KalPa Kuopio have a long history in Finnish hockey but they're still looking to win their first title. This upcoming season the team owned by Sami Kapanen and Kimmo Timmonen will do their best to challenge the top teams in the Liiga and the Champions Hockey League.

by Karolina Antosova

Even though KalPa are one of the oldest Finnish hockey clubs, there is still something missing – a championship title. In 2014 KalPa celebrated their 85th anniversary, but the best result in their history so far is a single finals appearance in 1991, which they lost to TPS Turku. Since that time there have been many ups and downs – KalPa were relegated in 2000, but in 2005 were promoted back to the Liiga, the highest league in Finland. 

The most significant season from the last decade has been 2008–09, when Sami Kapanen, NHL and KalPa star, returned after 12 seasons overseas back to the team of his youth. It provided a huge boost for everyone in the team and also in the city.

After missing the playoffs two straight years, the team went to the semi-finals and eventually won the bronze medal in the first season with Kapanen as captain. The next season he led his team to the bronze medal game again, but this time KalPa ended the season without a medal.

Kapanen played in Kuopio, which is one of the biggest winter sports resorts in Finland, three more seasons before retiring after the 2013–14 season. But he didn’t end his commitment to the club. The World champion and two-time Olympic bronze medallist continues in KalPa as the club chairman, majority owner and assistant coach.

Kapanen owns the club together with fellow KalPa legend Kimmo Timonen and Canadian NHL veteran Scott Hartnell (Hartnell is a co-owner even though he never played for KalPa). The biggest event for KalPa in 2014–15 season wasn’t a KalPa game, but the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, where Timonen became a Stanley Cup champion for the first time in his career and then retired from hockey at the age of 40.

But thanks to their relatives, Kapanen’s and Timonen’s blood will still run on the ice of KalPa’s Data Group Areena. Timonen’s brother Jussi is now a veteran on KalPa's defence and Kapanen’s son Kasperi played over 100 Liiga games for Kuopio before heading overseas to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. 

Kapanen and Timonen aren’t the only famous Finnish players who were raised in Kuopio. You've surely of Olli Jokinen, Teemu Hartikainen or Tuomas Kiiskinen, the latter of which became an SHL champion with the Växjö Lakers. Also Janne Kekalainen, current European Scout for the Nashville Predators, Janne Kekäläinen started his career in Kupio.

But none of these players will be available for KalPa this season. Team management has some holes to fill, as more than a half of the team's top 10 scorers from last season, including scoring leader Michal Birner, won’t be back. They've addressed that by adding forwards Patrick Davis and Sami Blomqvist.

In each of their first two CHL campaigns, KalPa have failed to advance past the group stage of the tournament – a situation they will try to change in 2016–17. 

Team facts

CHL seasons

2015–16: 3rd in Group L
2014–15: 3rd in Group G

Click here for current information about the club.

NOTE: This page has been updated since its original publication.