 (half a season)
* Jukka Jalonen 2016–18
* Lauri Marjamäki 2018–2022

Honours

Champions

* SM-liiga Kanada-malja ''(5)'': 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2002
* SM-sarja Kanada-malja ''(1)'': 1973

Runners-up

* SM-liiga Kanada-malja ''(5)'': 1983, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2007
* SM-liiga Kanada-malja ''(2)'': 1998, 2012
* SM-sarja Kanada-malja ''(1)'': 1971

International

* European Cup ''(2)'': 1995, 1996
* European Cup ''(1)'': 1993
* IIHF Continental Cup ''(1)'': 2003
* European Trophy ''(1)'': 2011
* Tournament Hameenlinna ''(1)'': 2014
* Puchkov Cup ''(2)'': 2014, 2016
* Puchkov Cup ''(1)'': 2017
* Puchkov Cup ''(1)'': 2015
* Bauer games ''(2)'': 2020,2021

''Other awards for the club:''
* Aaro Kivilinnan Memorial Trophy (Best Finnish Club age classes combined): 1976, 1996, 1997 (shared), 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003
*Harry Lindblad Trophy (SM-liiga regular season winner, since 1975): 1983, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2013
*I-Divisioona / Suomensarja, promotion to top league. (it was the second level of ice hockey in Finland): 1969, 1989
SM-sarja and SM-liiga individual awards:
* Kultainen kypärä (Best Player): Teemu Selänne 1991, Tim Thomas 2005, Ville Leino 2008, Juuso Riksman 2009
* Urpo Ylönen Trophy (Best Goaltender): Rauli Sohlman 1983, Ari Sulander 1996, Kari Lehtonen 2002 and 2003, Juuso Riksman 2009
*Pekka Rautakallio Trophy (Best Defenceman): Nikolai Makarov 1983, Erik Hämäläinen 1993, Mika Strömberg 1996
*Jarmo Wasama Memorial Trophy (Rookie of the Year): Teemu Pulkkinen 2011, Teuvo Teräväinen 2012
*Veli-Pekka Ketola Trophy (Most points in regular season): Timo Turunen 1973, Timo Sutinen 1974 and 1975, Petri Varis 1997 and 2001
*Aarne Honkavaara Trophy (Most goals in regular season): Timo Turunen 1973 and 1974 (shared), Teemu Selänne 1992, Petri Varis 1997, Pasi Saarela 1999, Jani Rita 2007, Jukka Hentunen 2010 (shared)
* Raimo Kilpiö Trophy (Gentleman of the Year): Jari Kapanen 1975, Teemu Selänne 1991, Keijo Säilynoja 1992, Waltteri Immonen 1996, Ville Peltonen 2003
*Matti Keinonen Trophy (Best Plus/Minus): Arto Sirviö 1984, Waltteri Immonen 1992, Erik Hämäläinen 1993, Petri Varis 1996, Martti Järventie 2007
*Kalevi Numminen Trophy (Best Coach): Reino Ruotsalainen 1983, Raimo Summanen 2002

Other achievements:
*In the 2004–05 season, Tim Thomas broke the SM-liiga shutout record with 15 shutouts during the regular season.
*Nine European players in the history of the National Hockey League have scored 1,000 career points; two of these nine, and the only Finns, Jari Kurri and Teemu Selänne, started their pro careers in Jokerit.
*In the 2015–16 KHL season, Jokerit won the Bobrov Division in just their second season in the league.

References

External links

*

{{SM-liiga

Former Liiga teams
Sports clubs in Helsinki
Ice hockey clubs established in 1967
1967 establishments in Finland
Former Kontinental Hockey League teams
Ice hockey teams in Finland
Bobrov Division (KHL)
Liiga