Group including current and former NHLers purchase Finnish hockey team
The Helsinki Jokers, better known in the hockey world as Jokerit, are being purchased by a group of up to 10 investors that includes current and former NHLers. Ilta-Sanomat reportsthe team has is being sold to a new ownership group after current owner Joel Harkimo decided he wanted out.
Among names included in the new ownership group is Ossi Väänänen, who played 479 regular season games in the NHL with Phoenix, Colorado, Philadelphia, and Vancouver. The plan is to make Väänänen the public face of the team. He played for Jokerit from 2010 to 2016 in both the Finnish Elite League and the KHL.
The current NHLers involved in the group are Esa Lindell of the Dallas Stars and Teuvo Teräväinen of the Carolina Hurricanes. Both are former members of Jokerit. Other investors are part of Finland's sport and business communities.
When the team withdrew from the KHL due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the owner was former NHLer Jari Kurri. Kurri announced he wanted to sell, and it appeared that Teemu Selanne would be the person to buy it. That deal fell through, and Ilta-Sanomat reports that Selanne is not part of the latest group of investors that were brought together to purchase the team. Jokerit has not been participating in a league since leaving the KHL. It hopes to have everything in place to return to the Finnish Elite League (SM-Liiga) at the start of the 2023-24 season.
Source: Ilta-Sanomat reports
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Logan Cooley | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| William Nylander | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack McBain | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dylan Guenther | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Michael Kesselring | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Fraser Minten | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mikhail Sergachev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Chris Tanev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| John Tavares | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Simon Benoit | - | - | - | |
| Nick Bjugstad | - | - | - | |
| Michael Carcone | - | - | - | |
| Ian Cole | - | - | - | |
| Lawson Crouse | - | - | - | |
| Connor Dewar | - | - | - | |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | - | - | - | |
| Barrett Hayton | - | - | - | |
| Pontus Holmberg | - | - | - | |
| Clayton Keller | - | - | - | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 30 | |
Devils | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 30 | |
Hurricanes | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 29 | |
Golden Knights | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Maple Leafs | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 27 | |
Flames | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 19 | 13 | 6 | - | 26 | |
Rangers | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||