Who is behind RINKADIA?

My name is Ville Kolppanen, and I founded RINKADIA in 2026. I played professionally for 14 seasons in Liiga, the KHL and the SHL, among other leagues, and jumped into coaching straight after my playing career. We moved to Innsbruck, Austria, where I am the goalie coach for the pro team and head coach for the U20s. I am also a husband and a dad, the titles I am most proud of.

I started building RINKADIA after running into the problem myself. There are so many good players and coaches out there who should be easier to find. They go unseen, and getting a deal often comes down to who your agent knows or can reach. Being good and being found are two different things.

Who runs it

RINKADIA started with a team of three: me, my wife Emilia and her sister Alexandra. Emilia, Alexandra and I work closely together every day. Emilia is mostly responsible for marketing and sales strategy, while Alexandra handles the everyday marketing planning and execution, as well as social media.

The career

I have always gone my own way. As a junior, I moved from a small town called Nokia to Tampere and played for both Tappara and Ilves. After my U18 year, I was drafted by the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the CHL Import Draft. That year changed my life and gave me the drive to chase something bigger.

I returned to Finland and, a little later, left to play in Russia’s junior league, the MHL. That was when I started investing even more in myself. I told myself: let’s play this card and see where it takes me. It paid off, and it turned into one of the best learning experiences I could have asked for. Over my career I played in some of the best leagues in Europe.

The biggest lesson I learned was that being a goalie is basically about solving problems. The better you solve them, the lower the odds of getting scored on. That is what every sport and every business is about too. And it is what we are doing with RINKADIA. I have lived in eight different countries, and the message has always been the same: Be consistent and be coachable. Listen and learn, and then try again.

Why I built it

I played in the KHL for three years, and when I left Russia I was playing the best hockey of my career. Still, my agent told me there was nothing out there for me, that nobody was interested. I changed my agent, and two days later I signed a deal with a team in the SHL.

In the last years of my career I struggled to sign deals with the leagues and teams that matched what I could do. I saw the same thing happening around me. I kept thinking: it just can’t be this way.

I know these are not unique stories in this business, and that is the whole point. The business runs very much on who knows who. Things have worked the same way for a long time, and people who are good at what they do can still be hard to find. Ice hockey is a business. Teams spend money hiring people for different roles, so they should have a place where they can find the right people.

The final push came from my coaching work. One of our players got hurt and we needed a new forward fast. I remember thinking: I wish there was one place where we could look. Somewhere we could see who is available and what they are after. A place where we could quickly find what we actually need.

I wanted to make a real change in how this business works. A trustworthy place for players and coaches to be found for what they do and who they are, a tool for clubs to find exactly what they need, and a tool for agents that fits how they already work. I don’t believe a hockey career should only depend on who you or your agent knows. There should be more transparency, more accountability, and more chances for good people to be seen.

One of the biggest drivers for me is giving players and coaches the chance to own their own data and decide for themselves what is out there about them. On RINKADIA they can be proud of what they put out there, and describe their careers in their own words.

I want to give players and coaches the chance to take their careers more into their own hands, and clubs and agents a way to work more effectively.

So RINKADIA was born, out of problems I ran into myself.

What my own profile looks like

I have a profile on the platform just like everyone else, and I went through the exact same checks. First the identity, quick and easy with my passport, done in a few minutes. Then the career. My playing career is public, so anyone can look it up, but my coaching career is not. I have been a goalie coach for HC TIWAG Innsbruck since 2024, and head coach of the U20 team since 2025. I have a coaching certificate from Finland and licence from Austria. I speak Finnish and English fluently, and understand some German and Russian. My current status is unavailable. I am not looking for a new job or interested in hearing about other opportunities right now.

Next comes the part that matters most for making a profile stand out. I choose the tags that describe me best, and in a few sentences I describe who I am, what kind of coach I am and what I actually want to do next. For me this is the part that takes the most effort and time, but I know it is worth it. If a club opens my profile, that is what they see.

I finish by checking all the information through, and I am good to go.