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Ilves
Ilves
City	Tampere
League	Liiga
Founded	1931
Home arena	Tampere Deck Arena
Colours	Green, yellow, black;
Owner(s)	Ilves-Hockey Oy
General manager	Risto Jalo
Head coach	Tommi Niemelä
Captain	Eemeli Suomi
Affiliates	KOOVEE; Ilves Naiset
Farm club(s)	Koovee
Website	ilves.com
Championships
Playoff championships	1936, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1972, 1985

Ilves (pronounced [ˈilʋes]; Finnish for "Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena.

The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the city of Tampere.

History

With sixteen championships, Ilves is the second most successful hockey team in the Finnish championship league, the Liiga, after their local rival Tappara. The club was founded in the spring of 1931, and it played its first game against Tampereen Palloilijat the next winter. In the late 1930s, Ilves won three Finnish championship titles as the first Tampere-based hockey team.^[1]

After World War II, Ilves started playing its home games at the then new Koulukatu ice rink. It had another championship spree in 1945–1947 when it stayed undefeated for over four years (albeit playing only 36 games during that period).^{[citation needed]}

In 1954, Ilves was for the first and so far only time relegated to the second highest level of Finnish hockey but managed to return to the top tier only one year later.^{[citation needed]}

The current logo was designed by Rauno Broms in 1963. In 1965, Ilves moved, along with its local rivals Tappara and KooVee, to the new Hakametsä arena, where they played until 2021.^{[citation needed]}

The last Finnish Cup competition in hockey was held in 1971. Ilves won the title and has therefore been the reigning champion since. In 1972, it also won another league championship; its 15th championship in total.^{[citation needed]}

During the late 1970s, Ilves went through lean times. Finally, when Koovee, which was in no better condition, was relegated at the end of the 1979–80 season, the two clubs decided to sign an agreement of cooperation. The best players of Koovee moved to Ilves, the most notable of them being Risto Jalo.^{[citation needed]}

In 1985, Ilves claimed its 16th and most recent championship. Along with Risto Jalo, the key players of that team were Raimo Helminen, Mikko Mäkelä, Ville Siren, and Jukka Tammi. Repeating this success proved difficult, however, when in the following summer four players left the team to play in the NHL.^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1980s, Ilves had another brief stint of moderate success when coached by Sakari Pietilä. It finished first after the regular season in 1988 but was eliminated in the first round of playoffs. The next year it came away with a bronze medal, and finally in 1990 it reached the finals, only to lose to TPS.^{[citation needed]}

For most of the 1990s, the club struggled with financial problems and unclear issues concerning ownership. In sports performance, the low point was in the spring of 1995, when Ilves finished last in the SM-liiga and had to fight the lower league teams SaPKo and SaiPa for their place among the elite for the next year.^{[citation needed]}

Ilves managed to avoid relegation and was promptly reborn as a viable championship candidate, reaching the semifinals in 1997 and the finals a year after that.^{[citation needed]}

The 2000s were a fairly mediocre period in Ilves history. After their bronze medal win in 2001, Ilves lost in the first round of the playoffs in six of the next seven seasons and missing the playoffs altogether in 2003. They managed to avoid relegation in 2010, 2012 and 2013.^{[citation needed]}

Honors

SM-sarja

SM-sarja Aaro Kivilinna memorial award: 1936, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952^{[citation needed]}
SM-sarja Kanada-malja: 1957, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1972^{[citation needed]}
SM-sarja Aaro Kivilinna memorial award: 1935, 1948, 1949^{[citation needed]}
SM-sarja Kanada-malja: 1965, 1968, 1969, 1970^{[citation needed]}
SM-sarja Aaro Kivilinna memorial award: 1934, 1939, 1941, 1943^{[citation needed]}
SM-sarja Kanada-malja: 1963, 1964, 1967, 1974, 1975^{[citation needed]}

SM-liiga

SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1985
SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1990, 1998
SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1983, 1989, 2001, 2022, 2023

Players

Current roster

Updated 21 September 2024.^[2]


No.	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
21	Samu Bau	C	L	20	2022	Helsinki, Finland
20	Kasper Björkqvist	RW	L	27	2024	Espoo, Finland
11	Erik Borg	C	L	27	2024	Gothenburg, Sweden
3	Niklas Friman (C)	D	L	31	2023	Rauma, Finland
33	Daniel Gazda	D	R	27	2024	Zlín, Czech Republic
23	Simon Johansson	D	R	25	2024	Stockholm, Sweden
19	Ondřej Kos	LW	L	18	2024	Kuřim, Czech Republic
52	Juuso Könönen	LW	L	26	2023	Kuopio, Finland
43	Otto Latvala	D	R	25	2022	Alajärvi, Finland
29	Jens Lööke	RW	R	27	2024	Gävle, Sweden
31	Jakub Málek	G	L	22	2022	Kroměříž, Czech Republic
18	Ville Meskanen	RW	R	29	2023	Tampere, Finland
12	Matias Mäntykivi	C	L	23	2021	Lappeenranta, Finland
71	Adam Najman	C	L	23	2024	Jihlava, Czech Republic
86	Joonas Nättinen (A)	C	R	33	2024	Jämsä, Finland
57	Jarkko Parikka	D	L	27	2015	Imatra, Finland
39	Dominik Pavlát	G	L	25	2024	Tábor, Czech Republic
53	Arttu Pelli	D	R	28	2023	Kouvola, Finland
17	Samuli Ratinen	LW	L	26	2023	Saarijärvi, Finland
56	Juho Rautanen	D	L	27	2023	Mäntsälä, Finland
83	Šimon Stránský	LW	L	27	2023	Ostrava, Czech Republic
10	Eemeli Suomi (A)	C	L	29	2015	Tampere, Finland
37	Toni Utunen	D	L	24	2024	Kokkola, Finland

Honored members

2 Jarmo Wasama
7 Aarne Honkavaara
13 Risto Jalo
14 Lasse Oksanen
16 Jorma Peltonen, Marianne Ihalainen^[3]
30 Jukka Tammi
41 Raimo Helminen

Source: Ilves-Historia^[4]

Number 24 has not been officially retired, but is not in use. It was last worn by Veikko Suominen, who died during the 1978–79 season.^{[citation needed]}

Coaches

Current staff

^{[citation needed]}

Head Coach: Tommi Niemelä
Assistant Coach: Joonas Tanska
Assistant Coach: Pasi Saarinen
Assistant Coach: Jarkko Näppilä
Goaltending Coach: Markus Korhonen
Team Manager: Timo Peltomaa

All-time head coaches

^{[citation needed]}

Niilo Tammisalo 1931–37
Risto Lindroos 1937–46, 1949–53
Aarne Honkavaara 1952–61, 1967–68
Henry Kvist 1946–49
Seppo Helle 1961–64
Rauli Virtanen 1964–65
Erkki Koiso 1965–66
Raimo Vasama 1968–71, 1972–75
Juhani Ruusunen 1971–72, 1976–80
Len Lunde 1972–73
Matti Reunamäki 1974–75
Esko Mäkinen 1974–76
Raimo Määttänen 1980–82
Seppo Hiitelä 1982–87, 1990–91
Matti Kaario 1986–87, 1990–91, 1999*
Sakari Pietilä 1987–90, 2006–2009
Anatoli Bogdanov 1991–93
Jukka Jalonen 1992–95
Heikki Vesala 1994–95
Vladimir Jursinov Jr. 1995–99
Heikki Mälkiä 1999–2001, 2009–10*
Ari-Pekka Selin 2001–03
Teijo Räsänen 2002–03
Vaclav Sykora 2003–05
Curt Lindström 2004–05
Kari Eloranta 2005–06
Petteri Hirvonen 2006*
Sakari Pietilä 2006–09
Juha Pajuoja 2010–12*
Seppo Hiitelä 2011–12
Raimo Helminen 2012–2013
Tuomas Tuokkola 2013–2016 January
Kari Heikkilä 2016 January–March
Kari Kivi 2017–2020 September
Jouko Myrrä 2020 October–2022 October
Antti Pennanen 2022 October–2024 March
Tommi Niemelä 2024 May-present

(1938)
(1945)
(1946)
(1958)
(1960)
(1966)
(1972)
Ali Saadetdin, Finnish Tatar
Jorma Peltonen
Raimo Helminen
Antti Hulkkonen
(2022)

Other sports

In addition to hockey and football, Ilves has a futsal team in Finnish league which has won the Finnish championship five times (2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2011) and the cup competition twice (2006, 2010), a floorball team at second highest level and a ringette team competing in the SM Ringette league. It has numerous boys' and girls' junior teams in ice hockey, soccer, floorball (boys only), and ringette (girls only), making the organization the largest sports club in Finland.^{[citation needed]}

In the past, Ilves has also competed in American football, basketball, bowling, figure skating, handball, and volleyball. It has won a bronze medal in American football and a silver one in handball. Also, Ilves has won the Finnish Cup in handball.^{[citation needed]}