KalPa

KalPa
KalPa
City	Kuopio
League	Liiga
Founded	1929
Home arena	Olvi Areena
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

Source: eliteprospects.com^[1]As of July 28, 2021.


No.	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
10	Gabe Bast	D	R	28	2021-22	Red Deer, Canada
18	Hugo Gallet	D	L	26	2021-22	Amiens, France
32	Juha Jatkola	G	L	22	2020-21	Kuopio, Finland
45	Eric Hjorth	D	R	23	2021-22	Göteborg, Sweden
34	Severi Immonen	F	L	24	2020-21	Tuusniemi, Finland
71	Matti Järvinen	C	L	35	2021-22	London, United Kingdom
91	Oliver Kapanen	C	R	21	2021-22	Timrå, Sweden
37	Eero Kilpeläinen	G	L	39	2019-20	Juva, Finland
19	Tuomas Kiiskinen	LW	L	22	2021-22	Kuopio, Finland
20	Aleksi Klemetti	LW	L	25	2018-19	Kuhmo, Finland
29	Henri Knuutinen	LW	L	26	2018-19	Kiuruvesi, Finland
17	Benjamin Korhonen	RW	L	23	2020-21	Ylivieska, Finland
41	Juuso Könönen	LW	L	26	2019-20	Kuopio, Finland
52	Roope Laavainen	D	R	26	2020-21	Helsinki, Finland
55	Lasse Lappalainen	D	L	35	2018-19	Kuopio, Finland
26	Jesper Mattila	D	L	27	2020-21	Tampere, Finland
9	Juuso Mäenpää	C	L	22	2020-21	Helsinki, Finland
67	Kasper Puutio	D	L	22	2021-22	Vaasa, Finland
6	Joona Riekkinen	D	L	25	2019-20	Kuopio, Finland
22	Aapeli Räsänen	D	R	26	2020-21	Tampere, Finland
–	Erkka Seppälä	C	L	25	2021-22	Hämeenlinna, Finland
12	Kasper Simontaival	RW	R	22	2021-22	Orivesi, Finland
74	Sami Tavernier	RW	R	27	2020-21	Annemasse, France
13	Tuomas Vartiainen	RW	L	28	2019-20	Oulu, Finland