Twenty-nine-year-old Joel Janatuinen hails from Espoo in Finland and joins the Steelers straight out of the very highly rated Finnish Liiga after spending the last three seasons with HPK.

The 6-foot left winger has played an impressive 183 Liiga games after spending four seasons in the NCAA with the University of North Dakota between 2015 and 2019 where je picked up an NCAA winners medal in 15/16. Joel went on to add a Liiga Silver medal in 20/21 with TPS.

In total, Janatuinen has contributed 59 points during his Liiga career including 30 goals and will be looking to add more goals and points to his tally during his first Elite League campaign.

Coming off an extended period of injury during 23/24, Joel has worked extremely hard to get himself back to full fitness and has all the potential to make a big impact for his new team.

Coach Fox was excited to get the signature of such an exciting talent and commented, “the potential with him at his age and what he’s done when healthy in Liiga is what’s really exciting.  I think he will be a dynamic winger that will add depth to our scoring ability. He also plays an extremely solid two-way game. I’m very excited to get him in and try him in a couple different lineup spots to see how is game translates at our level”.

Joel was also excited to link up with his new teammates following glowing references from Grand Slam Steeler Niklas Nevalainen, adding, “whilst I played in North America University, this is my first time outside Finland playing professional and it excites me. Niklas Nevalainen was a great help to me. We played against each other in the NCAA and became good friends; we share an agent and talk often. Nikki had so much good to say about his time in Sheffield, the club, the city and his teammates of whom so many are returning. The more he spoke the more I was interested. The UK has always interested me, the league is getting better, and this was the perfect time for me to make this move”.