But apparently again not a star player. I would like to see some top stars in the Finnish team. Unfortunately it's very rare.
WC: Team Finland 2022 roster talk
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FinPanda
Barkov Stanley cup champ!
Its nice to have a lot of Finnish players in one team.. but it also means that if they have success, they are less likely to be available for the Worlds. So mixed feelings. Like Florida, Carolina and Dallas. Maybe Nashville as well.
Well lets hope one or two of these teams will lose in the first round. Would be cool to have Hintz and/or Granlund.
Well lets hope one or two of these teams will lose in the first round. Would be cool to have Hintz and/or Granlund.
Well, this year essentially all of our star players save for Laine made it to the playoffs. And there's still a slim chance that Laine actually joins. At least he didn't give an explicit no in his exit interview. So I guess we'll see.
And there are rather decent odds that one or two might join after the first playoff round. While he's favored locking down the team early in the past, this time Jalonen has been quite explicit that he's willing to hold some spots open. (Which suggests he already has gotten the conditional yes from a bunch of them.) And it's a given that at least some will get eliminated, since they are on the opposing sides of certain matchups.
FinPanda
Barkov Stanley cup champ!
You could actually build a pretty decent Team Finland out of the players in those four organizations alone.
Saros (Raanta)
Heiskanen-Lindell
Lindbohm-Hakanpää
Reunanen-Nutivaara
Granlund-Barkov-Tolvanen
Teräväinen-Aho-Hintz
Kotkaniemi-Lundell-Heponiemi
Pärssinen-Luostarinen-Kiviranta
FinPanda
Barkov Stanley cup champ!
Also, Boston-Carolina. While the bigger prizes are with the Canes, Haula in his present form would also be a solid add for us.
SantosHalper
Get off my lawn
I've become pessimistic as hell when it comes to finnish NHL players participating the WHC tournament. Laine is probably the only one who still could come, but doesn't sound very promising in that front either.
Granlund(?)/Rajala/Innala - Manninen - Hartikainen
Aaltonen - Filppula - Armia
Pesonen - Lammikko/Sallinen - Rajala/Innala/Nurmi
Mäenalanen - Björninen - Anttila
What is going on with Granlund? At this rate he's not gonna get selected to play, even though he played in the Olympics. But Granlund needs Manninen-Hartikainen more, than they need him. Innala or Rajala could play in the 1st line instead of him and the other one gets the 3rd line winger role, and Nurmi challenges him for that role. If and that's a big if, Laine accepts then Nurmi stays home.
Nättinen is the second mystery man, where's he? My gut feeling is that Nättinen was the replacement for Sallinen in the Olympics, Sallinen was injured at the time. Now Sallinen is healthy and he's playing in the same role as Nättinen did, Lammikko is the extra center and he challenges Sallinen.
Lehtonen - Hietanen
Seppälä - Vatanen
Leskinen - Jokiharju
Ohtamaa - Pokka
Defense is locked, Dallas will lose in the 1st round but the trio will decline. Friman was injury, i don't see getting healthy on time. But it's basically the same defense as it was in the Olympics, Seppälä replaces Lindbohm and Leskinen-Jokiharju replaces Friman-Kemiläinen.
Säteri/Olkinuora
Tuohimaa
Goalies are locked.
Granlund(?)/Rajala/Innala - Manninen - Hartikainen
Aaltonen - Filppula - Armia
Pesonen - Lammikko/Sallinen - Rajala/Innala/Nurmi
Mäenalanen - Björninen - Anttila
What is going on with Granlund? At this rate he's not gonna get selected to play, even though he played in the Olympics. But Granlund needs Manninen-Hartikainen more, than they need him. Innala or Rajala could play in the 1st line instead of him and the other one gets the 3rd line winger role, and Nurmi challenges him for that role. If and that's a big if, Laine accepts then Nurmi stays home.
Nättinen is the second mystery man, where's he? My gut feeling is that Nättinen was the replacement for Sallinen in the Olympics, Sallinen was injured at the time. Now Sallinen is healthy and he's playing in the same role as Nättinen did, Lammikko is the extra center and he challenges Sallinen.
Lehtonen - Hietanen
Seppälä - Vatanen
Leskinen - Jokiharju
Ohtamaa - Pokka
Defense is locked, Dallas will lose in the 1st round but the trio will decline. Friman was injury, i don't see getting healthy on time. But it's basically the same defense as it was in the Olympics, Seppälä replaces Lindbohm and Leskinen-Jokiharju replaces Friman-Kemiläinen.
Säteri/Olkinuora
Tuohimaa
Goalies are locked.
Biggest surprise is clearly Lammikko because he didn't have a contract, but he's Jalonen's guy so it shouldn't be the biggest shocker ever. He was #4 center in Vancouver. This means that Sallinen's spot is gone unless they would put Sallinen to wing, which I don't think will happen. I wouldn't like Lammikko on the wing. He had a good season as center so I'd keep him there.
O. Leskinen is not surprising. Nurmi isn't surprising. I thought that 1 TPS winger would be quite likely.
I'm surprised that there's no Savinainen nor Luoto. I guess that we had enough of Savinainen's player types, bottom 6 guys. He can't be a top-6 guy in this WHC team. We need more pure point producers.
Really big question still is Markus Granlund. Are they still planning to put him straight into the tournament while he would skip EHT Sweden. He doesn't need much practice with his UFA line mates. My feeling is that he won't join but I don't know.
I got a feeling that Lammikko will be tested as #4 center in the EHT Sweden tournament and Björninen could be tested as a #3 center. Björninen will be probably returned with his old line mates, Anttila and Mäenalanen once the WHC tournament starts though. Either way both Lammikko and Björninen will feature in the top-12 forwards when the WHC tournament starts. Great pick up by Jalonen. Our centers are set and maybe one superstar center will come after NHL playoff round 1.
O. Leskinen is not surprising. Nurmi isn't surprising. I thought that 1 TPS winger would be quite likely.
I'm surprised that there's no Savinainen nor Luoto. I guess that we had enough of Savinainen's player types, bottom 6 guys. He can't be a top-6 guy in this WHC team. We need more pure point producers.
Really big question still is Markus Granlund. Are they still planning to put him straight into the tournament while he would skip EHT Sweden. He doesn't need much practice with his UFA line mates. My feeling is that he won't join but I don't know.
I got a feeling that Lammikko will be tested as #4 center in the EHT Sweden tournament and Björninen could be tested as a #3 center. Björninen will be probably returned with his old line mates, Anttila and Mäenalanen once the WHC tournament starts though. Either way both Lammikko and Björninen will feature in the top-12 forwards when the WHC tournament starts. Great pick up by Jalonen. Our centers are set and maybe one superstar center will come after NHL playoff round 1.
It's pretty interesting that none of these 4 got named yet as u said: Kuokkanen, Maccelli, Donskoi and Ruotsalainen. I also had some of them joining. They still could join I guess, but it seems quite unlikely now. I think this is simply a sign of Jalonen trusting his Olympic winning soldiers and making the decision between few of them vs those guys from North-America. Donskoi might be the best of them. At least the most seasoned so I'm suspecting he had some injury or something else. So maybe it was Donskoi's decision not to join. Some of the others might not have been asked to join.
I see it as a possibility for Laine to join straight into the tournament.
I agree with this. I wrote it down before reading you post and I came up with the same players exactly, but one change for me is that Nurmi and Innala will swap places, because I don't think that Manninen & Hartikainen found their 3rd guy yet. None of the players who tried to play with them, Innala, Palmu nor Aaltonen didn't impress enough there. Big twist still could be if MaG actually returns, then it would be between Innala and Nurmi who goes outside of the top-12. I'm excited to see Nurmi on EHT Sweden tournament.
Nurmi-Manninen-Hartikainen
Aaltonen-Filppula-Armia
Pesonen-Lammikko-Innala
Mäenalanen-Björninen-Anttila
Sallinen is indeed the first selection behind that top-12. He will be the one waiting to get a stamp on his tournament passport while Jalonen & Lehtinen are checking how NHL match ups will turn out.
Carolina-Boston is nice one as well. Haula is on fire on the Boston side. We just need some of these series to end fast. That's the most important thing.
Calgary-Dallas might go fast as well for Calgary's favor. It will be interesting.
I'm just hoping Jalonen runs 6 defenders. 3 defensive pairings for the start of the tournament if it looks like Dallas or even Los Angeles (Määttä) will be be eliminated fast. Määttä seems to never disappoint in the national team.
If one of the defenders who are playing get health problems, then just stamp one defender more. There's no need to stamp 8 defenders' tournament passes when the tournament starts. We're talking about getting Heiskanen and Lindell or Hakanpää and Määttä is having a good season as well. Significant improvements. They don't need much time to be with the team to be more impactful than some of the defenders we have. I would take a risk with that.
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I'm feeling that they all wouldn't decline. It's a home tournament. It's a once during their careers chance almost in the new Tampere arena. They already know it will be an epic and electric experience. Not going could be something that they could regret later in their lives possibly.
Lehtonen-Jokiharju
Leskinen-Vatanen
Ohtamaa-Pokka
The plan I'm hoping is to run these 3 defensive pairings for the first WHC games against Norway & Latvia, until we know more info about how Dallas & Los Angeles series will project. Actually at that point when the WHC is starting we could already have some series concluded and we would just be waiting for their planes to arrive or so. So it would be easily doable to run 3 defensive pairings against Latvia and Norway which are middle level teams but of course cannot ever be underestimated or they will give Finland some hard time. USA is the 3rd opponent. At that point we could already have some more NHL D-men available and present with the team.
If there's the worry that one D-man would get injured during a game, leaving us a 2½ defensive pairings. If Jalonen doesn't want to risk with that, then he can stamp Hietanen's tournament passport and add him as the 7h defender I guess. That leaves only 3 slots for playoff exit players.
In theory it's also possible but unlikely that we won't have 8 defenders for the entire tournament if no injuries would happen and so on and in a scenario where we would be having an overload of superstar forwards available after some playoff round 1 series. In such case we could use a defender slot for getting a superstar forward. That would only happen if we wouldn't get more than 1 of Määttä, Heiskanen, Lindell or Hakanpää available.
Using some simple math. 22 slots allowed minus 18 (12 forwards+6 D-men) = 4 slots available after PO round 1. So we could have one D-man and 3 star level/super star forwards at most, but it's more realistic that it will be a 2+2 split, so 2 D-men + 2 forwards arriving after PO round 1, but even more likely is that we will have 3 slots available and Jalonen will stamp in 7 defenders (Hietanen or Leskinen being the 7th). Then we could have either 2 D-men + 1 forward split or 2 forwards + 1 D-Man split. If there's Aho+Teräväinen available at that point, Jalonen & Lehtinen would just take them.
Leskinen-Vatanen
Ohtamaa-Pokka
The plan I'm hoping is to run these 3 defensive pairings for the first WHC games against Norway & Latvia, until we know more info about how Dallas & Los Angeles series will project. Actually at that point when the WHC is starting we could already have some series concluded and we would just be waiting for their planes to arrive or so. So it would be easily doable to run 3 defensive pairings against Latvia and Norway which are middle level teams but of course cannot ever be underestimated or they will give Finland some hard time. USA is the 3rd opponent. At that point we could already have some more NHL D-men available and present with the team.
If there's the worry that one D-man would get injured during a game, leaving us a 2½ defensive pairings. If Jalonen doesn't want to risk with that, then he can stamp Hietanen's tournament passport and add him as the 7h defender I guess. That leaves only 3 slots for playoff exit players.
In theory it's also possible but unlikely that we won't have 8 defenders for the entire tournament if no injuries would happen and so on and in a scenario where we would be having an overload of superstar forwards available after some playoff round 1 series. In such case we could use a defender slot for getting a superstar forward. That would only happen if we wouldn't get more than 1 of Määttä, Heiskanen, Lindell or Hakanpää available.
Using some simple math. 22 slots allowed minus 18 (12 forwards+6 D-men) = 4 slots available after PO round 1. So we could have one D-man and 3 star level/super star forwards at most, but it's more realistic that it will be a 2+2 split, so 2 D-men + 2 forwards arriving after PO round 1, but even more likely is that we will have 3 slots available and Jalonen will stamp in 7 defenders (Hietanen or Leskinen being the 7th). Then we could have either 2 D-men + 1 forward split or 2 forwards + 1 D-Man split. If there's Aho+Teräväinen available at that point, Jalonen & Lehtinen would just take them.
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IceHockeyDude
Registered User
SC Play-offs will be more interesting than I can remember. Who knows if Florida or Carolina will be outgased after the regular season run? I'm sure we will get at least some high-caliber players and Laine is still a question mark.
SantosHalper
Get off my lawn
Tournament is still the same every year, venue and the atmosphere only changes. But let's not forget the "disappointment-factor", these guys are utmost commited to play in the NHL. They are living their dream right now and next dream is to win the cup, and they believe that they can do that. If they wouldn't believe it, they wouldn't be there. So naturally when they get eliminated from the playoffs, it is going to be massive disappointment for them. After the playoffs i just don't see them having any energy to play in any tournaments, which they can play in every year.
Määttä is an UFA and with his injury history, i believe he's gonna stay home.
There's a decent chance Tampere will be hosting in 2023 too. By ~2032 HIFK will probably have a new arena. Hintz might be playing for HIFK by then.
Some parts I agree with on what you said but I'd say that many Finnish NHL players would be playing in Liiga instead if the money was the same. For some of them money is more important than the actual cup. It surely varies per individual. You are right about the disappointment factor and some of those players handle disappointments faster and some need more time to get over their disappointments. So that also is a matter of how each individual is.
I get that for a player like Barkov he can't come to every tournament as a captain of Florida because that would look weird in the eyes of rest of Florida Panthers players, but on the other than he comes so rarely that he would come now to play at Tampere if Florida would suffer some kind of shocking 0-4, 1-4 defeat in the series.
On the other side of it is still the fact in some of the Finnish players' heads that the season was a disappointment yes but there is still a chance to win something big in a home tournament under the head coach that is familiar to many of our best players. 2016, Hintz, Aho, Rantanen and Laine to mention a few. They may want to experience that new arena as well.
If as File said that the players may have been asked in advance about their interest of joining the tournament, which usually doesn't happen, then that would increase the likelyhood of them joining. Else they would just screw over Jalonen and Lehtinen who would be keeping slots open for them for no reason and Jalonen will possibly be running 6-7 defenders over 4 defender pairs which is Jalonen's favorite thing to do, just because he might wait for some players that he has asked in advance about their interest of joining. Injury would be a decent excuse to skip it though or just to have a real injury without an excuse.
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Good point about HIFK's new arena and 2032. Twice in a life time opportunity to play at home or so (some may get lucky with U20 home tournament), but some of those players will be too bad players to play with national team in 2032. We will have a new generation of players + some of these current star players so for many it is indeed a once in a life time chance.
About 2023, personally I don't believe that Finland will be hosting then. IIHF would be doing a too big favor for a country who is kind of already pretty dominant in these kind of tournaments. They will find some other host for it. Hopefully they let Slovakia host it so we can win a championship again
. On the other hand I'm going to say that Finland is perhaps the best tournament host in the world in ice hockey or perhaps tied with Canada at that. Nah I'll take that back after Canada's U20 and covid hosting fiasco. Finland is the #1 host. So maybe they want a solid tournament host when they got so little time to react on Russia's invasion.
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If the Cup was actually more important than money for Barkov, Aho, Rantanen and Heiskanen, they would all be playing for 1 million a year. But that would be asinine. A Stanley Cup ring won't secure your offspring's future for generations to come but 50 million dollars in the bank will do that.
SantosHalper
Get off my lawn
in 90s - early 2000 that could have been the case. But today, no way the players think like that.
Laine is the only the player who could come, but now they are saying his injury is too bad. Aho and Rantanen are playing in a cup contender teams, this is were the disappointment-factor comes in to the play. As for Hintz, Dallas haven't had a easy year, so in his case the reason for declining could be disappointment again and overall exhaustion.
There's a chance that all of them could have said no, "regular season is still on, im focused on that right now" etc etc.
And just today 7 new players(+Björninen) are joining the camp roster, only 1 player was sent home. And that was due injury. So it just doesn't sound like there's a high end players looking to join the roster, when their NHL season is over.
If the GM offers you 8 million or 1 million, which deal would you take? And some players play for peanuts, because it's their last chance to win the cup. Players who only care about paycheck, usually don't last that long. Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is.
FinPanda
Barkov Stanley cup champ!
Such a negative post.
If they are keeping spots open, that means they have a "yes" from some NHL players. There isn't official word about Laine eithet. I get that being pessimistic is what Finne do,, but I'm hopeful we will get 2-3 more players from the NHL.
SantosHalper
Get off my lawn
Truth hurts.
2012 home tournament, 4 NHL players. M.Koivu, J.Jokinen, Lehtonen and Filppula. Filppula was the only one who came to play after he's team was eliminated from the playoffs.
2013 somewhat home tournament, 1 NHL player and 1 NHL/AHL player. Korpikoski and Granlund, and Granlund came after his AHL team was eliminated from the playoffs.
2022 home tournament, 3(or 4) NHL players, Armia, Jokiharju, Lammikko(and Säteri). The "NHL players home tournament quota" is filled.
I really think that we will get too many players available and too little amount of slots after the first round ends, but those series really need to end fast so we'll see.
The cut off I guess might be that we need 4-0 or 4-1 series. 4-2 is almost the same as maximum 4-3. One day off between each game, so the difference between 4-0 and 4-3 is 6 days (almost a week) longer series in a series that goes to game 7 compared to game 4 ending series. Finland's pace in the WHC tournament is about a game every second day average, same as in the NHL playoffs. So each game in a NHL series that goes longer than 4-0 costs that player to miss 1 WHC game.
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Yeah I could see that Jalonen plays 12 forwards and 7 defenders for the first games. He won't risk and do my suggestion of 6 defenders. I'm positively surprised if he runs 6 defenders only. So Jalonen would have 3 slots left. If injuries or illnesses happen, he might quickly reduce that number of 3 available slots to a smaller number, reducing the amount of potential superstars we could have in the team.
I wouldn't question Jalonen's decision of running 7 defenders instead of 6, because there's not a better coach in the history of Finnish ice hockey, it's just a personal preference of seeing more star power in the team and getting that killer PP unit from heaven so all of the games won't be some 1-0 battles. Not to forget better even strength playing as well.
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If I cared more about winning than about money, I would naturally take the 1 million deal and leave more cap space for my team. But very few players do that because money is what makes the world go round.
FinPanda
Barkov Stanley cup champ!
Finland has way more NHL players now than in 2012/2013. Most of our current NHL'ers weren't even drafted yet. Barkov 2013; Laine 2016, Aho 2015 etc
Finnish hockey is in a completely different situation than 10 years ago.
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