Jukurit U20

Jukurit's junior side has spent the past decade or so pulling players through toward the Liiga, but the trophy that stands out belongs to the winter of 2012–13, when the U20 team took the U20 Suomi-sarja title. That season fell in the same stretch that saw the senior club reach the top of Mestis in 2013 on its way to Liiga promotion three years later, and the junior academy has fed off that rise ever since.

Players carry the nickname Heimo — Clan — through every age group at the club, a name that ties the U20s to the senior team even though the two sides play in different leagues. Henri Nikkanen is the clearest case of what the academy can produce, moving on from Mikkeli to play in the NHL and AHL. Others, among them Eetu Randelin, Perttu Kiesilä, Ville Leskinen and Niko Parkkinen, followed similar paths out of the junior ranks.

Games against KooKoo's U20 side carry the most weight, Kouvola sitting close enough to Mikkeli to turn the fixture into the one the Heimo faithful mark on the calendar; Pelicans and SaiPa juniors fill out the rest of the regional rivalry. The senior team's own history with KooKoo runs deeper still — four of Jukurit's seven Mestis titles came at KooKoo's expense, in 2002, 2013 and 2015.

Since that 2012–13 championship, the U20 team has not gone back to the top of its league, even as the club above it has pushed on to a first Liiga playoff appearance and a runners-up finish in the regular season. The junior side's job now is less about silverware than about keeping the pipeline to that senior squad running.