Jokerit U20

Helsinki Areena 2 sits inside the Veikkaus Arena complex, the smaller sheet next to the main rink where Jokerit's senior side draws crowds past 13,000.

Jokerit itself dates to 1967, when Aimo Mäkinen pulled the ice hockey section out of the amateur club Töölön Vesa and gave it its own identity. The U20 side grew up alongside that senior team and found its own run of success in the 1988, 1996, 1999 and 2000 seasons, when it topped the U20 SM-sarja, Finland's top junior league.

Jokerit's own senior trophy case, stretched across Liiga titles, two European Cups and a Continental Cup, gave the youth setup something to aim at, even through the disruption of the last few years — the KHL exit in 2022, a stretch in the second-tier Mestis, and a route back to the Liiga arranged for the 2026–2027 season.

Ask who the academy is remembered for and the answer starts with Teemu Selänne, who came up through Jokerit before he became the player Finland measures its forwards against; Jari Kurri's name sits next to his in the same conversation, proof that the pipeline from that rink in Helsinki has, at its best, fed the very top of the game.