The Colorado Eagles have a new voice behind the bench, and it’s one with a résumé that stretches well beyond one league, one country or one style of hockey.
Jussi Ahokas arrives in Colorado as a proven winner, but also as a coach who has built his reputation on adapting. He made history as the first European-born head coach to win both an Ontario Hockey League Championship and a Memorial Cup, and his path to the Eagles has been anything but ordinary. He spent six seasons coaching Finland’s national junior teams, helped deliver gold at the 2016 IIHF World U-18 Championship and the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship, and later spent four seasons in Finland’s top-tier Liiga with KooKoo and TPS.
His work in Europe brought hardware, too. In 2019-20, Ahokas was named EHC European Coach of the Year and won the Kalevi Numminen Trophy as Liiga Coach of the Year after leading KooKoo to a 37-point jump to 110 points.
Two seasons later, he guided TPS to a league runner-up finish. Most recently, he made an impact in North America by taking the Kitchener Rangers to the 2025-26 OHL Championship and a Memorial Cup title, going 4-0 in the tournament after earning the Matt Leyden Trophy as OHL Coach of the Year in 2024-25.
Colorado Avalanche assistant general manager and Colorado Eagles general manager Kevin McDonald praised what Ahokas has shown at every stop.
“Jussi has done a great job with every team and every league he’s been a part of as a head coach, and we’re excited to welcome him into the Avalanche and Eagles organization.”
That kind of track record fits neatly with the organizational philosophy already in place under Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. The two bench bosses now operating within the same system both built their reputations on creating winning cultures, and that alignment matters.
Ahokas, though, didn’t start as a coach. He began his hockey life in goal, and that perspective still shapes how he sees the game.
“As a goalie, you always see the whole ice and how everything evolves,” Ahokas reflects. He says he realized coaching was his path at 16, when he started running camps.
He stepped away from playing at a point when many players are still chasing their dream, and while some mental habits carried over, he makes clear that the job changed entirely once he moved behind the bench. “leading a group of men on the ice as a coach is a whole different ballgame.”
That experience has taken him from under-16 youth hockey to major juniors and international competition, and it’s shaped how he handles different kinds of players. Veterans who have “been around” need one kind of approach; younger pros breaking into the lineup need another.
His view is simple: the team comes first, but the people in it still require individual attention. “It’s always the team and then you have the individuals, and as a coach, you have to be able to coach them both.”
The system he brings with him is built around what’s often described as “positionless hockey.” That doesn’t mean players suddenly swap jobs, but it does mean the structure is less rigid and more reactive.
The idea is to have skaters read the game as it unfolds and play faster because of it, rather than getting stuck in predictable patterns. Whether that shows up through third-man-low rotations or defensemen jumping into the rush, the goal is to create habits that hold up at the highest level.
That approach matches the fast, transitional style Bednar uses with the Avalanche, and it gives the Eagles a clear identity underneath the parent club’s umbrella.
The challenge in the American Hockey League is always twofold: win now, and still prepare players for the next step. Ahokas doesn’t see that as a contradiction.
He sees it as part of the same job. “We have to develop players if you want to win a championship,” Ahokas explains.
If someone gets the call to the NHL, he’s fine with that, as long as the organization has the depth to handle it. “That’s great for them.
We just have to have depth so it doesn’t affect us that much. Development is a key issue, and the team has to develop the whole time.”
As for life in northern Colorado, he’s already settled in well enough to offer a straightforward review: “It’s been great. Weather’s great.
All in all, I love it here.” He’s heard the fans are loud and the building brings plenty of energy, and he’s looking forward to seeing that for himself when the puck drops on a new season.
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