Editing KalPa (section)

==Team history==
Established in 1929 as ''Sortavalan Palloseura'' in [[Sortavala]], the club relocated to [[Kuopio]] in 1945 after its original hometown had been annexed by the [[Soviet Union]]. During its Sortavala years, the club was not active in ice hockey, but competed in [[association football]], [[bandy]], and [[pesäpallo]] instead. Ice hockey was introduced in 1947, and in 1956 KalPa officially replaced the more traditional Kuopio club [[KuPS]] in that sport thus specializing in hockey – minor league football was still continued until 1974 as a farm team of sorts for KuPS.

The full name of the company that runs the representative team today is ''KalPa Hockey Oy''. The majority of the company is owned by former [[National Hockey League|NHL]] players [[Sami Kapanen]] and [[Kimmo Timonen]]. Kapanen is the majority owner, controlling 50.5% of the franchise. Timonen owns 8%, while Timonen's former teammate [[Scott Hartnell]] owns 5%. Hartnell purchased a minority share of the team after getting financial advice from Kimmo Timonen during a road trip to Boston.

During the [[2004–05 NHL lockout]], Timonen, Kapanen, and fellow NHL player [[Adam Hall]] were playing for KalPa. After winning the [[Mestis]] championship, KalPa returned to [[SM-liiga]] for the 2005–06 season, after being relegated six years earlier in 1999.

KalPa has won a total of four medals in Liiga: a gold in the 2024–25 season, silvers in the 1990–91 and 2016–17 seasons and a bronze in the 2008–09 season.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-03 |title=Historiallinen Suomen mestaruus Kuopioon ja KalPalle – kuuluisan kiekkosuvun jäsen äimän käkenä Ylelle |url=https://yle.fi/a/74-20159548 |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=Yle Urheilu |language=fi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=KalPa vei kiekkopronssit - Ässät ratkaisi toisessa jatkoerässä |url=https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/kalpa-vei-kiekkopronssit-assat-ratkaisi-toisessa-jatkoerassa/3777746 |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=mtvuutiset.fi |language=fi}}</ref> KalPa has also won the Spengler Cup, in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |title=KalPa Kuopio Makes History as First Finnish Team to Win Spengler Cup in Thrilling Shoot-Out Victory |url=https://www.spenglercup.ch/en/news/kalpa-kuopio-triumphs-dramatic-shoot-out |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=www.spenglercup.ch |language=en}}</ref>