Prices just keep climbing. Nowadays, a championship medal might fetch you no more than a scoop of ice cream, plus perhaps a coffee.
In any case, that's the deal being dangled by Finnish forward Puljujärvi after the gold he claimed at the most recent IIHF worlds, the 2026 edition, went missing.
In comments to Iltalehti translated via Google, he pledged that whoever brings the prize back could claim ice cream, or a bun served with coffee, or possibly the pair of them, assuming it resurfaces.
Puljujärvi struck gold for the Finns in a tense, 1-0 overtime final versus Switzerland on the 31st of May, only to disclose that the hardware had vanished roughly a day afterward. As he tells it, the medal slipped away over the course of a festive evening at the Åke venue.
Talking to media this week, he relayed that the piece had been pilfered the previous Monday, that it had been put out for onlookers to admire, and that it was never handed back.
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There is, however, some confusion about the last time the award was seen. The player ties its vanishing to a Monday, whereas Ville Tikkasen, who co-owns the establishment, insisted the group's party landed instead on a Tuesday, staged in a hastily booked private room joined by some 60 additional partygoers.
By Tikkasen's telling, the bar didn't catch on to the problem until days later, when the winger reached out wondering whether the medal had turned up. With staff having scoured the premises empty-handed, Tikkasen and the venue wished him luck tracking it down, opened up to take it in and personally return it, and even floated letting whoever had it bring it back without a name attached.
Across the country, Finns received a request to scan karaoke venues throughout the Helsinki region in hopes of getting the award back to the man who earned it.
There's no doubt Puljujärvi deserved the hardware, matching Anton Lundell atop Finland in goals at four while ranking second for the nation in points with nine. Considering that output, the medal's value to him is far more emotional than monetary.
To people who didn't win it, he said, the trophy carries no real worth.
Henna Malmberg, who directs communications for the Finnish federation, has discussed the episode with the player and indicated that a fresh medal could be commissioned if the missing one never turns up, Iltalehti reported.
Despite losing his newest piece, the winger's display case won't be empty as he sits tight. He already owns two other golds, both earned back in 2016, one from the under-18 worlds and another at the junior tournament for under-20 players. In the latter he paced every skater, his seven games producing 17 points on five goals plus 12 assists, and earned recognition as the event's top performer overall.
In the year preceding that 2016 international breakthrough, he claimed a Liiga championship alongside Kärpät, Finland's top-flight club, and grabbed silver at the under-18 junior event.
Edmonton's Oilers chose him fourth overall at the 2016 draft, and he logged five years there. He later suited up for 17 outings with Carolina's Hurricanes as 2022-23 wound down, then had stints with the Penguins in Pittsburgh and Florida's Panthers, shuffling between the top level and the minors at each stop.
This past campaign he latched on with Genève-Servette HC of Switzerland's top pro circuit, that country's National League, and finished first in the loop with 33 assists. Over 52 games he amassed 52 points, the product of 19 goals to go with those 33 helpers.