Ice hockey | Jukka Jalonen moves to another country’s head coach

The lions left the position of head coach this spring Jukka Jalonen moves to the helm of another country.

According to the editorial information, Jalonen is the new head coach of the Italian men’s national team.

The exotic puck country Italy is known as the elevator team of the World Cup, which sometimes plays at the highest competition level and sometimes at a lower level.

Jalonen’s task is to lead Italy to the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will be hosted by it, which will be played in Milan and Cortina. So it’s about the Olympic project.

Jalonen has coached in Italy once before, in the 1998–1999 season in the country’s premier league at the helm of Alleghe.

Last saapasmaa has been seen at the first level of the World Championships in the Tampere Games in 2022. Italy fell down the ladder at that time.

Last spring, Italy was third in the 1st division tournament of the World Cup, so it will play at the second highest level next season as well, when Jalonen takes the reins.

The Italian national team was piloted by a Canadian last season Mike Pelinowho replaced his compatriot, the legendary, who had previously served in the role Mike Keenan’s.

61 years old Jalonen has been the head coach of the Lions on two different occasions in a total of eleven seasons. He is the most successful Finnish national ice hockey coach of all time.

Jalonen led the Finnish men’s national team to three world championships (2011, 2019 and 2022) and Olympic gold (2022).

As a head coach, Jalonen has also won, for example, the youth world championship (2016).

In last spring’s games, Jalonen’s era in Leijon came to a bitter end, when Finland lost to Sweden in extra time of the quarterfinals in the games played in Prague and Ostrava.