Jokerit took over a new coach from the rival Mestis club for the next season.
Mestis team The Helsinki Jokerit has hired a new coach.
According to the editorial information, Imatran Ketterä's head coach Kari Martikainen will move to the Jokeri coaching team next season.
He is the Joker's head coach this season Tero Määttwhose contract also extends into next season.
Martikainen's current team Ketterä is the top team in Mesti's standings, second after IPK. Jokerit is in third place before reigning champion Kiekko-Espoo, who is in fourth place.
Ketterä and Jokerit met on Friday at the Kisapuisto in Lappeenranta, where Ketterä defeated the Jokers in overtime with 5–4 in front of 3,023 spectators.
Martikainen, 55, is a former top defender and a club legend of the Jokers, who won three Finnish championships and one European championship in the Jokers' shirt during his playing career. He represented the club in the SM league in the seasons 1991–1996 and 2004–2006.
Martikainen also played in the Swiss league for a long time and ended his career in Rauma Luko in the spring of 2007.
Martikainen coached the Jokerien U20 team in the seasons 2011–2015. At the men's major league level, he has worked in Switzerland as an assistant coach of Fribourg-Gottéron and in the SM league as an assistant coach of SaiPa.
In Mesti, Martikainen has previously piloted Joensuu Kiekko-Poiki as head coach. Agile, he is coaching his first and at the same time his last season.
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