# 2024–25 Liiga season

The 2024–25 Liiga season is the 50th season of the Liiga, the top level of Finnish ice hockey since 1975.
The Liiga expanded to 16 teams for the season with the addition of Kiekko-Espoo. The league also brought back the relegation to the Mestis and a reformed playoff system and new divisions that decide the number of games teams play against each other.

## Format

The regular season starts in September 2024. As in previous seasons, 450 matches will be played in the regular season, 60 for each team and all teams are divided into four groups.
As usual, the series is on break in November for a week and a half while the national teams play in the Euro Hockey Tour. The Christmas break lasts 5–7 days, depending on the team, with the exception of Kärpät, which participates on the 26th–31 December in the Spengler Cup in Switzerland. For other teams, the Christmas break ends on Saint Stephen's day, 26 December. Other one week break is in February 2025. The regular season ends in April 2025.
Two outdoor games were played in Pori between the rivals Porin Ässät and Rauman Lukko in January 2025. The games went by the name Satakunnan Talviklassikko or The Satakunta Winter Classic. The games were counted as normal regular season games. They were played in the Amiko-areena [fi], which is normally used by the bandy club Narukerä. Temporary stands with a capacity of 9,000 spectators were built for the two games.

## Teams

| Team | City | Head coach | Arena | Capacity | Captain |
| HIFK | Helsinki | Ville Peltonen | Helsingin jäähalli | 8,200 | Ilari Melart |
| HPK | Hämeenlinna | Matias Lehtonen 23 Sep 2024 Mikko Manner | Pohjantähti Areena | 5,360 | Petteri Nikkilä |
| Ilves | Tampere | Tommi Niemelä | Nokia Arena | 12,700 | Niklas Friman |
| Jukurit | Mikkeli | Marko Tuomainen 14 Jan 2025 Jonne Virtanen | Ikioma Areena | 4,200 | Jesper Piitulainen |
| JYP | Jyväskylä | Johan Pennerborn | LähiTapiola Areena | 4,437 | Teemu Eronen |
| KalPa | Kuopio | Petri Karjalainen | Olvi Areena | 5,300 | Tuomas Kiiskinen |
| Kiekko-Espoo | Espoo | Jyrki Aho | Espoo Metro Areena | 6,982 | Ville Lajunen |
| KooKoo | Kouvola | Jouko Myrrä | Lumon Areena | 5,950 | Otto Paajanen |
| Kärpät | Oulu | Ville Mäntymaa 3 Mar 2025 Petri Matikainen | Oulun Energia Areena | 6,300 | Marko Anttila |
| Lukko | Rauma | Tomi Lämsä | Kivikylän Areena | 4,500 | Sebastian Repo |
| Pelicans | Lahti | Juhamatti Yli-Junnila 20 Jan 2025 Sami Kapanen | Isku Areena | 4,403 | Miika Roine |
| SaiPa | Lappeenranta | Raimo Helminen | Lappeenrannan jäähalli | 4,820 | Ville Petman |
| Sport | Vaasa | Juuso Hahl | Vaasan Sähkö Areena | 5,185 | Sebastian Stålberg |
| Tappara | Tampere | Rikard Grönborg | Nokia Arena | 12,700 | Otto Rauhala |
| TPS | Turku | Tommi Miettinen | Gatorade Center | 10,500 | Casimir Jürgens |
| Ässät | Pori | Jarno Pikkarainen | Enersense Areena | 6,150 | Jan-Mikael Järvinen |

## Regular season standings

Top four advance straight to the quarter-finals, while teams between 5th and 12th positions play a wild card round for the final four spots. The 15th and 16th placed teams play against each other to decide which team will play against the Mestis champion for a spot in the SM-liiga. The top two teams of the regular season qualified for the Champions Hockey League and the 3rd team to the Spengler Cup.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final Result |
| 1 | Lukko | 60 | 32 | 6 | 4 | 18 | 202 | 147 | +55 | 112 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 2 | Ilves | 60 | 32 | 4 | 7 | 17 | 176 | 145 | +31 | 111 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 3 | KalPa | 60 | 29 | 7 | 6 | 18 | 196 | 149 | +47 | 107 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | HIFK | 60 | 27 | 9 | 8 | 16 | 173 | 165 | +8 | 107 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 5 | SaiPa | 60 | 30 | 6 | 4 | 20 | 178 | 170 | +8 | 106 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 6 | KooKoo | 60 | 23 | 13 | 4 | 20 | 206 | 169 | +37 | 99 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 7 | Ässät | 60 | 26 | 4 | 9 | 21 | 160 | 159 | +1 | 95 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 8 | Kiekko-Espoo | 60 | 20 | 10 | 11 | 19 | 160 | 171 | −11 | 91 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 9 | Tappara | 60 | 24 | 6 | 6 | 24 | 178 | 168 | +10 | 90 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 10 | HPK | 60 | 21 | 5 | 10 | 24 | 154 | 178 | −24 | 83 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 11 | Sport | 60 | 17 | 9 | 14 | 20 | 172 | 177 | −5 | 83 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 12 | TPS | 60 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 26 | 173 | 190 | −17 | 79 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 13 | Kärpät | 60 | 19 | 7 | 6 | 28 | 172 | 193 | −21 | 77 | |
| 14 | JYP | 60 | 19 | 6 | 7 | 28 | 167 | 197 | −30 | 76 | |
| 15 | Pelicans | 60 | 20 | 4 | 7 | 29 | 171 | 179 | −8 | 75 | Advance to Playout round |
| 16 | Jukurit | 60 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 41 | 134 | 215 | −81 | 49 | Advance to Playout round |

## Broadcast rights

For the 2023–2024 season, Telia had transferred the television rights of the SM-liiga to MTV, which it owns. Telia had acquired the broadcast rights starting from the 2018–2019 season, and with the new agreement MTV has the rights until the end of the 2026–2027 season. MTV pays more than 90 million euros for television rights over four seasons, and the company has admitted that the operation is loss-making. The broadcasts are produced by MTV and during the season games can be seen live from C More, Discovery+, DNA, Elisa Viihde, MTV and Telia.

## Playoffs
### Playoff bracket

| First round (best-of-5) | First round (best-of-5) | First round (best-of-5) | Quarter-finals (best-of-7) | Quarter-finals (best-of-7) | Semi-finals (best-of-7) | Semi-finals (best-of-7) | Semi-finals (best-of-7) | Finals (best-of-7) | Finals (best-of-7) | Finals (best-of-7) |
| | | | 1 | Lukko | | | | | | |
| 5 | SaiPa | 0 | | | | | | | | |
| 12 | TPS | 1 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | 2 | Ilves | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | | | |
| 6 | KooKoo | 0 | | | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | | | |
| 11 | Sport | 1 | | | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | | | |
| | | | 3 | KalPa | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) |
| 7 | Ässät | 1 | | | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) |
| 10 | HPK | 0 | | | | | | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game |
| | | | 4 | HIFK | | | | | | |
| 8 | K-Espoo | 1 | | | | | | | | |
| 9 | Tappara | 0 | | | | | | | | |

### First round
#### (5) SaiPa vs. (12) TPS

* TPS leads series 1–0

#### (6) KooKoo vs. (11) Sport

* Sport leads series 1–0

#### (7) Ässät vs. (10) HPK

* Ässät leads series 1–0

#### (8) Kiekko-Espoo vs. (9) Tappara

* Kiekko-Espoo leads series 1–0

### Quarter-finals
#### (1) Lukko vs. TBD

* Series starts 26 March

#### (2) Ilves vs. TBD

* Series starts 26 March

#### (3) KalPa vs. TBD

* Series starts 26 March

#### (4) HIFK vs. TBD

* Series starts 26 March

## Play Out

The two bottom-placed teams from the regular season plays a best-of-seven series, with the winner remaining in the Liiga and the loser having to face the winner of the Mestis in a relegation series. The higher-seeded team held home advantage over the series, playing at home for the first and third games and games five and seven (if required) while the lower-seeded team was at home for games two, four and six (if required).
* Series is yet to begin