KHL is here

You might have seen the poster already hanging all around the city. The KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) with teams from around Eastern Europe and Russia has a new member starting from this season: Jokerit.

The team, which is now also partly owned by the Finnish-Russian Rotenberg family, won't compete in the Finnish SM-Liiga anymore but will play international. The KHL is considered the second best league in the world after the NHL and is structured similarly. Starting from this upcoming season Jokerit will play in the Western Conference in the Bobrov Division against SKA St. Petersburg, Dinamo Riga, Slovan Bratislava, Atlant Moscow Oblast, Dinamo Minsk and Medveščak Zagreb.

Hartwall arena will continue to be their home stadium. But derbies with their local rival HIFK, also based in Helsinki, will become more rare.

So now you can follow two different ice hockey leagues here in Helsinki.