Tero Lehterä

Tero Juhani Lehterä (born 21 April 1972) is a Finnish ice hockey coach and former professional ice hockey player. The majority of his playing career was spent with teams in the SM-liiga. He has served as head coach of the Finnish women's national team since May 2025.

Playing career Lehterä played with Tappara, Jokerit, HPK, and Espoo Blues in Finland. He also had stints in the Swedish Elitserien, the North American IHL, the Russian Superleague, the Swiss NLA, the German DEL, and the Danish Superisligaen.

As a member of the Finnish national team, he won a bronze medal in the ice hockey tournament at the 1994 Winter Olympics, and a gold medal at the Ice Hockey World Championship in 1995.

Coaching career Lehterä switched into coaching after retiring from professional play in 2007. He has been the head coach of SaiPa of the Finnish Liiga. He has also coached several Espoo Blues junior teams and worked as an assistant coach for Blues' first team during the 2015-16 season. He was supposed to become the head coach of Blues, but the team went bankrupt in 2016.

During the 2022–23 season of HockeyAllsvenskan he took over mid-season as head coach for Västerås IK after the team had a rough start and hadn't met the high expectations that the relatively high-end lineup had amassed. Lehterä succeeded in taking the team to the quarterfinals where they lost to Björklöven IF. Tero became known as "Tero the Hero" amongst the Västerås fanbase and many people still hope for his return. One of the main reasons for the instant improvement in play for Västerås was his use of neutral zone trap play.

During the 2023–24 HockeyAllsvenskan season he coached Östersunds IK and cemented his finish style of trap play in HockeyAllsvenskan.

Lehterä was announced as the new head coach of the Finnish women's national team in May 2025, succeeding Juuso Toivola, who had held the role during the previous three seasons. Lehterä had no experience coaching women prior to accepting the position and shared that he was "not very well informed about women's ice hockey" in an interview following the hiring announcement. Lehterä was also coaching the Finnish team at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Women's ice hockey tournament.

Personal life Lehterä has also worked as a television ice hockey analyst for MTV3 and Nelonen.

His nephew, Jori Lehterä, was drafted by the St. Louis Blues and also played for the Philadelphia Flyers. His daughter, Nea Lehterä, was in the winning team in the cheerleading world championships in 2022.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1989–90 Kiekko-Espoo FIN U20 28 14 26 40 2 5 3 1 4 0 1989–90 Kiekko-Espoo FIN.2 7 2 2 4 0 — — — — — 1990–91 Kiekko-Espoo FIN U20 4 0 3 3 4 — — — — — 1990–91 Kiekko-Espoo FIN.2 34 17 14 31 2 — — — — — 1991–92 Kiekko-Espoo FIN U20 7 6 8 14 0 — — — — — 1991–92 Kiekko-Espoo FIN.2 41 23 33 56 10 5 2 2 4 0 1992–93 Kiekko-Espoo FIN U20 4 1 7 8 0 — — — — — 1992–93 Kiekko-Espoo SM-l 47 17 14 31 4 — — — — — 1993–94 Kiekko-Espoo SM-l 48 19 27 46 2 — — — — — 1994–95 Malmö IF SEL 37 12 11 23 10 9 0 0 0 0 1995–96 Jokerit SM-l 48 11 12 23 27 11 2 5 7 2 1996–97 Jokerit SM-l 47 11 10 21 4 9 2 3 5 0 1997–98 Kiekko-Espoo SM-l 47 9 13 22 4 8 1 1 2 0 1998–99 Fort Wayne Komets IHL 69 15 24 39 8 2 0 1 1 0 1999–2000 Jokerit SM-l 52 11 11 22 6 11 4 2 6 0 2000–01 Tappara SM-l 55 6 17 23 20 10 1 5 6 0 2001–02 Espoo Blues SM-l 50 6 13 19 6 2 0 0 0 0 2002–03 HPK SM-l 55 7 8 15 2 13 1 4 5 2 2003–04 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk RSL 55 16 11 27 8 5 0 1 1 2 2004–05 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk RSL 23 2 5 7 2 — — — — — 2004–05 HC Salamat FIN.2 3 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 2004–05 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod VHL 17 3 3 6 0 — — — — — 2005–06 EHC Basel NLA 18 1 6 7 6 — — — — — 2005–06 Füchse Duisburg DEL 5 0 0 0 4 — — — — — 2006–07 HC Ambrì-Piotta NLA 3 0 1 1 0 — — — — — 2006–07 Odense Bulldogs DNK 13 1 1 2 0 6 1 1 2 0 SM-l totals 449 94 128 222 75 64 11 20 31 4

International Year Team Event GP G A Pts PIM 1990 Finland EJC 6 3 3 6 0 1991 Finland WJC 6 0 3 3 2 1992 Finland WJC 6 2 0 2 0 1994 Finland OG 4 0 1 1 0 1995 Finland WC 8 1 0 1 0 Junior totals 18 5 6 11 2 Senior totals 12 1 1 2 0