The years are obviously cherry-picked to dis Granlund, which makes it doubly hilarious for me to point out that Vatanen's -91.
Also, Armia being the 2nd best has no basis... at least yet.
I didn't mean to "cherry-pick" the years to dis Granlund. (What makes you think that?? What about all the other names below Granlund??) Just putting together an "update" for a relative ranking of the most prominent prospects. Granlund has already shown that he will be a solid top-6 player in the NHL. I had my doubts concerning his skating but his speed looks already sufficient. Next season he should be some kind of impact player in the NHL. --- Vatanen is indeed -91 born, sorry. I wanted to include him for obvious reasons. I put him above Granlund but it was close. In fact, Vatanen is still a bit of a project, even more than Granlund but his upside just seems tad higher.
if you are having sleepless nights between at the end of the week there are apparently going to be live streams from World Selects Invite (-98 boys) - featuring some of the prospects mentioned in this thread.
if I got correct info games played in MHG Arena will be streamed, and the stream will appear on the match page during the game. - I presume/hope its free-to-view.
Finns will start their games today with practice match vs swedes.
I don't know if anyone watched the games(I wasn't able to), but Jesse Puljujarvi led the tournament in scoring, being involved on nearly two thirds of his team's goals. I would have loved to have seen how he matched up against Sean Day, who was recently(and somewhat controversially) awarded OHL exceptional status. The two teams played each other in one game, which Day's team won. Day and Puljujarvi scored two goals apiece.
I don't know if anyone watched the games(I wasn't able to), but Jesse Puljujarvi led the tournament in scoring, being involved on nearly two thirds of his team's goals. I would have loved to have seen how he matched up against Sean Day, who was recently(and somewhat controversially) awarded OHL exceptional status. The two teams played each other in one game, which Day's team won. Day and Puljujarvi scored two goals apiece.
I watched some of the action yesterday. Puljujärvi shot the puck a lot, many of his chances came from counter-attacks where he was able to use his speed and reach effectively to challenge defensemen.
No uber standouts among defensemen, but Olli Juolevi was perhaps slightly more impressive than Tarmo Reunanen or Urho Vaakanainen. I especially liked his play during the 3-on-3 overtime.
I watched Sean Day's team for only a while, but he looked very similar to those TSN highlight clips. A big body with excellent skating and puck handling.
FI Selects had positive ending for the tournament even when they struggled a bit in the series. They showed up good team play on the playoffs, unfortunately they lost to Vityaz (who won the final) in the semifinal 2-1 by a last minute power play goal.
Puljujärvi was clearly the best forward by all means but the whole team played well and it was good experience to see the level of the -98 age group top players of other
countries.
Sean Day was a story of his own in this tournament. He seemed to be extremely selfish and arrogant, he did not play for his team but for himself. He checked Aapeli Räsänen (who is about similar size) from the back so, that he hit his head into post and ending Räsänen's games on this tournament.
Then he was thorwn out from the All Star game due to similar incident.
Preds fan here. It looks likely that we will land Barkov, and we are beyond excited here! Everything we have heard leads us to believe he is going to be a centerpiece for years to come.
For comparables, I've heard Joe Thornton, Nicklas Backstrom, and Ryan Getzlaf...any of those sound right to you? Any others?
We can't wait to add Barks to our team. With him and Peks both onboard, hopefully we can gain for Finnish fans!
Apparently Jokerit's Olli Juolevi(-98 D-man) has been very impressive. He leads their C-jr. preliminary group in points as an underage d-man and is listed at 185/75 (14 years of age). Jokerit's -98 age group seems to have quite a lot of talent besides him as well, other notable names include Oula Kuure, Otto Somppi and Jarkko Aalto. All 4 of these kids are within Jokerit-C's scoring top-6.
They're all very strong players. There is one more player out there ( I thought he played for Jokerit, but maybe I'm mistaken; Aappeli Raasonen (Check spelling). He is another 98' forward who has a high skill set.
Glad to see those four having such a great year, they're all nice kids.
For comparables, I've heard Joe Thornton, Nicklas Backstrom, and Ryan Getzlaf...any of those sound right to you? Any others?
I think that Getz would be the closest comparison. Without the mean streak and attitude problems. I´m not sure though wheather he'll be a star first line center or a very good second line guy. A can't miss prospect anyways.
Not Finnish prospect, but I don't want to open new thread because of one post. Croatian 17-yrs old forward, Fran Gjoni (last season Austrian league U17 over 100 pts in 30 games) will play for SaiPa U18 team next season.
Not Finnish prospect, but I don't want to open new thread because of one post. Croatian 17-yrs old forward, Fran Gjoni (last season Austrian league U17 over 100 pts in 30 games) will play for SaiPa U18 team next season.
Hopefully he will be as succesfull as Rendulic
He also had a try-out with the Ässät U20 team, but apparently it didn't work out. Too bad since Rendulic is a pretty liked guy inside the organization and fans.
