The Joker players have not received any information from the club leadership about what has been said behind the scenes in recent weeks. Forward Markus Hännikäinen, who has moved to Germany, understands the company and hopes to return to the Finnish Championship.
5.4. 20:18 • Updated 5.4. 20:33
The official announcement of the withdrawal of the Helsinki Jokers from the hockey KHL series reached the contract players only minutes before the club’s press release. Striker Markus Hännikäinen received information in Germany, where he is preparing for the DEL League playoffs in the ranks of Adler Mannheim.
– The players have been just as unaware of the whole as the general public. We haven’t known that anymore. We received a message in our group chat a few minutes before the Jokers released an official bulletin, Hännikäinen tells Urheilu.
The club management of the Jokers has therefore not informed their players about the behind-the-scenes discussions, which Hännikäinen has not missed. He feels that the club leadership has had nothing to say.
– I fully understand the situation. What could they have told us? I don’t blame the club leadership for it in any way. They have had their hands full of work, Hännikäinen says.
Hännikäinen is one of the Jokers’ numerous relocated players. The contract for the current season was terminated after the Jokers withdrew in the KHL playoffs after Russia invaded Ukraine. He believes the contract in force for next season has now expired.
– After today’s announcement, the contracts will surely be last winter’s Lumia for all of us who had next season’s contracts. They are KHL contracts and now that the Jokers are not in KHL, I assume they went that smooth way, Hännikäinen estimates.
Hännikäinen hopes to return to the Finnish Championship
The debate around the Jokers will continue to be heated, as the future of the club is still in the dark. Hännikäinen, who has already played in junior juniors, has a clear opinion. He hopes the club will return to the Finnish Championships as soon as possible.
– Jokerit is an extremely big and interesting brand in the Finnish disc. It is hardly disputed by anyone. The faster the Jokers play in the SM League, the better for everyone. For the Jokers as well as for all the other clubs and everyone who follows the SM League. The Jokers evoke a lot of emotion, and that’s why I hope the club’s story continues.
Hännikäinen, 29, counts that he has played in the club for a total of 17 years and says that he is definitely ready to represent the Jokers in the future as well. He made his league debut in 2011-12 and reached the NHL through JYP, where he returned to the Jokers in December 2020.
Hännikäinen says he is upset for the people who lost his job in the Jokers and sad about how the Jokers have been talked about during the KHL seasons. Russian owners have pumped huge amounts of money into a company that has made huge losses and Vladimir Putin financial patterns that have led to related parties have been the subject of much criticism.
– This has been a difficult and sad time for a long time. I fully understand the whole, I am not stupid and I am aware of world affairs. The only correct solution was to leave KHL and sever ties with Russia completely. However, as a breeder of jokers, it has felt bad how the company has been talked about in the KHL era, and I am not talking about the moment now, Hännikäinen says.
The season at Adler Mannheim continues in the semifinals of the German league against Straubing Tigers.
This is how the Joker KHL sky has progressed
The Jokerit officially began operations on October 27, 1967. The Jokerit has won six Finnish Championship golds (1973, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2002).Harry Harkimo acquired a majority stake in Jokers in February 1991.For the 1997–1998 season, the Jokerit moved to a new hall in Helsinki’s Ilmala.In the summer of 2013, the Jokerit announced that they would be leaving for KHL for the 2014-2015 season.In the summer of 2013, Harkimo sold the Jokerie home arena to Finnish-Russian businessmen Gennady Timtshenko mixed Arcade, Boris and To Roman Rotenberg. At the same time, Harkimo sold 49 percent of Jokerie’s shares to the Finnish-Russian Arena Events Oy, whose majority owner was Roman Rotenberg.Even today, the Helsinki Arena is owned by Helsingin Halli Oy, whose main shareholder is Arena Events Oy. The chairman of the boards of both companies is Russian businessman Roman Rotenberg, who, along with Gennady Timtsenko, is one of the arena’s biggest owners.The jokers’ departure from the Finnish Championship was controversial. The Finnish Championship League clubs considered that the Jokers had violated the league’s shareholder agreement. According to the SM League, the Jokerit had not asked other clubs in the SM League for permission to transfer their KHL. However, the Jokers were allowed to play in their final season in the Finnish Championships by paying a penalty. The Jokers did not play their first practice match against the Finnish Championship League after leaving for KHL until August 2020.In the spring of 2019, principal owner Harry Harkimo bought himself all the shares in the club. It was then reported that the player legend Jari Kurri is the new owner of the Jokers and chairman of the club. In the spring of 2019, Jari Kurr’s company Jack Promotions Oy acquired the entire share capital of Jokerit Hockey Club Oy from Harkimon Hjallis Promotions Oy. Jack Promotions Oy’s financial statements showed that the purchase price was EUR 4.064 million.After Kurri had bought the Jokers, a directed share issue was held in the summer of 2019. 40 percent of the Jokers were acquired by Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta Oy, a Finnish subsidiary of the Russian Nornickel Group. Norilsk Nickel is part of a group whose main owner is one of the richest in Russia Vladimir Potanin.Read more about the Joker’s funding pattern, a story published in the summer of 2019: Comment: Jari Kurri succumbs to the worst mistake of his career with his sad statements – why not say this simple truth about the Joker’s financial pattern?In 2020, it was reported that the Russian owners of the hockey team Jokers have been following the suspicions of money laundering for several years by major international banks and U.S. authorities. Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska or numerous money laundering reports had been made of their companies. The amount of suspicious credit transfers to Potanin, the main funder of the jokers, was several tens of billions of euros.Read more: US money laundering authority warns of dozens of Russian owners of Jokers – billions of euros in transfers raised suspicionsIn the fall of 2020, it was also reported that the majority owner of the Jokers and chairman of the board, Kurr, do not have the power to decide alone where the club will play. This was stated in the articles of association of the Jokers background company Jokerit Hockey Club Oy.From the beginning of 2020–2021, the supporters’ association Eteläpääty said that it would boycott the games if the Jokers play in Minsk. There was a great deal of unrest in Belarus after the presidential election. President Alexander Lukashenko elections that secure re-election are considered fraudulent. The protests led to arrests and violence.Eventually, the Jokers did not show up at the airport and the Minsk match, the opening of the Jokers season in the fall of 2020, was canceled at the last minute. The Jokers were sentenced to a 0-5 loss. Many Russian hockey bosses, such as the boss of the Russian Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretjak were furious with the Jokers.Read more: A fan of Dinamo Minsk told Sport he was glad that the Jokers would not come to Belarus – violent statements from Russian influencers: “Spitting in the face of us all”The Joker season in the spring of 2020 was interrupted due to a corona pandemic. Now the season 2021–2022 was interrupted after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Jokers announced on February 25, 2022 that they would leave the season before the playoffs began.Read more: Lauri Marjamäki, the head coach of the jokers, considers the decision to suspend the season to be the only right one – “I am very sad”On April 5, 2022, the Jokers announced that it was exiting the KHL series.