Jokerit's Harkimo pulls off a major coup

Jarmo Kekäläinen leaves NHL to become new Jokerit CEO

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By Arno Seiro
     
      Harry "Hjallis" Harkimo, the Chairman of the Board of SM-Liiga side Helsinki Jokerit, opens the press briefing on Monday by declaring that the club could hardly embark on a change greater than the one to be announced now.
      These are big words indeed, but they rapidly get backed up, when it becomes apparent that the change in question is that Harkimo has picked out Jarmo Kekäläinen, 43, to become the new Jokerit CEO.
      Kekäläinen, a former player with KalPa and Ilves in Finland and with the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators in North America, and who has spent the past ten years in a variety of front office positions in the NHL, is definitely a catch of the highest order.
     
It was not altogether easy to bring Kekäläinen back across the Atlantic to Helsinki.
      "When I asked Jarmo the first time about the chances of getting him to join Jokerit, he replied that it was not in any way within the bounds of possibility. And that was the most interesting answer", says Harkimo.
      For the last five seasons, Kekäläinen has been engaged as Assistant General Manager and Director of Amateur Scouting for the St. Louis Blues in the NHL. He still had a year left to run on his contract.
      "Hjallis eventually made me the sort of offer that it was practically impossible to refuse. St. Louis gave me permission to leave after they had first mulled over the matter for a week or so", reported Kekäläinen.
     
His contract with the Helsinki club is for five years. This can be seen as a deliberate message that he has been brought in to build a new Jokerit dynasty. In recent years the club, once among the wealthiest in Finland and with a history of success, has not enjoyed the smoothest of rides, either on the ice or on the economic front.
      This season, for instance, they only scraped into the SM-Liiga play-offs at the last possible moment and then went out rather tamely to Tappara of Tampere before even the quarter-finals stage.
     
"I want the Jokerit organisation, right the way from the juniors up to the SM-Liiga side, to be the best in Europe. We have to create the sort of club organisation that will allow us to groom top players. Every spectator and all of our corporate partners should have the feeling that this is a team that can be expected to compete for the title at the end of the season", declared Kekäläinen in outlining his goals for the five-year term at the helm.
      Harkimo, too, expects Kekäläinen to be the bringer of success for the club, and not just in Finland, either.
      "I believe that within five years we will see the emergence of a European hockey league. Our organisation has to be in the sort of shape by that stage that we can compete successfully on the European stage", said Harkimo.
     
One important aspect in Kekäläinen's thinking is the international success of the club's players.
      "My philosophy is that we can dream big dreams in Jokerit. If some junior player wants for instance to try his luck in the NHL, then he will not have to hide his light under a bushel, as it were. Players are more likely to commit themselves to ambitious targets when we dare to speak these things aloud", argues Kekäläinen.
      At the end of April, Matti Virmanen, the long-serving Director of Sports at Jokerit, left the club, but Kekäläinen comes in specifically with the CEO's title to his name.
      "I intend to collaborate with the coach [Hannu Jortikka] on a daily basis. My style of working is probably rather different from the way things are usually done here in Finland."
      "Jortikka has demonstrated that he knows how to be a winner, but he, too, will have to share in the desire to revamp the club", noted Kekäläinen, who was due to meet with Jortikka after the press conference for the first time in his new capacity as CEO.
     
In future Kekäläinen will have responsibility for decisions on the choice of Jokerit's players and coaching staff.
      Nevertheless, the framework for next season's side is already pretty much in place, so his fingerprint will not be very obviously in evidence when the new season begins in the autumn.
      In any event, he has ahead of him a period of assimilation back into Finnish ice hockey after eleven years spent abroad.
      "I have followed the SM-liiga from America, yes, but in recent years I have not seen matters up close and personal. There will be things to learn in the players and the playing style, but I am not at all concerned about this", he added.
     
There will be another change in the Jokerit organisation when the new season gets under way.
      Keijo Säilynoja, who was the managing director of the SM-liiga side, will now take over as the CEO of the consolidated company Jokerit HC Oy, and as such will be responsible for the finances, sales, and marketing of the Jokerit Group and the Hartwall Arena, the club's 13,000-seater home.
      Keeping the Arena full is a major priority if the club are to remain in the black.
      "We are embarking on a new era in Jokerit. I had to pick the sort of men who can carry this through without my having to play a part in it. I want to take more of a back seat - remember, I've had a coronary not so long ago", grunted Harkimo in winding up the press meeting.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 25.5.2010


Links:
  Helsinki Jokerit briefly in English
  Jokerit (Wikipedia)
  Jarmo Kekäläinen (Wikipedia)

ARNO SEIRO / Helsingin Sanomat