I would not lose all my hope with Juuso Ikonen as me myself grew about 25cm in age between 14-17. But on the other hand my father is 199cm. Still i wouldn't rule out the possibility that he still might grow alot or atleast few inches.
Niklas Kekki, Ässät
Mikael Edelmann, Tappara
Samu Perhonen, JYP
Richard Ullberg, SaiPa
Defence:
Olli Määttä, JYP
Henri Auvinen, JYP
Aleksi Salonen, JYP
Juho Tommila, Lukko Ville Pokka, Kärpät
Roni Rukajärvi, Kärpät
Aleksi Orenius, Ilves
Joonas Valkonen, Blues
Petteri Lindbohm, Blues Rasmus Ristolainen, TPS
Forward:
Markus Hännikäinen, Jokerit
Teemu Henritius, Jokerit
Aleksi Rekonen, Jokerit Teuvo Teräväinen, Jokerit
Markus Granlund, HIFK
Miro Aaltonen, Blues
Henri Ruotsalainen, Blues
Kalle Kossila, Blues
Ville Järveläinen, HPK
Robert Leino, HPK
Heikki Liedes, HPK
Tomi Wilenius, Ilves
Toni Kallela, KalPa
Miikka Salomäki, Kärpät Kalle Torniainen, Djurgården Rasmus Kulmala, TPS [/CODE]
-94 born players italics Määttä, Pokka, Ristolainen, Teräväinen, Torniainen, Kulmala.
Armia not in list because he is playing in SM-liiga Playoffs.
This team looks really good. We have good chances to play in medal games.
Keeping in mind that I only follow Finnish hockey via scoresheets, there seem to be some rather odd absences on that list. Are Sami Salminen, Henri Ikonen, and Samuli Piipponen injured? Salminen would seem to be a no brainer, and Piipponen has size and offensive production, which very few of the Dmen in that list possess. Ikonen may be an underager, but his Jr. A stats are almost identical to those of Leino and he's two inches taller and nearly 20 pounds heavier. By contrast, Kulmala, another 94, is tiny and played just 10 Jr. A games. I mean, there are three 95-born forwards who have better Jr A numbers and are equal in size or larger than Kulmala.
Keeping in mind that I only follow Finnish hockey via scoresheets, there seem to be some rather odd absences on that list. Are Sami Salminen, Henri Ikonen, and Samuli Piipponen injured? Salminen would seem to be a no brainer, and Piipponen has size and offensive production, which very few of the Dmen in that list possess. Ikonen may be an underager, but his Jr. A stats are almost identical to those of Leino and he's two inches taller and nearly 20 pounds heavier. By contrast, Kulmala, another 94, is tiny and played just 10 Jr. A games. I mean, there are three 95-born forwards who have better Jr A numbers and are equal in size or larger than Kulmala.
there must be injuries cause these players are imo core players in u18 national games
Are Sami Salminen, Henri Ikonen, and Samuli Piipponen injured?
Piipponen played today in relegations agains Kärpät. Salminen didn't play in last game of IFK U20 playoffs so he could be injured. Ikonen played in first 2 playoff games but not in 3rd. Could be injured?
Armias season ended. Avaible for U18 championships.
Patrik Parkkonen is playing in Medicine Hat Tigers, WHL. They have good team so Parkkonen may not be avaible.
Luckily Armia has played some games in SM-liiga because he could not be dropped out from the team.
Just wondering that what should other Ässä prospects do to get into the camp? Niklas Nevalainen had solid season and has enough experience from younger NT games. Had 10 points in junior A (ranked quite to the middle among the invited ones). Ville Ahlgren had 21 points in 28 junior A (better than most inviteed).
So because of Armia other Ässä-juniors should be forgotten? Remember that Armia was not even on the top 40 chosen to U16 team after the 2008 Pohjola camp (four Ässät players were ahead of him).
I'm also surprised that Piipponen didn't even make the camp roster. Despite all the injuries, he's IMO one of the most promising 93-born defensemen in Finland. He's big, hard working, fairly mobile and has decent puck skills. He has a lot of good tools and it's possible that he'll be the first 93-born defenseman to play in SM-liiga next season. Eppu Rissanen (KalPa) and Mikko Lehtonen (TPS) are the other defensemen that I would have liked to see in this camp roster.
Salminen has a lot of talent and potential, but I understand why Rautakorpi might have left him out of the team. In some ways he's not as ready as most of the forwards on that camp roster. Other players will be able to execute the game plan better, which naturally is really important if a team like Finland is looking for success.
Biggest surprise from the forwards is the addition of Rasmus Kulmala, I can't see him filling any sort of role for that team. Henri Ikonen might have been a decent 3rd/4th liner for that team and probably wouldn't have looked out of place, but IMO his omission isn't a big deal.
The team will have a lot of smallish forwards that are able of keeping high tempo both with and without the puck, should be interesting. Hopefully some of the games are available for viewing here in Finland as well.
D:
3 Henri Auvinen, JYP
4 Olli Määttä, JYP
5 Ville Pokka, Kärpät
6 Rasmus Ristolainen, TPS
7 Juho Tommila, Lukko
8 Joonas Valkonen, Blues
26 Petteri Lindbohm, Blues
28 Aleksi Salonen, JYP
F:
10 Toni Kallela, KalPa
11 Henri Ruotsalainen, Blues
12 Miro Aaltonen, Blues
13 Markus Hännikäinen, Jokerit
15 Ville Järveläinen, HPK
16 Heikki Liedes, HPK
18 Teuvo Teräväinen, Jokerit
19 Aleksi Rekonen, Jokerit
20 Kalle Torniainen, Djurgården
21 Tomi Wilenius, Ilves
22 Markus Granlund, HIFK
23 Joel Armia, Ässät
24 Teemu Henritius, Jokerit
25 Miikka Salomäki, Kärpät
Last edited by The Saw Is the Law: 04-02-2011 at 12:40 PM.
Junior playoffs are still ongoing in Sweden, so Swedes are missing a lot of key players. Still, a nice result and good to see the 95's Barkov, Lehkonen, Ikonen and Tanus on the score sheet.
Swedish J18 and J20 Semi-Finals and Finals will be shown here. Not sure if it's viewable in Finland, but Kalle Torniainen's DIF will face Timrå tomorrow in a game that begins 18:00 Finnish time.
Maybe this is a sign that the tables are turning and that Finland might have some great age groups on the rise and that the swedish prospect wonder wont last forever.
Sweden still have a 3-2 win ratio against Finland this year for this agegroup, but well there has been some indications that the swedish 94's and 95's isn't as good as we originally thought, and this was one big fat humiliating indication. This swedish team lacks quite a few of the best 94's (Collberg, Forsberg and Sörensen for example), but it's not a team of scrubs in a swedish context.
Maybe Finland will catch up and move past Sweden in prospect development in a few years
I will take that as a sign that the apocalypse is near
Maybe Finland will catch up and move past Sweden in prospect development in a few years
Don't worry, it won't happen. Swedish system is developing a good quantity of players that have good amount of individual skill, versatile skating ability, knowhow and vision to work as a member of a unit, and a NHL frame/physique. On the other hand many top Finnish prospects are lacking in one or two of these areas, so usually they become nothing more than Minor Pro players, although having the same desire to develop as players. The results of few junior games won't change that fact.
There's something fundamentally totally different about Swedish junior hockey, the coaching and style of play is simply better for developing prospects. Either that or Swedish köttbullar have a secret magical ingredient that we Finns don't know about.
Finland U17 screwd Sweden U17. Results were: 8-0, 4-2, 7-1
This should be a good sign for Finland. The 94-born are a really good crop for Sweden with a lot of depth. Or at least I thought so...
Sweden were missing a lot of their biggest stars like Collberg, Forsberg, Lindholm, Johnson, Karlsson, Sörensen, Sandberg, Anderberg, Kalin, Folin, Djoos and Dansk due to the junior playoffs. Most of those are looking like first or second rounders in the 2012 and 2013 drafts. But the players sent were not bad at all. Some of them are really good prospects that will be drafted pretty high. I thought that these games should be quite even actually but it seems to have been really one-sided.
Well, I guess we have to wait for Ivan Hlinka tournament after the summer to see how the teams stand against each other when all the best players are available.
For a change there are some skilled prospects coming from each age group (92' to 95'), but overall depth is still very poor when talking about good NHL prospects. The situation is very different compared to Sweden.
Even though a lot of players where missing it wasn't a team of scrubs from a swedish standpoint that Finland beat up so badly. Guess they where scrubs after all
Even though a lot of players where missing it wasn't a team of scrubs from a swedish standpoint that Finland beat up so badly. Guess they where scrubs after all
The four 95-born forwards in those games; Juuso Ikonen (3gp 2g+6a=8p), Jonatan Tanus (3gp 2g+4a=6p), Sasha Barkov (3gp 4g+0a=4p) and Artturi Lehkonen (3gp 2g+1a=3p) are very good players for their age. Exceptional group for Finland, these guys can cause big problems for an opponent that isn’t fully prepared. Sadly only Barkov has the frame of a NHL player, the other 3 still have a lot of growing to do. I don’t understand why so many of our top prospects are five foot nothing, it’s like looking chimps on skates.
The four 95-born forwards in those games; Juuso Ikonen (3gp 2g+6a=8p), Jonatan Tanus (3gp 2g+4a=6p), Sasha Barkov (3gp 4g+0a=4p) and Artturi Lehkonen (3gp 2g+1a=3p) are very good players for their age. Exceptional group for Finland, these guys can cause big problems for an opponent that isn’t fully prepared. Sadly only Barkov has the frame of a NHL player, the other 3 still have a lot of growing to do. I don’t understand why so many of our top prospects are five foot nothing, it’s like looking chimps on skates.
Geez, these guys are only 15, they can still grow ALOT.
Geez, these guys are only 15, they can still grow ALOT.
Oui, but try to understand my frustration. Most of our skilled young forwards look like they are part of the Japanese national team. Rajala (5'10''), Mi.Granlund (5'10''), Pulkkinen (5'10), Rautiainen (5'7''), Ma. Granlund (5'10''), Järveläinen (5'6''), Torniainen (5'10'') Teräväinen (5'10''), J. Ikonen (5'6''), Tanus (5'7''), Lehkonen (5'9'')... There's plenty of skill, but most of them won't top the average height of Finnish men under 30, which is 5'11''.
Oui, but try to understand my frustration. Most of our skilled young forwards look like they are part of the Japanese national team. Rajala (5'10''), Mi.Granlund (5'10''), Pulkkinen (5'10), Rautiainen (5'7''), Ma. Granlund (5'10''), Järveläinen (5'6''), Torniainen (5'10'') Teräväinen (5'10''), J. Ikonen (5'6''), Tanus (5'7''), Lehkonen (5'9'')... There's plenty of skill, but most of them won't top the average height of Finnish men under 30, which is 5'11''.
True
Molding players by size can be a good thing (big guys to D) But why make all the big forwards grinders just because they have the size? And clearly the finnish junior coaching can produce skilled players, it's just stupid that they only make the small guys benefit from it and the big guys should be... Big and powerfull?
The smaller guys usually excel at the youth level because of better movement. For example Tanus is physically very developed for his age and the short frame helps his balance and explosiveness. There are bigger gifted guys that will be at least as good when they get used to their rapidly growing bodies. It's only natural that a growth spurt will hamper the agility and overall game of a player and that's why they are often overlooked at this age. If only there were some decent coaches to help those guys develop their skating and maybe we could again start producing NHL first liners.
Does anyone have a scouting report on Alexander Ruuttu? I´m interested about him because he´s ranked by Central Scouting 16th in final rankings of European Skaters for this year´s NHL Entry Draft. But in the games I have seen him playing in Jr A with Jokerit, he´s not been as good as I have expected. Not nearly. Even though I haven´t seen Joel Mustonen playing live, I think he´s a better prospect right now than Ruuttu, but Mustonen is ranked on that list 19th of European Skaters.
With Alexander Ruuttu it might not be so much about how good he’s at the moment, but how good he could become if things work out. He still has a lot of work ahead of him and he’s far from a sure thing, but he has a good foundation to build on. He’s a competitive and smart player, a good skater and strong in face-offs. He plays a fairly straightforward game and is a pretty good checker, his style of play should be fitting for North American rinks. He has grown a lot during the last year or so. Getting bigger and stronger has helped his game, and improved his confidence and courage on the ice. He’s still a pretty scrawny kid, so once he gets more strength he’ll probably be a difficult player to play against. I’m not sure if I’d rank him as highly as Central Scouting has, but I can live with it.
As far as Mustonen goes, he might be a slightly better player than Ruuttu is at the moment. That just based on the J20 SuperElit Semi-Finals and Finals that were streamed online. Mustonen is a smaller player, which might be one of the reasons that he’s ranked below Ruuttu.
