Finland’s top ice hockey is being revolutionized.
The SM league is creaking from its joints. Jaakko Stenroos / AOP
A new top ice hockey league is really being worked on in Finland. In the background are the big clubs that want to break away from the old SM league.
Now the players are commenting on the matter through the mouth of their own professional association. The Finnish Ice Hockey Association (SJRY) announces that it will participate Heikki Penttilän to the planning workshops led by Causabo oy.
The players’ association wants to ensure “the collective voice of the players is heard and influential in future decisions”. The association says that it will continue to cooperate “also with other series that are important to players and the parties involved in them”.
The association has set as its goal that there would be two top ice hockey league levels in Finland, in which 20–24 fully professional teams would play.
– We have had preliminary negotiations with Penttilä and it is good that things are now moving forward. We want to bring the players’ point of view to the common table when decisions are made about the future of such an important top Finnish ice hockey, SJRY chairman Teemu Ramstedt says in the announcement.
According to Penttilä, the new top series could start as early as autumn 2026.
Teemu Ramstedt is the chairman of the players’ association. Tomi Natri / AOP