Jokinen broke into the Kärpät senior team in the 2001/02 season, scoring 16 points in 54 games. Fast forward three seasons, and Jokinen was the Finnish top flight’s sixth-leading scorer, racking up 47 points in his final season before moving to Texas to make a name for himself with the Stars.

“I’m from a town called Kalajoki, it’s like 100 miles south from Oulu and I moved here when I was 16. It was 1999 when I moved here, and Kärpät was still playing in the first division and they were trying for a long time to get into the SM-Liiga and then finally got back to the SM-Liiga in 2000, and it was a big day for people and hockey in northern Finland to get Kärpät finally back to the SM-Liiga,” Jokinen said while reflecting on his junior career.

At that time, Jokinen was flanked by several other young players who went on to become great players in the NHL, Liiga, and for the Finnish national team, including premier defenceman Joni Pitkänen.

“The young players, including myself, were finally able to promote to the SM-Liiga and we were finally able to in Kärpät. There were lots of talented players; for example, Jari Viuhkola, who was born in 1980, Pekka Saarenheimo, and Juha-Pekka Haataja, all born in 1982, and then in 1983, Joni Pitkänen and myself,” the Kalajoki native said.

Buoyed by the ideal mix of young stars in the making and elite veteran talent, Kärpät would go on to become championship contenders almost immediately after their promotion from Finland’s second tier in 2000.

After a loss in the playoff finals in 2002/03, the side from Oulu won two straight titles in 2003/04 and 2004/05, and Jokinen said that this mix of young and old was a massive contributing factor to this success.

“It was a really fun time to be at that age and trying to earn your place on the lineup, and then we were able to obviously win the first division championship, and then everything pretty quickly from 2000. In that five-year span, we won a couple of championships and made the finals three times, and we had a really good culture here, really good veteran players guiding the way with lots of hungry younger players who wanted to win SM-Liiga gold and then go to the NHL. It was a really good combination and a really good time of my life,” Jokinen remarked.

After more than a decade in the NHL, which included a run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2009 as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes, Jokinen has a wealth of experience that he can pass onto the next generation.

“I think myself, and the other veteran players, have noticed the great culture here in Oulu the last 20-plus years. The veteran players have always shown the way and the young players have already been hungry. All the veteran players always care about the younger players, and it’s been easy to come in, even when I was younger,” Jokinen remarked.

Kärpät’s junior system has truly developed into one of Europe’s best over the last 15 years, and the list of NHL stars that have come through the ranks of Finland’s northern hockey powerhouse is the stuff of envy for many other teams.

“It’s the same now and we have developed lots of great players, such as Sebastian Aho, Markus Nutivaara, Joonas Donskoi, Jesse Puljujärvi and all the other guys over the last 7-8 years who have left here,” the Kalajoki native said.

Just last week, three Kärpät players were selected in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. With the 52nd pick, the Pittsburgh Penguins selected goalie Joel Blomqvist, and a second Kärpät goalie, Leevi Meriläinen, was selected by the Ottawa Senators in the third round.

The Toronto Maple Leafs also selected Topi Niemelä, a skilled defenceman who had two assists in four CHL games in 2019/20, in the third round.

There’s even more young talent in the pipeline, including a projected first-round pick in 2021, Aatu Räty, whose brother Aku was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the fifth round of the 2019 draft.

“And it’s still the same now, there are so many talented players – the Räty brothers, Topi Niemalä, Justus Annunen [drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in 2018], Tuukka Tieksola [drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2019],” said Jokinen. “It’s their turn to try and earn their roles, but at the same time, I think it’s good that we have really good internal competition here in our club. You’ve got to earn your ice time, and it’s going to be the same for those guys when they go to the KHL or the NHL.”

Jokinen feels that part of this success is down to Kärpät’s coaching, as the young players are given chances to succeed, providing that they put the effort in.

“You have to compete in your team to get your ice time, to get your role, so I think it’s really important that it is not given right away. You have to earn that responsibility, earn your minutes or your powerplay time, and I think our coaches have done a really good job here over the last several years, as the younger players have been given chances but they have still had to earn their ice time,” Jokinen remarked.

In 2019/20, his debut season in the Champions Hockey League, Kärpät were desperately unlucky to miss out on making the Round of 16 after losing the three-way tiebreak at the top of Group E with Switzerland’s SC Bern and Sweden’s Skellefteå AIK.

“For sure last year, it was my first experience with the Champions Hockey League and I really enjoyed it. Normally, we only play against Finnish teams and you get to know the same cities, same teams. As a player, it’s really great that you have something that is almost like a bonus throughout the season, where you play super-meaningful games, whether you make it to the Playoffs or not.

Last year, we didn’t make the Playoffs, we had a really tough group with Bern and Skellefteå, and in the last minute Skellefteå tied the game against us. It was disappointing for us, we had big hopes here in Oulu for the CHL that we can someday get the European Trophy. They’ve been close to getting the trophy, but they haven’t yet,” Jokinen said.

Kärpät made it all the way to the CHL Final in 2015/16, although glory was snatched from their reach by the Frölunda Indians, who edged a 2-1 victory in Oulu. Nevertheless, the club remains committed to success and a model for many other European teams to follow.

Sitting in fourth place in the Liiga after notching four wins in five games, Kärpät look well on their way to another successful season, and Jokinen is once again making his mark, registering four points in that span.

Should this form continue, Kärpät are well on their way to gaining qualification for the Champions Hockey League in 2020/21, and Europe is waiting to see one of the continent’s greats, Jussi Jokinen, hit the ice once again.