Of the 3 Jukurit guys, in my opinion Puistola was the most obvious selection, while Jormakka was the surprise selection.
There was hardly anything surprising about Jormakka. Since he kept surviving one round of cuts after another, it was easy to guess that he was going to make it, even if it was not obvious why. Like I said earlier, he's one of those players who just seem enamor coaches for whatever reason.
About Helenius I've had mixed feelings all the time. On the other hand I want to see if he can do something special in this tournament and at this level, but on the other hand I've never been as hyped about him being in this tournament as I was for Kakko's first WHC tournament or let's say from years ago MiG's first tournament.
Over the last decade, three players have made it to the WHC squad in their draft year - Helenius, Kakko and Patrik Laine. What sets the two latter apart from Helenius is that in the year they featured they were leading players in their Liiga teams that season, racking a PPG average or very close. (With Laine being a key factor in a championship run.) While no one should call Helenius an useless scrub in the Jukurit lineup, he didn't quite reach the same level.
Although, one thing he's got riding for him over these others is that whereas the other three were wingers, he's been constantly playing center - which is rather impressive for a 17-year-old. I remember when in 2021 the team featured Anton Lundell, whom Jalonen initially placed on wing because he thought Lundell wasn't mature enough to handle center duties. But he decided to give it a shot anyway after his initial lineup didn't quite click, and Lundell pretty quickly proved him wrong. In fact, I can see Lundell's example directly contributing to Jalonen's decision to invite Helenius.
Helenius however is one of the most interesting things in this rather boring selections of a team.
It's a team that, save an exception or two, features the best selection available, including 10 first-timers - and most of those first-timers are not even of the kind who have been around the EHT block a thousand times and only made it now because they were the bottom of the barrel after all the better options declined. A fair handful of those guys were still U20 eligible a couple of years ago.
We've been clamoring for a rebuild for a couple of years now, and now that we've finally got it... the team is still "boring". Sheesh, tough crowd. What would you consider exciting? One half being top-shelf NHLers with the other half being U18 eligibles?
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