Lätkäpodi found out how much the highest paid Finnish players will earn in the league next season.
The season 2026–27 will be a real season of fate in the League, because after that several teams will be relegated from the top league level to the lower B series.
Every league club knows how fatal that would be, and that’s why the arms race is already in full swing. That arms race has already led to a rapid increase in player fees.
In the latest episode of Lätkäpod Iltalehti’s ice hockey editor Timo Kunnari said that he had made a salary statement. He had contacted several Kiekkomaailma influencers to get up-to-date information on what the league’s salary peak will be next season.
And there were answers.
Iiro Pakarinen’s HIFK and Joachim Blichfeld’s Tappara are good payers in the SM league. Matti Raivio / AOP
– If we are talking about top salaries for domestic players next season, it will be between 350,000 and 400,000 euros, Kunnari says.
He elaborates that 400,000 euros can therefore be the player’s total cost to the club at most, when all expenses such as apartments and cars are included.
The episode of Lätkäpod also talks about how salaries have risen for non-top players as well and mentions examples of how players who were supposed to be in the sub-chains have even been able to double their salary.
For example, an experienced striker whose goal record in one season is only four goals has reportedly been offered up to 140,000 euros for the season.
– Several clubs have publicly said that they will increase their budgets, and the increase of hundreds of thousands of euros will not only go to the top 2-3 players, Kunnari points out.
Listen to the episode of Lätkäpod from the beginning of the story or on Spotify from here.
Lätkäpodi is Iltalehti’s podcast Alma Media
