Inflation is out of control. Nowadays, a gold medal will only get you ice cream and maybe some coffee.
Well, at least that’s the deal Finnish winger Jesse Puljujärvi is offering after losing his 2026 IIHF World Championship gold medal.
“I will offer the person who returns it ice cream, a coffee with a bun, or even both, if I get it back,” he told Iltalehti, as translated by Google Translate.
After winning gold as a part of Team Finland in a tight 1-0 overtime championship game against Switzerland on May 31, Puljujärvi shared that his medal had gone missing just a day later. He says he lost it during a celebratory night out at the Åke karaoke bar.
“The medal was stolen last Monday,” he said earlier this week. “The medal was on display. People were allowed to look at it, but my medal was never returned.”
However, there is some confusion as to when the medal was last seen. Puljujärvi says it went missing on Monday, but Ville Tikkasen — a partner of Åke karaoke bar — insisted that the team celebrated there on Tuesday in a last-minute private room with around 60 additional people partying.
Tikkasen claims the bar didn’t become aware of the situation until later in the week, when Puljujärvi contacted them to ask if they had found the medal. After the cleaners searched the building to no avail, Tikkasen and Åke wished him the best in finding his medal, opened the bar to accept it and deliver it back to him themselves, and even offered the option to do so anonymously.
Finnish citizens have been asked to look for the medal in karaoke bars in the Helsinki area to help return it to its rightful owner.
Puljujärvi certainly earned the hardware, tying with Anton Lundell for the most goals on Team Finland (4) and recording the second-most points for his country (9). Given his performance, the medal holds much more sentimental value than monetary.
“It doesn’t really have any value to anyone other than those who won it,” Puljujärvi said.
Finnish Ice Hockey Federation’s communications director Henna Malmberg has spoken with Puljujärvi about the situation and said a new medal can be ordered if the original is not returned, per Iltalehti.
Despite the unfortunate loss of his newest addition, Puljujärvi’s award case will not be empty while he awaits a resolution. He already has two other gold medals, winning in 2016 at the IIHF U-18 and U-20 World Junior Championships. He led all U-20 World Junior Championship skaters with 17 points (5g, 12a) over seven games and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
The season before his 2016 international success, he won a championship with Kärpät in Liiga, Finland’s top league, and secured a silver medal at the U-18 World Junior Championship.
Picked 4th overall in the 2016 NHL draft by the Edmonton Oilers, Puljujärvi played in Edmonton for five seasons. He then played 17 games for the Carolina Hurricanes at the end of the 2022-23 campaign before joining the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Florida Panthers, bouncing between the NHL and AHL with both organizations.
This year, he joined Genève-Servette HC in the National League, Switzerland’s top-tier pro hockey league, and led the league in assists (33). He recorded 52 total points (19g, 33a) in 52 games.
