The Finnish Ice Hockey Association has announced the roster of players for the Karjala Cup, which it will host at the Ice Hall in Helsinki from Nov 7 to 10. The tournament also includes Czechia, Sweden and Switzerland, and will be the first leg of the 2024-25 Euro Hockey Tour.

The team is largely made up of players from the Swedish Hockey League and Switzerland’s National League, with only six coming from the domestic Liiga. The roster includes four players making their senior national team debuts – Petteri Puhaka, Santtu Kinnusen, Lassi Thomson and Otto Koivula. 

Players with NHL experience include goaltender Harri Säteri, defenseman Mikko Lehtonen and forwards Koivula, Juho Lammikko, Waltteri Merelä and Arttu Ruotsalainen. Säteri, Lehtonen, Miro Aaltonen, Hannes Björninen and Toni Rajala were all members of the Finnish team that won Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022.

A number of players having outstanding seasons domestically were not chosen, such as Liiga scoring leaders Jori Lehterä, Iiro Pakarinen and Kristian Veselainen as well as defenseman Niclas Almari.

This will be the first international event to feature the Finnish men’s national team since the departure of long-time head coach Jukka Jalonen and the first under new bench boss Antti Pennanen. This is the first of four mid-season tournaments that Pennanen and staff have to put together that involve European-based players, in addition to February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, which can only use NHL players.

Goaltenders:
Larmi Emil, Växjö Lakers HC (SWE)
Säteri Harri, EHC Biel-Bienne (SUI)

Defensemen:
Kinnunen Santtu, ZSC Lions (SUI)
Lehtonen Mikko, ZSC Lions (SUI)
Leppänen Atro, Sport Vaasa
Leskinen Otto, Tappara Tampere
Rissanen Rasmus, Linköping HC (SWE)
Thomson Lassi, Malmö Redhawks (SWE)
Salo Robin, Malmö Redhawks (SWE)
Seppälä Peetro, Örebro HK (SWE)
Viitasalo Nuutti, Lukko Rauma

Forwards:
Aaltonen Miro, EHC Kloten (SUI)
Björninen Hannes, Örebro HK (SWE)
Koivula Otto, Växjö Lakers HC (SWE)
Lammikko Juho, ZSC Lions (SUI)
Merelä Waltteri, SC Bern (SUI)
Oksanen Ahti, Lausanne HC (SUI)
Pesonen Harri, SCL Tigers (SUI)
Puhakka Petteri, Tappara Tampere
Puistola Patrik, Örebro HK (SWE)
Rajala Toni, EHC Biel-Bienne (SUI)
Ranta Sampo, MoDo Hockey (SWE)
Ruohomaa Mikael, Frölunda HC (SWE)
Ruotsalainen Arttu, Frölunda HC (SWE)
Savinainen Veli-Matti, Tappara Tampere
Vesalainen Kristian, HIFK Helsinki

Head Coach:
Antti Pennanen

UPDATE: Kristian Vesalainen was added on Nov. 4 to replace Markus Nurmi, who withdrew due to an injury.