Mestis

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Mestis

Current season, competition or edition: 2024–25 Mestis season
Formerly	I-Divisioona
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	2000; 24 years ago (2000)
Founder	Finnish Ice Hockey Association
First season	2000–01
Motto	Suomen viihdyttävintä lätkää (Finland’s most entertaining hockey)
No. of teams	10
Country	Finland
Most recent champion(s)	IPK (2023–24)
Most titles	Jukurit (7)
TV partner(s)	C More
Level on pyramid	Level 2
Promotion to	SM-liiga
Relegation to	Suomi-sarja
Domestic cup(s)	Finnish Cup
Related competitions	Naisten Mestis
Official website	Mestis.fi

Mestis (from Finnish: Mestaruussarja, meaning 'Championship series', stylized as MEST1S) is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division').

Being promoted to SM-liiga is possible if a Mestis team beats a SM-liiga club in the qualification series and matches all the criteria set by the SM-liiga. Mestis, however, is an open league where relegation and promotion are possible with the 3rd league, Suomi-sarja.

Mestis is also the highest league governed by the FIHA.

In the years 2000–2008, it was not practically possible for Mestis teams to get promoted to the SM-liiga, which was closed in 2000, but it was possible to drop down to the Suomi-sarja instead. However, KalPa was promoted to the SM-liiga in the spring of 2005, when the number of teams in the league was increased from 13 to 14 teams. For the 2008–2009 season, the SM-liiga qualifiers were brought back for a few seasons, but in the 2013–2014 season, the qualifiers were removed again. After the elimination of the qualifiers, Sport, KooKoo and Jukurit have been promoted to the SM-liiga through the license system.^[1] The promotion and relegation between the SM-liiga was brought back for the 2024–25 season.

Mestis got a new team, HK Zemgale/LLU, from Latvia for the 2022–23 season.^[1] HK Zemgale had never played in a Finnish league before and was added to Mestis to bring more entertainment and internationalization to Finnish ice hockey.^[2]

According to Mestis themselves, they are talking with other international clubs about joining the Mestis league.^[2][3]

Hermes

Hokki

IPK

Kiekko-Pojat

Ketterä

KeuPa HT

Kiekko-Vantaa

Jokerit

RoKi

TuTo

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Finnish teams in Mestis 2024–25

The team names are usually the traditional name of the club. All clubs are commonly known by the name of their team. Oy and Ab are the abbreviations for limited company in Finnish and Swedish respectively.

Team name	Club's registered name	Location	Home venue, capacity	Titles Mestis
Hermes	Kokkolan Hermes Oy	Kokkola	Kokkola Ice Hall, 4,200	0
Hokki	Hokki Kainuu Oy	Kajaani	Kajaani Ice Hall, 2,372	1
IPK	IPK Hockey Oy	Iisalmi	Kankaan jäähalli, 1,358	1
Jokerit	Jokerit Helsinki Oy	Helsinki	Helsinki Ice Hall, 8,200	0
JoKP	Joensuun Kiekko-Pojat Oy	Joensuu	Turula Engineering Areena 700	0
Ketterä	Imatran Ketterä Oy	Imatra	OmaSp Areena, 1,200	3
KeuPa HT	KeuPa Hockey Oy	Keuruu	Keuruu Ice Hall, 1,100	1
Kiekko-Vantaa	Kiekko-Vantaa Hockey Oy	Vantaa	Tikkurila Ice Hall, 2,004	0
RoKi	RoKi Hockey Oy	Rovaniemi	Lappi Areena, 3,500	0
TUTO Hockey	TUTO Hockey Oy	Turku	Kupittaa multipurpose hall, 3,000	1

• Jää-Kotkat, relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2003.
• Hyvinkään Ahmat, relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2004.
• KalPa, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2005.^[4]
• Haukat, resigned in 2006.
• HC Salamat relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2008.
• Kotkan Titaanit relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2009.
• Kiekko-Laser went bankrupt in 2011.
• Vaasan Sport, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2014.^[5]
• HC Keski-Uusimaa was abandoned serial place in 2014.
• KooKoo, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2015.^[6]
• Jukurit, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2016.^[7]
• JYP-Akatemia, relegated to the Suomi-sarja and folded in 2017.
• Espoo United, went bankrupt in 2018.
• LeKi, did not receive a license in 2019.
• SaPKo, went bankrupt in 2022.
• HK Zemgale/LBTU, will not play in Mestis for the season 2023-24.^[8][9]
• Peliitat, went bankrupt in 2023 and did not receive a license to Mestis^[10]
• FPS, relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2024.
• Kiekko-Espoo, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2024.
• KOOVEE, went bankrupt in 2024.

Medal table:

• Official website (in Finnish)