1. Joensuu - the best player on the worst team. Gritty, fearless, quite fast, protects and carries the puck superbly, versatile as hell. Knows how to score, how to pass and how to play defense. Complete package.
2. Osala - great goalscorer who has nice "North American grit" in his game and no remarkable weaknesses.
3. Lehterä - phenomenal plamaker, but should be faster and better defensively.
1. Joensuu - the best player on the worst team. Gritty, fearless, quite fast, protects and carries the puck superbly, versatile as hell. Knows how to score, how to pass and how to play defense. Complete package.
2. Osala - great goalscorer who has nice "North American grit" in his game and no remarkable weaknesses.
3. Lehterä - phenomenal plamaker, but should be faster and better defensively.
5. Sopanen - not as ready as the others, Aravirta's system makes him better than he really is.
6. Enlund - quite one-dimensional goalscorer who lives and dies with his playmaker (Lehterä).
pretty good explenations, but joensuu in my opinion isnt so high. he plasy in a bad team but he was invisible in the start of the season. and when u look how many seasons he has played!
pretty good explenations, but joensuu in my opinion isnt so high. he plasy in a bad team but he was invisible in the start of the season. and when u look how many seasons he has played!
He's the same age, so i dont see any problems how many season he has played..
pretty good explenations, but joensuu in my opinion isnt so high. he plasy in a bad team but he was invisible in the start of the season. and when u look how many seasons he has played!
With what criteria you want to rank these players. If using yours I wonder why Osala is so high because his latest games have not been as good as the beginning of the season.
Lehterä needs work on his skating, but his straight forward skating is still quite good already(have been working with it clearly). And his playmaking&skills are so much ahead of rest of these guys, not that they would be bad, Lehterä is just so good. Joensuu is very complete package with need work on his skating as well. He is more offensive version of Osala, who is more physical and not has so much offensive talent. Enlund is more one dimensional, but he really is good in offensive end. So can't seperate these guys too well.
About Joensuu's skating:
That New York Islanders guy who was watching Joensuu for 2 games and said that his skating sucks shouldn't be taken too seriously. I think NYI scout was busy observing Finnish chicks and eating sausage in those games, for all that talk about Joensuu's bad skating sounded like some scouting report from 2005 or 2006.
About Joensuu's skating:
That New York Islanders guy who was watching Joensuu for 2 games and said that his skating sucks shouldn't be taken too seriously. I think NYI scout was busy observing Finnish chicks and eating sausage in those games, for all that talk about Joensuu's bad skating sounded like some scouting report from 2005 or 2006.
Observing chicks in Pori? Quite hard to observe at least in Isomäki arena...
I was ready to make a new thread but this one will work. What is the difference between Joensuu and Sopanen. Who has the better hockey sense, skating, shot and passing abilities? Who has improved the most since their original draft year.
I make this post because I have seen Joensuu play but not Sopanen.
I think some of you are underrating Enlund a bit, but I'm glad to see none of you fell in the trap of overrating Sopanen. He had a pretty good season, but he's not that great. He may outproduce some of those guys in the SM-liiga down the line, but he's the only one on that list that has absolutely zero (or 0.5) NHL potential and I hope I never see that guy on Finnish national teams either. I may be wrong, and my dislike of him is partly irrational as well, but that's how I feel at the moment.
If Sopanen makes the NHL and Lehterä doesn't, I'm eating these words, but I will also be really really surprised (I'd be a lot less surprised if neither makes it).
I agree with EroSennin´s arguments about Sopanen. He will become a good or great Euro player, but I do not see any NHL potential in him.
Lehterä has great hands and vision + artistic nature, but nothing more so special. How far that will take him is a question mark. He is a dark horse in this run and may become everything from NHL core player to FEL depth player. The Jesse Niinimäki Risk Factor is there, although his attitude seems to be ok from what I have heard.
In general it is very hard to predict the future of these guys as the overall level of FEL is no more as good as it used to be a decade ago.
