Significant coaching news from the league club

Vaasan Sport announces that Aleksis Virtanen is the new goaltending coach for the team. Virtanen’s contract is for one year.

Virtanen, 32, has served as the goaltending coach for HPK for the past four seasons. He coached the club’s top prospect Kim Saarinen, who had a strong season in the Liiga.

– Aleksis has risen to become a Liiga coach in the club and has proven his skills there. He has been able to successfully develop young goaltenders, getting one of the hottest goalies in the Liiga into great form. His perspective on goaltending is very multifaceted. And since we have both an experienced and a young goaltender, I believe he has a lot to offer both. A great guy all around and will definitely bring a lot of expertise to our team, head coach Lauri Mikkola describes his thoughts on Virtanen in the club’s announcement.

Virtanen is also excited about his new position.

– Vaasa has always been a great place to come and coach as a visiting team. The fans have always been amazing and the atmosphere has been electric. We have an excellent staff and a team in place. Additionally, we have two very good goaltenders and I look forward to getting to know them better and working with them. The Liiga season is going to be historic and my goal is to help the goaltenders and the team reach their best potential and succeed. It requires quality daily work and hard effort. It is a great honor for me to be part of the organization and the Vaasa hockey community. I eagerly await the upcoming season, Virtanen describes.

The goaltenders for Sport next season will be the experienced 35-year-old Joni Ortio and the 19-year-old Masi Härkönen.

Virtanen will join Sport’s coaching staff at the beginning of May. With this, Sport’s coaching team for the next season is complete. The head coach will be Mikkola, with assistant coaches Kimmo Kuhta and Jussi Tapio, and strength coach Teemu Valtonen.