Ilves' new captain is known!

Ilves has announced its captaincy for the 2026-27 Liiga season. The new captain of the team is veteran forward Jan-Mikael Järvinen. The alternate captains are forwards Erik Borg and Luke Henman.

Additionally, Ilves will have a larger captaincy group of five players this season, which also includes defenders Toni Utunen and Otto Latvala.

Järvinen, 38, returned to his youth club after the 2006-07 season. He served as the captain of Ässät for the past two seasons.

The captaincy of Ilves was chosen based on a vote by the team and the management.

– We are proud that we want to collectively choose our team’s captaincy within our community. The voting is a very democratic way to make the selection, and everyone had the opportunity to influence who became the captain. We have continued in this manner every year, Ilves’ head coach Tommi Niemelä says in the club’s announcement.

– The choice was very clear this year. The captain received the majority of the votes, and the alternate captaincy also stood out clearly. We are thus really satisfied that our team surely trusts its captains, and we can move forward well because of that.

Järvinen will be a second-generation Ilves captain, as his father Kari “Kilu” Järvinen served as the club’s captain during the 1979-1980 season.

– Jan-Mikael is a very experienced player who has won and seen a lot, has been part of the Finnish national team, and has played a lot in the Liiga. He has long been one of the best players in our league and is an incredible person. He considers others and wants to share his knowledge and experience equally with all the players on our team, being as much a captain and leader as anyone can be. We are really happy that the next Ilves captain is Jan-Mikael Järvinen, Niemelä exclaims.