Jokerit Helsinki
| Jokerit | |
|---|---|
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| Nickname | Jokers, Jesters |
| City | Helsinki, Finland |
| League | Kontinental Hockey League |
| Conference | Western |
| Division | Bobrov |
| Founded | 27 October 1967 |
| Home arena |
Hartwall Arena (capacity: 13,506) |
| Colours | |
| Owner(s) |
Harry Harkimo Boris Rotenberg Gennadi Timchenko |
| General manager | Jari Kurri |
| Head coach | Jukka Jalonen |
| Captain | Peter Regin |
| Affiliate(s) | Kiekko-Vantaa (Mestis) |
| Website | www.jokerit.com |
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Jokerit (English: Jokers or Jesters) is a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland. They are members of the Bobrov Division of the Western Conference of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The team won 6 league championships as a member of the Finnish Liiga (1973, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2002). Jokerit plays its home games at the Hartwall Arena. They joined the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for the 2014–15 KHL season, making Finland the first Nordic country to have a team in the league.
Jokerit would not exist without the debts-incurred 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, 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.
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