2024–25 Liiga season

2024–25 SM-liiga
Liiga's 50th anniversary logo
League	Liiga
Sport	Ice hockey
Defending champions	Tappara (2023–24)
Duration	September 2024 – April 2025
Number of games	60
Number of teams	16
TV partner(s)	Telia C More
Regular season
Playoffs

The 2024–25 Liiga season is the 50th season of the Liiga, the top level of Finnish ice hockey since 1975.

The Liiga expanded to 16 teams for the season with the addition of Kiekko-Espoo. The league also brought back the relegation to the Mestis and a reformed playoff system and new divisions that decide the number of games teams play against each other.[1][2]

Format

The regular season starts in September 2024. As in previous seasons, 450 matches will be played in the regular season, 60 for each team and all teams are divided into four groups.[1][2]

As usual, the series is on break in November for a week and a half while the national teams play in the Euro Hockey Tour. The Christmas break lasts 5–7 days, depending on the team, with the exception of Kärpät, which participates on the 26th–31 December in the Spengler Cup in Switzerland.[3] For other teams, the Christmas break ends on Saint Stephen's day, 26 December. Other one week break is in February 2025. The regular season ends in April 2025.

Two outdoor games were played in Pori between the rivals Porin Ässät and Rauman Lukko in January 2025. The games went by the name Satakunnan Talviklassikko or The Satakunta Winter Classic. The games were counted as normal regular season games. They were played in the Amiko-areena [fi], which is normally used by the bandy club Narukerä. Temporary stands with a capacity of 9,000 spectators were built for the two games.[4][5][6]

Teams

Jukurit

HIFK

HPK

Ilves
Tappara

JYP

KalPa

KooKoo

Kärpät

Lukko

Pelicans

SaiPa

Ässät

Sport

TPS

Kiekko-Espoo

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Location of teams in 2024–25 SM-liiga

Team	City	Head coach	Arena	Capacity	Captain
HIFK	Helsinki	Ville Peltonen	Helsingin jäähalli	8,200	Ilari Melart
HPK	Hämeenlinna	Matias Lehtonen 23 Sep 2024[7] Mikko Manner	Pohjantähti Areena	5,360	Petteri Nikkilä
Ilves	Tampere	Tommi Niemelä	Nokia Arena	12,700	Niklas Friman
Jukurit	Mikkeli	Marko Tuomainen 14 Jan 2025[8] Jonne Virtanen	Ikioma Areena	4,200	Jesper Piitulainen
JYP	Jyväskylä	Johan Pennerborn	LähiTapiola Areena	4,437	Teemu Eronen
KalPa	Kuopio	Petri Karjalainen	Olvi Areena	5,300	Tuomas Kiiskinen
Kiekko-Espoo	Espoo	Jyrki Aho	Espoo Metro Areena	6,982	Ville Lajunen
KooKoo	Kouvola	Jouko Myrrä	Lumon Areena	5,950	Otto Paajanen
Kärpät	Oulu	Ville Mäntymaa	Oulun Energia Areena	6,300	Marko Anttila
Lukko	Rauma	Tomi Lämsä	Kivikylän Areena	4,500	Sebastian Repo
Pelicans	Lahti	Juhamatti Yli-Junnila 20 Jan 2025[9] Jussi Taipale	Isku Areena	4,403	Miika Roine
SaiPa	Lappeenranta	Raimo Helminen	Lappeenrannan jäähalli	4,820	Ville Petman
Sport	Vaasa	Juuso Hahl	Vaasan Sähkö Areena	5,185	Sebastian Stålberg
Tappara	Tampere	Rikard Grönborg	Nokia Arena	12,700	Otto Rauhala
TPS	Turku	Tommi Miettinen	Gatorade Center	10,500	Casimir Jürgens
Ässät	Pori	Jarno Pikkarainen	Enersense Areena	6,150	Jan-Mikael Järvinen

Regular season standings

Top four advance straight to the quarter-finals, while teams between 5th and 12th positions play a wild card round for the final four spots. The 15th and 16th placed teams play against each other to decide which team will play against the Mestis champion for a spot in the SM-liiga.[a]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final Result
1	Ilves	47	25	4	5	13	143	114	+29	88	Advance to Quarterfinals
2	Lukko	48	24	5	4	15	166	124	+42	86
3	SaiPa	47	24	5	4	14	143	126	+17	86
4	HIFK	48	20	8	7	13	142	138	+4	83
5	KalPa	47	20	6	6	15	144	115	+29	78	Advance to Wild-card round
6	Ässät	47	21	4	6	16	128	124	+4	77
7	KooKoo	48	17	11	4	16	160	137	+23	77
8	Tappara	48	19	5	6	18	144	138	+6	73
9	HPK	47	17	4	9	17	118	137	−19	68
10	Kärpät	48	16	7	6	19	144	154	−10	68
11	Kiekko-Espoo	47	15	8	7	17	125	139	−14	68
12	Sport	47	13	8	12	14	141	139	+2	67
13	JYP	47	16	4	6	21	131	155	−24	62
14	TPS	46	13	7	6	20	130	148	−18	59
15	Pelicans	47	15	3	4	25	133	143	−10	55	Advance to Playout round
16	Jukurit (X)	47	10	4	1	32	104	165	−61	39

Updated to match(es) played on 1 February 2025. Source: [1]
(X) Can't qualify directly to the quarterfinals but can qualify for the wild-card round;

Broadcast rights

For the 2023–2024 season, Telia had transferred the television rights of the SM-liiga to MTV, which it owns. Telia had acquired the broadcast rights starting from the 2018–2019 season, and with the new agreement MTV has the rights until the end of the 2026–2027 season. MTV pays more than 90 million euros for television rights over four seasons, and the company has admitted that the operation is loss-making.[10] The broadcasts are produced by MTV and during the season games can be seen live from C More, Discovery+, DNA, Elisa Viihde, MTV and Telia.[11]

Notes

1. If a Mestis team wins the qualification round, it can still be denied promotion if the team doesn't match SM-liiga's qualification criteria

References

1. "Kommentti: SM-liiga poisti nyt ison murheenkryynin – kolikolla on kääntöpuolensa". mtvuutiset.fi (in Finnish). 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
2. Suvinen, Teemu (2024-05-02). "Raivo repesi SM-liigan jättimuutoksista – näin pomo vastaa". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2024-05-05.
3. "Kärpät osallistuu tämän vuoden Spengler Cupiin". Jatkoaika.com - Kaikki jääkiekosta (in Finnish). 2024-05-01. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
4. "Talviklassikko | Ässien ja Lukon miljoonaprojektin ensimmäiset liput myynnissä – Tällaiset ovat hinnat". Satakunnan Kansa (in Finnish). 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
5. "Liigan veriviholliset ryhtyivät yhteistyöhön: "Mittaluokka on historiallinen"". www.iltalehti.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 2024-05-05.
6. "Satakunnan talviklassikko | Ässät ja Lukko jysäyttävät yhdessä yli miljoonan euron jättiprojektin – Uutinen paransi Vellu Ketolankin päivää". Satakunnan Kansa (in Finnish). 2024-03-06. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
7. "HPK vapautti Lehtosen tehtävästään – Manner HPK:n päävalmentajaksi" (in Finnish). HPK. 2024-09-23. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
8. "Marko Tuomainen on vapautettu tehtävistään – Jonne Virtanen uudeksi päävalmentajaksi" (in Finnish). Jukurit. 2025-01-14. Retrieved 2025-01-14.
9. "Pelicans tiedottaa: Valmennukseen muutoksia" (in Finnish). Pelicans. 2025-01-20. Retrieved 2025-01-22.
10. "Telia siirsi kaikessa hiljaisuudessa kymmenien miljoonien eurojen tappiolliset Liiga-oikeudet MTV:lle – pian MTV aloitti muutosneuvottelut". Yle Urheilu (in Finnish). 2023-09-14. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
11. "Katso, mistä näet jääkiekon Liigaa halvimmalla – samalla lähetyksellä eri suoratoistopalveluissa täysin eri hinta". Yle Urheilu (in Finnish). 2023-09-13. Retrieved 2024-05-04.