WC: Team Finland 2022 roster talk

[JabbaJabba]

Do those players want to commit on such long camp though? Maybe in this case they do for this special case with the home tournament. Then there is the Jukka Jalonen factor as well. Players at this point probably want to do sacrifices to play under the legendary Jalonen now. We'll see.

True about long group phase. Those are indeed pretty much practice games also. I still would prefer if all of the players played meaningful playoff games with their club teams and then having only a short preparation with the national team, because too long preparation can be bad as well, especially when it's indeed some pretty meaningless games.

It is possible that some players choose to opt out for whatever reason. For example Manninen already has WC gold and he just added the Olympic gold. Might be a good time to spend time with family (I dunno if he has family though). We shouldn't expect that everyone wants to play even if the tournament is in Finland and Jalonen is coaching. I see the benefit of joining the team after playing in playoffs. Although sometimes players don't have the energy after their season is over, which is a common reason to decline invitation to the camp. All in all, there are many reasons why players might say no, so maybe we shouldn't worry too much about it. I believe enough good players will want to play due to home tournament, Jalonen and just because.

 

[Mestaruus]

It is possible that some players choose to opt out for whatever reason. For example Manninen already has WC gold and he just added the Olympic gold. Might be a good time to spend time with family (I dunno if he has family though). We shouldn't expect that everyone wants to play even if the tournament is in Finland and Jalonen is coaching. I see the benefit of joining the team after playing in playoffs. Although sometimes players don't have the energy after their season is over, which is a common reason to decline invitation to the camp. All in all, there are many reasons why players might say no, so maybe we shouldn't worry too much about it. I believe enough good players will want to play due to home tournament, Jalonen and just because.

It is a guessing game on some players but I think that home tournament is good enough incentive to assume that most players who are in some bad contractual situations or even being tired have enough motivation or energy to play in a tournament that happens almost once in a life time during their active careers. For some players this home tournament literally is once in a life time situation because their careers are at their peak and at some other point of their career they might not be good enough anymore to play in the national team or they are just injured. Adding good coaching to that mix should make it rather tempting to join.

 

[FiLe]

Ristolainen will probably head to golfing @ Bahamas once Philadelphia's season is done.

Rasmus Ristolainen avaa yllättävän jatkosopimuksen taustat â viittaa kintaalla kritiikille ja puhuu MM-kotikisoista lupaavalla nuotilla

Rasmus Ristolaisen ympäriltä ei ole puheenaiheita puuttunut ja torstaina myllyyn saatiin lisää vettä, kun turkulainen solmi pitkän jatkosopimuksen Philadelphian kanssa. Pelaaja itse ei sidosryhmien mielipiteistä välitä.

yle.fi

In other news, the Devil was spotted at the local supermarket today, shopping for warm clothes and portable heaters...

 

[Mestaruus]

Rasmus Ristolainen avaa yllättävän jatkosopimuksen taustat â viittaa kintaalla kritiikille ja puhuu MM-kotikisoista lupaavalla nuotilla

Rasmus Ristolaisen ympäriltä ei ole puheenaiheita puuttunut ja torstaina myllyyn saatiin lisää vettä, kun turkulainen solmi pitkän jatkosopimuksen Philadelphian kanssa. Pelaaja itse ei sidosryhmien mielipiteistä välitä.

yle.fi

In other news, the Devil was spotted at the local supermarket today, shopping for warm clothes and portable heaters...

I saw that one before as well that he might be interested about joining. He just comes for the special occasions such as a home tournament, Olympics or World Cup. Hopefully he would come some other time as well. At that point I would stop talking negatively about him.

As always there are mixed feelings for me about him joining the team. Jukka Jalonen will probably end up taking him but I think that he will do some stupid things in that tournament that will make me regret that Jalonen took him. Such thing could be too many penalties taken or something else. I don't scream for joy if he joins the team because since his U20 gold days he's been the furthest thing of a winning player when it comes to our regular NHL players.

One positive I can think of is that if he announces his interest like that, it could be a signal for some other NHL players to join the team as well, which could snowball into more and more joining. Even for the ones with contract negotiations like Lehkonen and Laine (those two examples are his buddies as well from Turku summer training). However it's a home tournament and the the team will be stacked anyways so extra motivation to join may not be needed.

 

[David OSullivan]

Hearing Ristolainen has interest in the WC. That would be a turn up for the books.

Edit: I should read earlier posts.

 

[FiLe]

I saw that one before as well that he might be interested about joining. He just comes for the special occasions such as a home tournament, Olympics or World Cup. Hopefully he would come some other time as well. At that point I would stop talking negatively about him.

As always there are mixed feelings for me about him joining the team. Jukka Jalonen will probably end up taking him but I think that he will do some stupid things in that tournament that will make me regret that Jalonen took him. Such thing could be too many penalties taken or something else. I don't scream for joy if he joins the team because since his U20 gold days he's been the furthest thing of a winning player when it comes to our regular NHL players.

And if he ends up declining the invite this time too, people will say he's a total lost cause since even the home tournament doesn't interest him.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

[Mestaruus]

And if he ends up declining the invite this time too, people will say he's a total lost cause since even the home tournament doesn't interest him.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Only way for him to fix it is to play in the home tournament and hope that Jalonen wants him in the team. Then he has to play pretty well and not paint a target on his back by the Finnish observers and then he has to join for another WHC in the near future. For me personally I'd forgive him at that point. I partly understand his reasoning in the past because it wasn't easy seasons in Buffalo but he really stood out with those decisions he did compared to other Finnish players.

On another topic. If playoffs started now we would get:

In the East, Carolina and Florida would meet Boston and Washington Capitals. Ismo Lehkonen thought that Boston could be a tough one to beat, especially for Carolina. Washington isn't easy either. We might get really loaded with players if upsets happen in those matches.

West is really close still. Nothing new to say about that really. Dallas has played less games than their competition so they are really on Vegas' wild card spot now. 4 games less played by Dallas compared to Vegas. Heiskanen will be out for many weeks with this virus disease though. That could mean trouble for Dallas.

 

[Finnswiss]

So how does look the Finnish roster actually? Will the Finns play mainly with players from the Liiga and players who played in the KHL or will Jukka Jalonen fill it with NHL players too?

 

[Mestaruus]

So how does look the Finnish roster actually? Will the Finns play mainly with players from the Liiga and players who played in the KHL or will Jukka Jalonen fill it with NHL players too?

My estimation is when it comes to forwards 2-3 lines from the Olympic core, because many of them play in Liiga now, so they will keep the playing touch up. Also some play in the Swiss league like Filppula, Vatanen and few others. So I'd guess that 50-75% of all players in this WHC team will be from the Olympic core and I'm hoping for a minimum of 25% from North-America. Home tournament should draw enough interest to get minimum that amount of players from North-America. Even though it's not Jukka Jalonen's style, I do think that they will keep few spots open for potential superstar additions after the first round of playoffs is done.

 

[karhukissa]

My estimation is when it comes to forwards 2-3 lines from the Olympic core, because many of them play in Liiga now, so they will keep the playing touch up. Also some play in the Swiss league like Filppula, Vatanen and few others. So I'd guess that 50-75% of all players in this WHC team will be from the Olympic core and I'm hoping for a minimum of 25% from North-America. Home tournament should draw enough interest to get minimum that amount of players from North-America. Even though it's not Jukka Jalonen's style, I do think that they will keep few spots open for potential superstar additions after the first round of playoffs is done.

For sure. He tends to go with guys that he knows and trusts, so core will be definetly built around Olympic players. Then some NHL guys comes to strenghten this team, hopefully Laine + Dallas guys atleast.

 

[Finnswiss]

For sure. He tends to go with guys that he knows and trusts, so core will be definetly built around Olympic players. Then some NHL guys comes to strenghten this team, hopefully Laine + Dallas guys atleast.

Laine would be a very strong reinforcement I guess.
As far as I know Laine is feared in the NHL because of his hard and precise laser shots.

 

[FiLe]

IMO you guys are being too bullish on Laine. While he's technically not contractless, as he's guaranteed a $7.5M for the next season no matter what, he could still be angling for a longer contract, especially since his present form gives him a strong negotiating position. The odds are still against him joining rather than for it.

And we're not even at the trade deadline yet. That's one key milestone - as before that we don't even know if Columbus intends to keep him or not.


The good news is that the Finnish exodus from the KHL doesn't appear to hamper things much on the European side - at least Jalonen believes so. So yeah, looks like the WC team will largely be the olympic team, plus perhaps a few new names from Europe and possibly some opportune NHL additions.

 

[Mestaruus]

For sure. He tends to go with guys that he knows and trusts, so core will be definetly built around Olympic players. Then some NHL guys comes to strenghten this team, hopefully Laine + Dallas guys atleast.

Well if those players want to come. Jalonen did say yesterday that many of them have showed interest in playing in the WHC and are trying to keep their playing touch up in various ways, like joining some Liiga team practices and so on. I believe that starting from 10th of April they will get to play some games as well. Not really the same thing as playing playoff games but it's something. It's risky selecting those players but on the other hand many of them have earned the right to play in home WHC with that Olympic gold and just great performance by the team overall with 0 losses.

Also good not to forget that some of those players from the Olympic core might hav Covid and that will ruin their participation for the tournament.

 

[Mestaruus]

IMO you guys are being too bullish on Laine. While he's technically not contractless, as he's guaranteed a $7.5M for the next season no matter what, he could still be angling for a longer contract, especially since his present form gives him a strong negotiating position. The odds are still against him joining rather than for it.

And we're not even at the trade deadline yet. That's one key milestone - as before that we don't even know if Columbus intends to keep him or not.


The good news is that the Finnish exodus from the KHL doesn't appear to hamper things much on the European side - at least Jalonen believes so. So yeah, looks like the WC team will largely be the olympic team, plus perhaps a few new names from Europe and possibly some opportune NHL additions.

Yes what he said there definitely sounded like a hint that Olympic core would indeed form the base of the WHC team and it does make sense because so many of the forwards are in Liiga now and few defenders as well. We'll see how it works out.

It will be really difficult to kick out any of the key guys of the Olympic team from the training camp even if they look sluggish in some of the practice matches against Norway and Denmark and in the EHT tournaments that are coming after those. It's a little problem if some of them are already in the summer mood. It might be hard to restart the season after that. It's not the usual pattern for seasoned professional ice hockey players to play these weird shortened seasons due to Covid and war.

 

[ES]

With the trade Vaakanainen jumped to players almost certain to miss Stanley Cup playoffs.

 

[FiLe]

With the trade Vaakanainen jumped to players almost certain to miss Stanley Cup playoffs.

He's also a pending RFA. Although as a fringe NHLer, he's probably not looking at a significant raise. So if he wants to gamble, he might figure that a good WHC perfomance could raise his stock.

 

[mattihp]

He's also a pending RFA. Although as a fringe NHLer, he's probably not looking at a significant raise. So if he wants to gamble, he might figure that a good WHC perfomance could raise his stock.

I wonder if he even would have a shot on the team. He's an unknown commodity pretty much.

 

[FiLe]

I wonder if he even would have a shot on the team. He's an unknown commodity pretty much.

Definitely not a player who just walks into this team. Would have to join early enough to get a look on the EHT.

This being said, he was a high profile U20 staple with three WJCs on his belt, so it's not like he'd come from completely outside the program.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Filppula's and Vatanen's season is over. I doubt we'll see either in EHT, though I think they want to play in WC.

 

[FiLe]

Filppula's and Vatanen's season is over. I doubt we'll see either in EHT, though I think they want to play in WC.

They'll probably be given a pass from the early camp stages, preliminaries vs. DEN and NOR, if they so desire, but I doubt that they want to sit on their haunches for nearly two months, waiting for the puck drop in Tampere. At the latest, I'd say they'll join before the final EHT leg.

 

[Mestaruus]

There went Säteri to Toronto with a 1-way contract. Good thing is that he will get some real games to keep his touch up if he would join the WHC team but that would require for Toronto to not go far in the playoffs and for J.Jalonen to wait for 1st round of the playoffs to be over.

Interesting 13 min J.Jalonen video interview (in Finnish) from 4-5 days ago in case some of you missed it. They spoke about various topics.

Tulosruutu – katso maksutta MTV Katsomossa

Päivän kiinnostavimmat ja tärkeimmät urheilu-uutiset Tulosruudussa joka päivä.

www.mtv.fi

 

[FiLe]

There went Säteri to Toronto with a 1-way contract. Good thing is that he will get some real games to keep his touch up if he would join the WHC team but that would require for Toronto to not go far in the playoffs and for J.Jalonen to wait for 1st round of the playoffs to be over.

Except he was claimed from the waivers by Arizona. So he will, in fact, be available from the get-go.

 

[Mestaruus]

Except he was claimed from the waivers by Arizona. So he will, in fact, be available from the get-go.

Indeed. That went perfectly and he will get some games for sure with that 1-way contract.

 

[FiLe]

With the trade deadline having passed, here are the Finnish players who have played in the NHL this season, have a contract for the next season, and will almost certainly miss the playoffs - both in the Big League and the AHL:

D:
Jokiharju
Ristolainen
Thomson
Hatakka

F:
Armia
Donskoi
Maccelli
Borgström
Kuokkanen

Not exactly a sterling selection. Although, getting the foursome of Jokiharju, RR, Armia and Donskoi would mean we're already better off regarding the overseas additions than we've been with the last couple of WHCs. And, of course, there's still a chance that Dallas doesn't make it. But other than the Stars, we'll more or less have to see if Jalonen is willing to keep any spots open for potential first round exits.

 

[Mestaruus]

Jokiharju
Ristolainen
Thomson
Hatakka

Armia
Donskoi
Maccelli
Borgström
Kuokkanen

My personal preference from that list.

I 100% want in the team:
-Jokiharju, Armia, Donskoi, Maccelli
-Donskoi and Armia have had weak seasons but they are always reliable in the defensive end and they are seasoned veterans. I believe that Donskoi has done a lot more penalty killing this season than before during his NHL career, so he can be useful at that as well.

I maybe want in the team:
-Kuokkanen. I'd take him if he was actively playing in New Jersey's line up. I'm not sure has he been playing in AHL or what lately but for now I'd look elsewhere. We have to pass on some good players anyways.
-Ristolainen. Improvement for the team but it's same to me if he comes. I don't know why I think that we just won't win gold if he's in the team. The U20 Ristolainen was a different guy. He will do something stupid like too many penalties and coaching staff may fall into the same trap as some NHL coaches where they give him too big minutes. He might get top pair minutes in the team and then we are relying on how he plays. The word winner isn't exactly written on him anymore. If they take him in I won't be mad but I won't jump for joy either.

I don't want in the team:
-Borgström - we can get better players. Probably enough centers as well. I'd be more interested of a guy like Kupari for example.
-Hatakka & Thomson. Both are far from a NHL breakthrough. I want these two to get more NHL or international level experience before they join the WHC. They can come and try on the WHC camp if there's enough time for them to make a case of themselves for Jalonen.