2025–26 Mestis season
| 2025–26 Mestis season | |
|---|---|
| League | Mestis |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Defending champions | Jokerit (2024–25) |
| Duration | September 2025 – April 2026 |
| Games | 49 |
| Teams | 10 |
| TV partner | MTV |
| Regular Season | |
| Best record | TBD |
| Runners-up | TBD |
| Promoted to Liiga | TBD |
| Relegated to Suomi-sarja | TBD |
| Playoffs | |
| Champions | TBD |
| Runners-up | TBD |
The 2025–26 Mestis season is the 26th season of Mestis, the second level of ice hockey in Finland. 10 teams participates in the league and each will play 49 games during the regular season.
The regular season is followed by playoffs, promotion and relegation series. The winner of the playoffs will be declared the Champion of Mestis and will participate in the promotion series to Liiga. Those teams finishing ninth and tenth will play a series to avoid relegation to Suomi-Sarja.
Clubs
Updated 13 May 2025.
| Team | City | Home arena, capacity | Founded | Head coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hermes | Kokkola | Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200 | 1953 | Anders Eriksén |
| IPK | Iisalmi | Kankaan jäähalli, 1380 | 1966 | Marko Tuomainen |
| Jokerit | Helsinki | Helsinki Ice Hall, 8,200 Veikkaus Arena, 13,349 |
1967 | Tomek Valtonen[1] |
| JoKP | Joensuu | Mehtimäki Ice Hall, 4,800 | 1953 | Juha-Matti Kemppainen |
| Ketterä | Imatra | Imatra Spa Areena, 1,300 | 1957 | Janne Tuunanen |
| KeuPa HT | Keuruu | Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 | 1995 | Niko Raiskio |
| Kiekko-Vantaa | Vantaa | Trio Areena, 3,700 | 1994 | Jani Manninen |
| Pyry Hockey | Nokia | Kattokeskus Areena, 1,100 | 1905 | Toni Rautakorpi |
| RoKi | Rovaniemi | Lappi Areena, 3,500 | 1979 | Mikko Sirento-Manninen |
| TUTO Hockey | Turku | Rajupaja Areena, 3,000 | 1929 | Samuli Marjeta |
Team changes
The following team changes have happened for the 2025–26 season:
To Mestis
Promoted from Suomi-sarja
- Pyry Hockey[2]
Relegated from Liiga
- None
From Mestis
Promoted to Liiga
- None
Relegated to Suomi-sarja
Regular season
The regular season consists of 49 matches.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jokerit | 21 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 69 | 42 | +27 | 41 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 2 | IPK | 21 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 81 | 61 | +20 | 40 | |
| 3 | JoKP | 19 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 75 | 61 | +14 | 39 | |
| 4 | RoKi | 23 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 79 | 80 | −1 | 37 | |
| 5 | Ketterä | 21 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 65 | 57 | +8 | 33 | |
| 6 | TUTO Hockey | 20 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 61 | 55 | +6 | 31 | |
| 7 | K-Vantaa | 19 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 60 | 60 | 0 | 31 | |
| 8 | Pyry Hockey | 19 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 52 | 71 | −19 | 22 | |
| 9 | KeuPa HT | 21 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 13 | 61 | 80 | −19 | 18 | Advance to Relegation series |
| 10 | Hermes | 22 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 61 | 98 | −37 | 17 |
Rules for classification: 1) Total points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Penalty minutes
Playoffs
Playoffs are being played in three stages. Quarter-Finals is a best-of-5 series, with the semifinals and the finals being a best-of-7 series. The teams are reseeded after the first two stages, so that the best team by regular season performance to make the quarter-finals and the semifinals faces the worst team in the corresponding stage. The bronze medal will be decided in a single game.
Bracket
| Quarter-finals (best-of-5) | Semi-finals (best-of-7) | Finals (best-of-7) | ||||||||||||
| 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 7 | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||||||||
| 6 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Bronze game | |||||||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | 4 | |||||||||||||
Promotion
Due to the Liiga system reform, there will be no promotion this season. For the 2026–2027 Liiga season, the Mestis champion will be promoted alongside Jokerit, the champion of the 2024–2025 Mestis season. If Jokerit wins the current season as well, the runner-up from this season will be promoted instead.[4]
Playout and Relegation series
The bottom two teams from the regular season will compete in a playout series, with the winner securing their spot in Mestis. The loser will then face the Suomi-sarja champion in a relegation series to determine who will play in Mestis next season
Both the playout and the relegation series are played as a best-of-7 series.
Bracket
| Playout series | Relegation series | ||||||||
| 9 | |||||||||
| 10 | 1 | ||||||||
| 2 | |||||||||
References
- ^ "Tiedote: Tomek Valtonen on Jokereiden uusi päävalmentaja – Valmennusryhmään liittyvät myös Waltteri Immonen, Samuli Nordman ja Jaakko Forssell". JOKERIT (in Finnish). Retrieved 2025-05-28.
- ^ "Mestis-lisenssit myönnetty - Nokialla pelataan Mestistä kaudella 2025-2026". Pyry Hockey (in Finnish). Retrieved 2025-05-13.
- ^ "Hokki Kainuu Oy hakeutuu konkurssiin". Hokki (in Finnish). Retrieved 2025-05-13.
- ^ "Liiga tiedottaa: Uusi 14+10-mallinen sarjamuoto käynnistyy kaudella 2027–28". liiga.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 2025-12-04.