IL: Jukka Jalonen will leave the Lions at the end of next season

Jukka Jalonen will not continue as Leijoni’s head coach after next season.

Ice hockey season 2023–24 Jukka Jalonen finally as head coach of the Lions, reports Iltalehti.

According to Iltalehti, the matter was resolved during Midsummer week. The CEO of the Jääkieksliitto confirmed the matter to the newspaper Sami Kauhanen.

Jalonen, 60, has been the head coach of the Lions from 2008 to 2013 and again since 2018.

The culmination of Jalonen’s first stint as head coach was the 2011 World Cup in Slovakia, when the A national team celebrated the second World Cup gold in its history.

During his second stint as head coach, Jalonen has led the Lions to World Cup gold in 2019 and 2022 and to Olympic gold in 2022.

Jalonen has also coached Nuori Leijon. The U20 national team celebrated the World Championship gold under the leadership of Jalonen at the home games in 2016.

Managing director Kauhanen told Iltalehte that he is together with Jalonen and Leijonien’s GM Jere Lehtinen and the GM of the youth national teams Kimmo Oikarinen with started mapping out a new coach.

According to Kauhanen, coaching options are not excluded based on citizenship. The last time the Lions had a foreign head coach was in the 2007–08 season, when the boat was steered by a Canadian Doug Shedden. Jalonen served as Shedden’s assistant coach and then moved to head coach.

Jalonen’s head coaching career started already in 1992 with Tampere’s Ilveksesä. After that, his career included stints in, for example, Italy and England before rising to success at HPK. Jalonen piloted HPK to the Finnish champion in the 2005–06 season.