- Jesse Puljujarvi has a replacement gold medal after his 2026 Worlds original vanished at a Helsinki karaoke bar
- Finland’s federation unveiled the new one with a stunt on the water in Oulu
- Read below for the full story and the video
Jesse Puljujarvi went fishing for a World Championship gold medal, and this time he pulled one out.
Iltalehti reported that the Finnish Ice Hockey Association delivered him a replacement Tuesday for the medal that disappeared at a Helsinki karaoke bar in early June. Communications director Henna Malmberg confirmed it.
There was no ceremony. A content creator working for the federation posted a video of Puljujarvi on a riverbank in Oulu, casting a line into the water and reeling the medal up on the hook.
Once it cleared the surface, he turned to the camera and yelled “Löytyi,” which is Finnish for “found it.”
Here’s the video of Puljujarvi landing his new medal:
@finkey03 Mikä vonkale!!!!🎣 #Leijonat #puljujärvi #kadonnutmitali
♬ Kultainen sukupolvi – Ellinoora
His first one is still out there somewhere. Puljujarvi brought it out the night after Finland won gold and passed it around the bar so people could get a look, and it never came back to him.
He said at the time that he believed someone had taken it, and he offered whoever returned it an ice cream or a coffee and a bun. That reward went unclaimed, and the medal has still not turned up.
Puljujarvi earned the thing, too. He had four goals and nine points in 10 games as Finland took the 2026 title with a 1-0 overtime win over Switzerland.
Last season the 28-year-old winger played for Geneve-Servette in Switzerland’s National League and put up 19 goals and 52 points in 52 games. He is under contract there for 2026-27, though NHL teams were circling him this summer.
Edmonton drafted him fourth overall in 2016, and his most recent NHL action came in 2024-25, five games with the Panthers.
The replacement is not the medal he won on the ice in Helsinki. Given what happened to the first one, he might want to keep this one off the karaoke circuit.
