Virtanen has a same problem as Lepistö, no NT games recently. Honka played 1 EHT games this year, he has the best chance to make it of those 3. But Kaski is more suitable for "our game" due to his size, reach and strenght and Kaski is better defensively than Honka. But what kind of role is planned for the 8th defenseman? Do we need another PMD? We already have Lehtonen, Vatanen and Hietanen if it's necessary, allthough Hietanen had more defensive role in the Olympics and camp. Role probably doesn't matter that much if the 8th defenseman comes from NHL.
I would say that the defense would have been locked already if Jokiharju would have been healthy. But what was the role planned for Jokiharju? When he was a junior he was a PMD, but in the NHL he has became more defensive orientated. In the camp it looked like he was playing in "Kemiläinen's role" from the Olympics, which was more offensive role. Both Honka and Kaski can play in that role, but if the role was to be more defensive Kaski is more suitable. Kaski also have more recent and more succesful tournaments and he was in the Olympics taxi squad. But Sihvonen is right for a once, Honka is more suitable than Lepistö.
And i was going to say that Jalonen wants perfect balance like in the Olympics, 4 lefties and 4 righties but today 2nd pair against Norway is Seppälä-Ohtamaa. So maybe the handess doesn't matter that much after all. Personally i would prefer more size. Lot of questions and very few answers.
