SaiPa

SaiPa
City	Lappeenranta, Finland
League	Liiga
Founded	1948 (1948)
Home arena	Kisapuisto (capacity: 4,820)
Colours	Yellow, black
General manager	Jussi Markkanen
Head coach	Raimo Helminen
Captain	Ville Petman
Affiliates	Imatran Ketterä (Mestis)
Website	saipa.fi

Saimaan Pallo (SaiPa) is an ice hockey team in the Finnish Liiga. They play their home games at Kisapuisto in Lappeenranta, Finland. SaiPa has many nicknames, such as "The Sputniks", "Sputnik", "Miracle of the East" and "Eastern Giant."

SaiPa play home games in the yellow shirt, black pants, yellow socks, and a black helmet. SaiPa play away games in mostly the same uniform as the home games, but also have a black version of the jersey.

The team's best achievement is silver in the 2024–25 Liiga season. Previous best result was from the 1965–1966 season, when they won bronze medals for placing third. SaiPa also played in a bronze medal game in the 1998–1999 and 2013–14 seasons, but lost the games to HPK (7–2) and Lukko (3–2).

SaiPa has participated twice in the Champions Hockey League. During the 2014–2015 season, the team survived the quarterfinals, where they lost the return match against Oulun Kärpät. During the 2016–17 season, SaiPa won their initial games by 11 points. Eisbären Berlin and Luleå HF were the runners-up.

SaiPa has produced seven players who have played in the National Hockey League (NHL): Antti Aalto, Jussi Markkanen, Petteri Nokelainen, Petri Skriko, Jussi Timonen, Vesa Viitakoski, and Niklas Bäckström. Jussi Markkanen is also a part owner of the club.

Liiga

• 2nd place (1): 2024–25

SM-sarja

• 3rd place (1): 1965–66

Finnish Cup

• Runners-up (3): 1958, 1965, 1971

As of January 17, 2026.^[1]

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
31		Gustavs Grigals	G	L	27	2025	Riga, Latvia
33		Tomi Karhunen	G	L	36	2026	Oulu, Finland
30		Kari Piiroinen	G	L	24	2023	Helsinki, Finland
22		Karri Aho	D	L	23	2023	Tampere, Finland
6		Santeri Airola	D	R	25	2023	Imatra, Finland
26		Teemu Kivihalme	D	L	30	2025	Cloquet, MN, United States
14		Brian Kramer	D	L	25	2025	Wexford, PA, United States
7		Samuli Niinisaari (C)	D	L	27	2024	Hamina, Finland
50		Saku Salminen (A)	D	L	26	2024	Tampere, Finland
17		Vertti Svensk	D	L	18	2025	Joensuu, Finland
55		Ondřej Trejbal	D	L	27	2023	Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic
21		Niklas Appelgren (A)	F	L	35	2023	Kouvola, Finland
12		Samu Bau	F	L	22	2025	Helsinki, Finland
41		Maxime Fortier	F	R	28	2025	Montréal, QC, Canada
18		Juuso Heikkilä	F	L	25	2024	Haapavesi, Finland
57		Otto Hokkanen	F	L	22	2021	Lappeenranta, Finland
51		Antti Kalapudas	F	L	29	2022	Oulainen, Finland
10		Otto Kivenmäki	F	L	26	2023	Pori, Finland
81		Eero Klintrup	F	L	23	2024	Oulu, Finland
25		Emil Kuusla	F	L	21	2025	Helsinki, Finland
70		Janne Naukkarinen	F	L	22	2021	Lappeenranta, Finland
82		Henri Nikkanen	F	L	25	2024	Mikkeli, Finland
15		Miikka Salomäki	F	L	33	2025	Raahe, Finland
75		Patrik Siikanen	F	L	26	2025	Espoo, Finland
62		Miro Tauslahti	F	L	22	2023	Joensuu, Finland
92		Anze Zezelj	F	L	21	2025	Ljubljana, Slovenia

• SaiPa official website (in Finnish)
• SaiPa Fan Club Archived 2006-02-22 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
• Idän Ihme fan site (in Finnish)