Ahead of the Memorial Cup final, Jussi Ahokas is rewriting the path for European coaches

KELOWNA, BC – For close to two decades, it’s been Kitchener Rangers coach Jussi Ahokas' goal to climb the coaching ladder and eventually reach the NHL. 

Unfortunately for Ahokas, he’s a Finn who never played in the NHL. 

And while it might sound harsh, historically speaking, that precludes him from ever reaching his goal. 

Consider that throughout NHL history, only four Europeans have held head coaching roles in the NHL. Three of them have been short-term stints between Alpo Suhonen’s one season in Chicago, Ivan Hlinka’s 18 months in Pittsburgh, and Anders Sorenson’s interim role in Chicago, before Marco Sturm took over as the coach of the Boston Bruins before this past season. 

“I knew I really had no chance of coaching NHL hockey because I never played in the NHL [like Sturm],” Ahokas said. “So you kind of let that goal die, or you try and think of ways to make it happen.” 

For Ahokas, who carries a quiet confidence about him, he started sharing his career aspirations with others. He wasn’t openly canvassing for a North American job, but he also wasn’t shy about communicating to players that part of his goal in elevating their careers was to also elevate his own. 

This struck a positive chord with players and their agents, and when the Rangers had a coaching opening after a disappointing 2022-23 season, those connections led to Ahokas’ North American break. 

“I wasn’t going out and looking for a European coach or something like that, but I had a number of agents, player agents reach out to me that Jussi was ready and wanted to come over to North America,” Rangers GM Mike McKenzie said. “So I kind of heard that, and you look at the resume, and how do you not give someone with his resume the interview?”

That decision has paid off handsomely for the Rangers. Three years into Ahokas' tenure, he’s led the Rangers to a 135-52-17 record in the regular season, became the first European head coach to win an OHL Championship this spring, and, with a win on Sunday against the Everett Silvertips, he would become the first European head coach to hoist the Memorial Cup. 

It’s a subtle glass-ceiling moment for European coaches. In the very traditionalist hockey world, where many of the NHL’s decision makers have deep ties to the CHL, Ahokas is breaking one barrier with the Rangers that might lead to an NHL team making a similar decision on his future. 

“Like it or not, it’s an old-boys Canadian club that you have to find a way to break through,” one NHL coaching agent, who doesn’t represent Ahokas, said. “Whether Kitchener wins or loses in the final, just by being there, he’s opened some opportunities for himself here that will allow teams to look past the fact he never played in the league.”

So what works so well for Ahokas? Why has his coaching style translated well from Finland to the OHL? 

“He’s just very balanced in his approach, he holds guys accountable, and he respects them, and they know what’s asked of them,” McKenzie said. “But there’s also a side of him that’s fun, and you see players still have fun at the rink, even in the hardest part of the season. A lot of guys are old-school guys that can’t become players' coaches when needed, and there are coaches that are players’ coaches that can’t be authoritative when needed. He’s really found a good way to blend that.”

For Ahokas, that blend, in his words, is building a culture that includes the players as part of the solution. He’s the final decision maker on how practice is run, for example, but he’s been open over the past three seasons with the Rangers’ player leadership group on taking feedback and suggestions on potential changes. 

For example, early in his first season in Kitchener, after a particularly busy stretch of games, Ahokas had scheduled a lighter practice. The Rangers players wanted to be pushed more, and after listening to his players, Ahokas built out a practice heavy on battle drills. 

Ahokas also found a direct connection with his players through a shared goal, eventually reaching the NHL. 

“You keep your feet on the ground, and that’s what you think about, but when your coach has a similar thought, of how do you prepare yourself for the NHL someday, you feel on the same page,” Rangers captain Cameron Reid said. “That’s kind of an easy way to connect with him.”

Ahokas said there were some cultural things that players in Kitchener helped him bridge from Finnish to Canadian hockey, including helping the coach learn that, in many ways, North American teams require more individual connection points than Finland’s heavy team-first approach. 

There’s also a chapter approach Ahokas takes to the season; he splits the season into chapter segments with goals for each chapter. If and many times this season, when Kitchener hit the chapter goal there would be a reward, like a larger team dinner or taking the team to watch an NHL game.

The chapters, in Ahokas' view, tell the larger story of the season. It creates building blocks that keep players invested and rewarded. 

And right now the Rangers are in the final chapter of this season, after going 3-0 in the round robin at the Memorial Cup, they were rewarded with a sauna day in Kelowna – fitting for a team with a Finnish coach – and have a chance to put a final exclamation point on that story on Sunday. 

And while this chapter and this season will end on Sunday, for Ahokas, it might just be the launching pad to a much larger North American story.