The 2024–25 Liiga season is the 50th season of the

Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mesti ...

, the top level of Finnish ice hockey since 1975. The Liiga expanded to 16 teams for the season with the addition of

Kiekko-Espoo Kiekko-Espoo is a Finnish professional ice hockey club founded in 2018 as a continuation of the Kiekko-Espoo team originally founded in 1984. Kiekko-Espoo men's team plays in the Liiga, where they were promoted for the 2024–25 Liiga season, 20 ...

. The league also brought back the relegation to the

Mestis Mestis (from , meaning 'Championship series', stylized as MEST1S) is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division ...

and a reformed playoff system and new divisions that decide the number of games teams play against each other.

Format

The regular season started in September 2024. Due to the addition of Kiekko-Espoo, the previous amount of 450 matches was increased to 480 matches total in the regular season. Each team played 60 matches, and all teams were divided into four groups. As usual, the series was on break in November for a week and a half while the national teams played in the

Euro Hockey Tour The Euro Hockey Tour (EHT) is an annual ice hockey tournament open to only the national men's teams of the Czech national ice hockey team, Czech Republic, Finnish national men's ice hockey team, Finland, Switzerland men's national ice hockey tea ...

. The Christmas break lasted 5–7 days, depending on the team, with the exception of Kärpät, which participated on the 26th–31 December in the

Spengler Cup The Spengler Cup is an annual invitational ice hockey tournament held in Davos, Switzerland. First held in 1923, the Spengler Cup is often cited as the oldest invitational ice hockey tournament in the world. The event is hosted by the Swiss team ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. For other teams, the Christmas break ended on

Saint Stephen's day Saint Stephen's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December in Western Christianity and 27 December in Eastern Ch ...

, 26 December. Other one week break was in February 2025. The regular season ended in mid-March 2025. Two outdoor games were played in

Pori Pori (; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Satakunta. It is located on the west coast of the country, on the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Pori is approximately , while the Pori sub-region, sub-region has a population of a ...

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 , which is normally used by the bandy club

Narukerä Narukerä is a Finnish bandy team based in the town of Pori in the Satakunta, Satakunta region of Finland. The 1965 established team has won two Finnish bandy championships, in 1999 and 2023, but has got 13 medals in total, most recently bronze ...

. Temporary stands with a capacity of 9,000 spectators were built for the two games.

Teams

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

champion for a spot in the SM-liiga. The top two teams of the regular season qualified for the

Champions Hockey League The Champions Hockey League is a European first-level ice hockey tournament. Launched in the 2014–15 season by 26 clubs, 6 leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the tournament features top teams across Europe. Backgrou ...

and the 3rd team to the

Broadcast rights

For the 2023–2024 season, Telia had transferred the television rights of the SM-liiga to

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

, 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+ Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discov ...

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

, Elisa Viihde, MTV and Telia.

Playoffs

Playoff bracket

First round

(5) SaiPa vs. (12) TPS

(6) KooKoo vs. (11) Sport

(7) Ässät vs. (10) HPK

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

Quarter-finals

(1) Lukko vs. (11) Sport

(2) Ilves vs. (9) Tappara

(3) KalPa vs. (7) Ässät

(4) HIFK vs. (5) SaiPa

If the series had gone past game 4, the order of games 5 and 6 where switched due to ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships being held in Helsingin jäähalli on 4 and 5 April.

Semi-finals

(1) Lukko vs. (5) SaiPa

(2) Ilves vs. (3) KalPa

Bronze medal game

Finals

Play Out and Relegation

The two bottom-placed teams from the regular season played a best-of-seven series, with the winner remaining in the Liiga and the loser having to face the winner of the

in a relegation series. The higher-seeded team and in the relation series the team from Liiga held

home advantage In team sports, the term home advantage – also called home ground, home field, home-field advantage, home court, home-court advantage, defender's advantage or home-ice advantage – describes the benefit that the home (sports), home team ...

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).