Ilves signs eight players and brings Jan‑Mikael Järvinen home after 19 seasons
Ilves has signed eight players for the next Liiga season, highlighted by veteran centre Jan‑Mikael Järvinen returning to his boyhood club on a two-year deal.
Ilves has boosted its roster in Tampere for the next Liiga season, signing eight players, YLE reported.
The recruits include Swedish goaltender Christoffer Rifalk; defenders Leo Lööf and Tony Sund; and forwards Aleks Haatanen, Topias Hynninen, Jan‑Mikael Järvinen, Benjamin Korhonen and Jaakko Lantta. The club also announced one-year contract extensions for defender Toni Utunen and forward Ondřej Kosin.
Rifalk arrives on a 1+1 deal after a career in the SHL with Rögle BK. He posted a 91.1% save percentage in 19 regular-season games last season.
The headline signing is 38-year-old centre Jan‑Mikael Järvinen, who returns to his boyhood club on a two-year contract after 19 seasons away. It's a homecoming. He joins from Ässät, where he captained the team for the past two seasons and produced 11+27=38 in 60 regular-season games last season. He's a two-time Finnish champion and played for Finland at the 2025 World Championship.
Timo Koskela, Ilves' sports director, welcomed the move: "Jan‑Mikael is a very experienced centre who will set an example in daily training for our younger players. It's great to get 'Miksa' back to Ilves."
Ilves later corrected an earlier detail, clarifying that Topias Hynninen arrives from Jukurit, not KalPa, and that Korhonen, Lantta and Hynninen have signed two-year deals.
Catch the full story over at YLE
