Hailing from Tampere in Finland, Joona Huttula joins the Grand Slam Steelers defensive core, replacing fellow Finnish defenceman, Niklas Nevalainen who decided to hang up the skates after the successful 23/24 season.
 
Huttula joins the Steelers following two seasons in Czechia with HC Energie Karlovy Vary. Prior to that Joona had spent his professional career in Finland, predominantly with Karpat where he played 120 of his 172 Liiga games.
 
Huttula will join up with his best friend Mikko Juusola who will also pull on the Orange jersey for a second season and played a huge role in bringing the already experienced 27 year-old to Sheffield. “Mikko and I are best friends, we train together in the summer, and he has been onto me to join, telling me everything about the team, the club, the city and most of all the fans.”
 
Huttula also had a stellar junior career in Finland picking up various accolades including u20 SM-liiga Champion in the 18/19 season.
 
Coach Fox commented on his new defencemen “He’s a guy that plays an aggressive, physical game and will fit our systems extremely well.  Joona defends extremely hard and also is an outstanding PK guy who will eat pucks and plays winning hockey. I believe with how well he skates that he will also chip in offensively for us and he gives us an extremely solid D core that will match up with any line in the league.”