Kitchener Rangers’ Jussi Ahokas became the first European head coach in OHL history when he joined the franchise in 2023. He’s entering his third season behind the bench for the blueshirts, and is coming off a 47-15-6 season where he took home the 2024-25 Matt Leyden Trophy for OHL Coach of the Year.
The Rangers exceeded expectations last season, considering the fact that they lost several key roster players from the year prior — Carson Rehkopf, Hunter Brzustewicz, and Matthew Sop, to name a few.
Many people expected Kitchener to take a step back and finish in the middle of the pack for the 2024-25 campaign. However, the team finished second overall behind the eventual OHL Champions, the London Knights, and lost in the Western Conference Finals to them.
The Strength of the Rangers last year was their depth. Only one player recorded 30 or more goals — Adrian Misaljevic with 31 — and only two players with 60 or more points — Misaljevic with 69 and Golden Knights prospect Trent Swick with 61.
Having all that depth is great, but it means nothing if the boss who puts together the lines doesn’t develop the right chemistry between his players. That’s where Ahokas comes in.
Ahokas has done a magnificent job of finding the right balance throughout his lineup with his players, and after two highly successful seasons as their head coach, the Finnish coach has NHL teams interested in his skills.
Waterloo Region-based reporter Josh Brown, who covers the Kitchener Rangers, reported that Ahokas this summer interviewed for a coaching position in the NHL. And it’s the second consecutive summer he has interviewed for a job in the NHL.
Although he informed Brown that the interview process for an assistant coaching position with an unnamed NHL club progressed well, he ultimately did not get the job. He is now returning to Kitchener, where he has two years remaining on his contract.
The Oulu, Finland, native has an impressive coaching resume, and it’s only a matter of time before he lands in the NHL.
Internationally, as the head coach for Finland, he has won a gold medal at the IIHF Men’s U18 World Championship and a gold medal at the IIHF World Junior Championship. In his first year as a head coach at the top Finnish men’s league (Liiga), he was voted the Coach of the Year, after helping the KooKoo organization achieve a 37-16-6 record for fifth-best in the league, before it was forced to shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Rangers organization recently announced that they have been named a finalist, along with the OHL’s Guelph Storm, to host the 2027 Memorial Cup. What better way to showcase yourself than in the biggest junior tournament, that isn’t the World Juniors?
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