KalPa

KalPa
KalPa
City	Kuopio
League	Liiga
Founded	1929
Home arena	Olvi Areena; (capacity: 5,300)
Colours	Black, gold;
Head coach	Petri Karjalainen
Captain	Tuomas Kiiskinen
Affiliate	IPK
Website	kalpa.fi

Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) is a professional ice hockey team which competes in the Finnish Liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Olvi Areena.

Team history

Established in 1929 as Sortavalan Palloseura in Sortavala, the club relocated to Kuopio in 1945 after its original hometown had been annexed by the Soviet Union. During its Sortavala years, the club was not active in ice hockey, but competed in association football, bandy, and pesäpallo instead. Ice hockey was introduced in 1947, and in 1956 KalPa officially replaced the more traditional Kuopio club KuPS in that sport thus specializing in hockey – minor league football was still continued until 1974 as a farm team of sorts for KuPS.

The full name of the company that runs the representative team today is KalPa Hockey Oy. The majority of the company is owned by former NHL players Sami Kapanen and Kimmo Timonen. Kapanen is the majority owner, controlling 50.5% of the franchise. Timonen owns 8%, while Timonen's former teammate Scott Hartnell owns 5%. Hartnell purchased a minority share of the team after getting financial advice from Kimmo Timonen during a road trip to Boston.

During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Timonen, Kapanen, and fellow NHL player Adam Hall were playing for KalPa. After winning the Mestis championship, KalPa returned to SM-liiga for the 2005–06 season, after being relegated six years earlier in 1999.

KalPa has won three medals: silvers in the 1990–91 and 2016–17 seasons and a bronze in the 2008–09 season. KalPa has also won the Spengler Cup, in year 2018.

Honors

SM-liiga

SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1990–91, 2016-17
SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 2008–09

Mestis

Mestis: 2003-04, 2004–05

Finnish Liiga A-juniors (U20)

Finnish Liiga A-juniors (U20): 2007–08, 2017–18

Spengler Cup

2018

Players

Current roster

As of 9 February 2025.^[1]


No.	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
71	Patrick Curry	C	L	29	2024	Schaumburg, Illinois, United States
23	Aleksi Elorinne	D	L	35	2023	Joensuu, Finland
32	Juha Jatkola	G	L	22	2020	Kuopio, Finland
93	Matyáš Kantner	LW	L	26	2022	Plzeň, Czech Republic
97	Lukáš Kaňák	D	L	28	2024	Klatovy, Czech Republic
42	Konsta Kapanen	LW	L	21	2023	Kuopio, Finland
25	Jere Karjalainen	RW	R	32	2024	Helsinki, Finland
19	Tuomas Kiiskinen (C)	LW	L	22	2021	Kuopio, Finland
20	Aleksi Klemetti	LW	L	26	2018	Kuhmo, Finland
86	Kristjan Kombe	C	L	24	2024	Kuressaare, Estonia
17	Benjamin Korhonen	RW	L	23	2020	Ylivieska, Finland
14	Jaakko Lantta	C	R	28	2022	Valkeala, Finland
55	Lasse Lappalainen (A)	D	L	35	2018	Kuopio, Finland
40	Stefanos Lekkas	G	L	29	2023	Elburn, Illinois, United States
26	Jesper Mattila (A)	D	L	27	2020	Tampere, Finland
9	Juuso Mäenpää	C	L	22	2020	Helsinki, Finland
16	Andreas Okany	C	L	23	2022	Kuopio, Finland
28	Jaakko Rissanen (A)	C	L	35	2021	Kuopio, Finland
8	Ville Ruotsalainen	D	D	21	2023	Oulunsalo, Finland
72	Iivari Räsänen	D	L	23	2024	Tampere, Finland
12	Joona Saarelainen	C	L	18	2024	Mikkeli, Finland
61	Tuomas Salmela	D	L	29	2024	Tornio, Finland
11	Kasper Simontaival	RW	R	23	2021	Orivesi, Finland
6	Filip Westerlund	D	R	25	2023	Härnösand, Sweden