U18: Five Nations Tournament (26-30 DEC 2015, Zuchwil)

[AlternateSideParking]

Finland’s booming hockey machine, fresh off a dramatic championship at the Under-20 World Juniors, is having a pretty good winter. While the hockey world’s collective gaze fixated on the round-the-clock display of talent at the WJC’s in Helsinki, a prospect tournament in Switzerland with far less publicity confirmed just how good a job Finland does in developing young talent.

The Finns went a perfect 4-0 in the Under-18 Five Nations Tournament, hosted by the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation in Zuchwil from 26-30 December. Finland, along with entries from Slovakia, Germany, the Czech Republic and the host Swiss, fielded a team minus some of its best U18 talent, who busily went and got WJC gold in front of the home crowd. Yet the quality of its prospect depth on display at the Five Nations represented an equally integral step in validating the national development program, as the Finns outscored the overmatched competition 22-6, with six goals in three of their four games.

http://www.thedraftanalyst.com/recaps/u18-five-nations-zuchwil/

A little after-the-fact recap, but it's been a busy month and nobody in North America said anything about it since the WJC's dominated the hockey landscape.

It was a good comeback tournament for Finland which struggled at the last U18 event in Monthey (albeit against tougher competition). It's still a good sign when you blow everybody out with half of their top U18's not playing.

Makinen (FIN), Kuokkanen (FIN), Koppanen (FIN), Karafiat (CZE), Eder (GER) didnt hurt their draft stock. Solensky (SVK) was supposed to play after getting cut for the WJC's but didn't participate.

Click to read more...

 

[YARR123]

http://www.thedraftanalyst.com/recaps/u18-five-nations-zuchwil/

A little after-the-fact recap, but it's been a busy month and nobody in North America said anything about it since the WJC's dominated the hockey landscape.

It was a good comeback tournament for Finland which struggled at the last U18 event in Monthey (albeit against tougher competition). It's still a good sign when you blow everybody out with half of their top U18's not playing.

Makinen (FIN), Kuokkanen (FIN), Koppanen (FIN), Karafiat (CZE), Eder (GER) didnt hurt their draft stock. Solensky (SVK) was supposed to play after getting cut for the WJC's but didn't participate.

The stat and roster links lead to pages of a previous tournament. The write-ups and the stats don't match. Nice to read write-ups of lesser tournaments as well, so thanks!

 

[Wooren]

Good read. I didn't even know Kousal and Sirota are 2017 eligible. When I saw both are 98 I automatically thought they are 2016, though I was surprised no prediction threads even noted them.
How do you view them? ie if they were 2016 eligible, where would rank them? I am mainly stat watcher really, but Kousal is PPG in Czech U20 league and Sirota is doing fairly good considering he is on bad team.
Anyway I am much more interested in your view on Petr Kodytek? Stat-wise he is doing pretty good but his size could be a problem?

 

[AlternateSideParking]

The stat and roster links lead to pages of a previous tournament. The write-ups and the stats don't match. Nice to read write-ups of lesser tournaments as well, so thanks!

Thanks for pointing it out. The links on Finland's page are all updated.

 

[alko]

Official tournament page.
Nice to see 3 Slovak guys in top 5.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

I have to say that finally Finland producing really good and elite prospects.
Our age groups 1998 and 1999 are really talented.

Also we have to remember that this U18 team Finland hasn't their best prospects in this tournament Somppi played in CHL with Välimäki Niemeläinen and Felixson.
Laine Juolevi and Puljujärvi were world juniors.

If Finland could get Laine and Puljujärvi in U18 WJC's ( not really likely because of FEL playoffs).
Would be great to see can Finland be undefeated this years U18 WJC's.

Last year Finland loss gold medal game in overtime against USA.
Now still if we don't get Laine and Puljujärvi into U18's we have still very good team and very good chance to win a medal.

But is it enough for gold perhaps it'll be but how Finland replacing Laine and Puljujärvi that's the question.

 

[JJTT]

A bit late but LeijonatTV finally uploaded some highlights

CZE-FIN

Scoring summary http://stats.iihf.com/SIHF/58/IHM058903_74_3_0.pdf

SLO-FIN

Scoring summary http://stats.iihf.com/SIHF/58/IHM058905_74_4_0.pdf

SUI-FIN

Scoring summary http://stats.iihf.com/SIHF/58/IHM058907_74_5_0.pdf

FIN-GER


Scoring summary http://stats.iihf.com/SIHF/58/IHM058909_74_7_0.pdf