CHL combined with Liiga’s super season is a tough equation.
In the SM league, the playoff phase is played, but the so-called super season is already waiting around the corner – at the end of which only the fourteen best get the right to continue on the top step.
The pressure is unbridled, especially in small and medium-sized clubs.
In addition to the league contract, which is 64 or 68 games in the regular season, three clubs also play CHL hockey.
Next season’s CHL spots go to the champion and the first and second in the regular season, i.e. Tappara and KooKoo. If the champion is Tappara or KooKoo, the last place goes to the third place in the regular season, or SaiPan.
Iltalehti’s ice hockey news manager Lassi Kuisma addressed the issue in KooKoo corner in his comment a few weeks ago. He pointed out that a place in the CHL is not a prize, but something else, “a blow to the diaphragm and a blow to the yard”.
– The CHL has been a stumbling block for many clubs in recent years, but the upcoming season will change the situation quite substantially, Kuisma writes.
– It is clear that the main goal for a club like KooKoo next season is to reach the top 14. Everything else is pointless, and everything you do must contribute to the chances of succeeding in the main goal.
According to the preliminary schedule, the group stage of the CHL starts on September 3. Each team plays six matches in September–October, some of them already before the start of the SM league season.
The top sixteen advance to the November-January playoff stage, where the quarter-finals, quarter-finals and semi-finals are divided into two parts. The one-part final will be played on February 23.
In other words: the CHL season is 6–13 matches per team.
– The equation is drastic, Kuisma sums up.
– Without CHL, it could be said that the level of competence is now being measured. With the CHL, it can be said that KooKoo is starting the super season from behind.
“Refreshing thing”
Tappara beat Luleå in the CHL final in February 2023. EPA / AOP
At the Tappara office, CHL is looked at “through the lens”. International matches are part of the club’s strategy.
– The CHL has been important for the players, that they have received top games, but it has also been refreshing for the organization, announces Ari PenttiläCEO of Tappara.
– I would think that it has also been a positive thing for our fans when we have been able to play international matches here in Tampere.
Tappara played in the CHL finals in 2022 and 2023, the latter of which brought the championship.
– Internationality has a positive, big value for us, Penttilä says.
– Participating in the CHL is expensive, but we still think and approach it in a positive way.
Are other league clubs as CHL-friendly as Tappara?
– There are positions for and against. There is a good discussion about it.
Is participation in the CHL mandatory, or can one refuse the representative seat?
– It is very difficult to refuse a representative position. Leaving the game in the middle is harmful in many ways.
Is there some kind of section in the rules that would bring a fine to the refusing club?
– Yes, there are specifications on what will happen if the agreement is not followed. Contracts start sometimes and end sometimes. Now there is still a valid contract, according to which we will go.
Tappara is one of the Liiga’s CHL co-owner clubs together with HIFK, JYP, KalPa, Kärppie and TPS.
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Tappara operates with completely different chips than KooKoo and SaiPa. How do the smaller clubs perceive a sure and possible CHL place – especially when combined with the high-stakes super league season?
Iltalehti reached the CEOs of KooKoo and SaiPa Sakari Välimaan and Jani Valkeapää. Neither wanted to take a stand on the CHL issue.
CEO of the league Mikko Pulkkinen sees participation in the international series as an “important element” for the national main series.
– Certainly for next season, the clubs will think about the total load and the structure of the season more than normal, when it is an exceptional year. Even in the league, we have taken the CHL into account more closely than usual when building the next season’s series program.
Pulkkinen mentions that the agreement drawn up by CHL and the international founding partners was signed in 2016.
– The league and the CHL have a valid agreement that defines the logic by which teams from the main leagues of different countries are selected for the CHL. Binding participation in the series is valid until the end of the 2027–28 season, he says.
– We in the League, of course, start from the fact that the agreements made are respected. The agreement with the League and the CHL has been made and also understood in such a way that it applies to all clubs.
Pulkkinen does not reveal what would happen if the league club that got a CHL spot decided not to participate or what the size range of the possible fine amount would be. The CHL representative contacted by Iltalehti also did not comment on the content of the contract.
Pulkkinen answered the interview questions posed by Iltalehti via email.
“Quite a familiar series”
Lukko played ten CHL games in the season that ended. Elmeri Elo / AOP
In the finished CHL season, the champion KalPa and Lukko and Ilves, who formed the top duo of the regular season, participated.
– The CHL is a series we are quite familiar with. We have played it a lot over the years, he says Rafael EerolaCEO of Luko.
– When we won the regular season last year and we knew that the CHL would come to us, we put the games on the calendar and played them off. We even made it to the playoffs a bit.
Finnish clubs were successful in the regular season. KalPa was first, Ilves second and Lukko fifth.
Everyone’s journey ended in the quarterfinals. KalPa fled to Brynäs, Ilves to Luleå and Lukko to Zug.
According to Eerola, “everyone likes to play in the CHL”, but “the financial equation is difficult”.
– When we leave this province, each trip is at least three days. It feels bad to pay for it to be able to play such a successful series.
Eerola cites the playoff trip to Zug as an example, which cost “tens of thousands of euros” despite scheduled flights.
Another problem Eerola sees is the total number of matches played by league clubs. Lukko played in the Liiga’s Main Series and the short playoffs as well as the CHL this season, counting a total of 74 matches.
– Of course, the CHL is a tough set when ten matches were played. The Swedes and others clearly play less, so it is easier for them to place the CHL matches within the regular season.
“A Challenging Equation”
60 matches were played in the regular season of the SM league this season. The number of matches in the main leagues of Sweden and Switzerland was 52.
– Finnish ice hockey and Finnish clubs need international games, but with this model it is not an easy equation, Eerola thinks.
– When the number of games [Liigassa] still growing, the equation becomes challenging. At the same time, we have existing agreements – and isn’t it the basic nature of us Finns to follow agreements.
Eerola admits that the CHL topic gets the league bosses talking.
– Yes, three Finnish teams are definitely going there, unless something completely different is decided, he sees.
– When this super season comes and the stakes in their own League are megalomaniac, those who go to the CHL have to think about different solutions regarding their matches.
Eerola also does not reveal what kind of fine a CHL refusal would mean.
– As there has been talk in the public, the sanction is there – but its magnitude is another story.
