WC: Team Finland 2022 roster talk

[SantosHalper]

Juolevi

Juolevi is a mess, his body is broken and his not even in good shape. WHC tournament is not a place for him, we got better and healthier players in Europe.

Juolevi should go back to Europe and rebuild himself. Rautakorpi school should get in shape in notime.

 

[FiLe]

There's no way around the fact that you might have a defense/goalie like this:


Bold arrives early may.

Lehtonen - Heiskanen
Juolevi - Ristolainen
Lindell - Jokiharju
Hakanpää

Saros


First or second line (depending on your top olympic guys):

Roope Hintz - Mikael Granlund - Eeli Tolvanen

The NHL regular season ends on May 1st. The playoffs are slated to begin 2-3 days after. The WHC begins on May 13th. There is no way those players make it to tournament opener even if there is a clean 4-0 sweep - as even that's going to take around 8-9 days, and the transition process with exit interviews and such takes additional 3-5 days.

The roster limit for the tournament is 25 - 22 skaters and three goalies. To have room for all six of those potential NHL additions, Finland would have to play its first couple of games with just 16 skaters - 11 forwards and 5 d-men or so - which won't happen.

Like I said earlier, we might get 2-4 of those skaters if we get lucky. But not six, and particularly not 12, as was the number of playoffs bound NHLers in your original lineup.

 

[FinPanda]

I believe Jalonen said somewhere that they may wait for like 2 players (top level), but they need to know in advance it they will actually come if they lose in the 1st round.

I'd imagine that means guys like Barkov, Aho, Rantanen, Teräväinen etc.

 

[FiLe]

I believe Jalonen said somewhere that they may wait for like 2 players (top level), but they need to know in advance it they will actually come if they lose in the 1st round.

I'd imagine that means guys like Barkov, Aho, Rantanen, Teräväinen etc.

Yeah, Jalonen said they won't leave a ton of spots open. He spoke about two, "perhaps one forward and one d-man", but I guess the figure may be a bit fluid depending on the circumstances.

For example, if both Dallas and Nashville are trailing like 3-0 or 3-1 on the eve of the tournament, and they have those provisory yeses from Granlund, Hintz, Heiskanen and Lindell, they might try and handle the first couple of games with a 12+6 setup.

But, as usual, we should err on the side of caution. A range of 0-2 late arrivals is far more likely than 2-4.

 

[jfc64]

The NHL regular season ends on May 1st. The playoffs are slated to begin 2-3 days after. The WHC begins on May 13th. There is no way those players make it to tournament opener even if there is a clean 4-0 sweep - as even that's going to take around 8-9 days, and the transition process with exit interviews and such takes additional 3-5 days.

The roster limit for the tournament is 25 - 22 skaters and three goalies. To have room for all six of those potential NHL additions, Finland would have to play its first couple of games with just 16 skaters - 11 forwards and 5 d-men or so - which won't happen.

Like I said earlier, we might get 2-4 of those skaters if we get lucky. But not six, and particularly not 12, as was the number of playoffs bound NHLers in your original lineup.

Two weeks should be enough...you could have 14 forwards...not "original" lineup anymore...

 

[FiLe]

Two weeks should be enough...you could have 14 forwards...not "original lineup anymore...

You really have no idea how this works, do you?

(Despite the fact that it's been explained to you now... like twice.)

 

[jfc64]

Yeah, Jalonen said they won't leave a ton of spots open. He spoke about two, "perhaps one forward and one d-man", but I guess the figure may be a bit fluid depending on the circumstances.

For example, if both Dallas and Nashville are trailing like 3-0 or 3-1 on the eve of the tournament, and they have those provisory yeses from Granlund, Hintz, Heiskanen and Lindell, they might try and handle the first couple of games with a 12+6 setup.

But, as usual, we should err on the side of caution. A range of 0-2 late arrivals is far more likely than 2-4.

Heiskanen and Hintz? Bolded players below UFA or RFA:s

Calgary (+26) (Juuso Välimäki)
Edmonton (+18) (Jesse Puljujärvi, Markus Niemeläinen, Mikko Koskinen)
Los Angeles (+13) (Rasmus Kupari, Olli Määttä)
Vegas (+11)
Vancouver (+9) (Juho Lammikko)
Anaheim (-3) (Urho Vaakanainen)
San Jose (-5) (Santeri Hatakka, Kaapo Kähkönen)
Seattle (-20) (Joonas Donskoi)

Colorado (+41) (M. Rantanen, Artturi Lehkonen, Sampo Ranta, Justus Annunen)
Minnesota (+26)
St. Louis (+26) (Niko Mikkola, Ville Husso)
Dallas (+16) (Roope Hintz, Joel Kiviranta, M.Heiskanen. Esa Lindell, Jani Hakanpää)
Nashville (+15) (Mikael Granlund, Eeli Tolvanen, Juuse Saros)
Winnipeg (+5) (Kristian Vesalainen, Ville Heinola)
Chicago (-14) (Henrik Borgström, Kevin Lankinen)
Arizona (-26) (Matias Maccelli, Harri Säteri)

Carolina (+28) (Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teräväinen, Jesperi Kotkaniemi)
NY Rangers (+28) (Kaapo Kakko)
Pittsburgh (+20) (K. Kapanen, Kasper Björkqvist, Valtteri Puustinen, J. Riikola)
Washington (+19)
NY Islanders (+4) (Otto Koivula, Robin Salo)
Columbus (0) (Patrik Laine, Joonas Korpisalo)
Philadelphia (-19) (Rasmus Ristolainen)
New Jersey (-16) (Janne Kuokkanen)

Florida (+39) (Barkov, Lundell, Luostarinen, Heponiemi, Lindbohm, Nutivaara)
Toronto (+30)
Tampa Bay (+25)
Boston (+22) (Erik Haula)
Detroit (-8) (Olli Juolevi)
Buffalo (-9) (Arttu Ruotsalainen, Henri Jokiharju, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen)
Ottawa (-12) (Lassi Thomson)
Montreal (-25) (Joel Armia, Jesse Ylönen, Sami Niku)

 

[jfc64]

"Oh, no! Florida, Carolina AND Dallas loses in the first round!

 

[FiLe]

Heiskanen and Hintz?

Since any team can get eliminated, I consider any top-shelf Finnish NHLer a potential addition, as long as they are healthy and have a contract for the next season. I won't speculate with names.

However, the simple fact is that even if there were ten such players available and willing to join, it would be impossible to add all ten. The theoretical maximum is seven, as there are 22 skater spots in a team and the IIHF rules say that at least 15 skaters must be dressed for a game. And the Stanley Cup playoffs first round won't end before the tournament begins. However, I'm 100% positive that our coach (or most other teams' coaches, honestly) won't make it harder than it is with just the 15 skaters; the least he'll dress is 18 skaters (12 forwards + 6 d-men) from the get-go, leaving room for four (4, fyra) late additions - at most.

Bottom line, we aren't going to get a stacked NHL team even if there were scores of players willing to join after the first round - and it's got nothing to do with whether one would prefer those NHLers over the coach's euro familiars.

I'm honestly getting tired of explaining this over and over again.

 

[jfc64]

However, I'm 100% positive that our coach (or most other teams' coaches, honestly) won't make it harder than it is with just the 15 skaters; the least he'll dress is 18 skaters (12 forwards + 6 d-men) from the get-go, leaving room for four (4, fyra) late additions - at most.

Bottom line, we aren't going to get a stacked NHL team even if there were scores of players willing to join after the first round - and it's got nothing to do with whether one would prefer those NHLers over the coach's euro familiars.

Four spots open then. Now we are talking. So, how many NHL and euro familiars will be there from the beginning?

9 + 4 + 2 euro familiar's? (10 NHL players in the end possibly?)
3 + 2 from regular season? Armia - Kuokkanen - Donskoi forwards?
2 + 2 + 1 first round losers?

 

[FiLe]

Now we are talking.

This is more or less what's been talked about here since the thread was made.

Right now, we know of three, maybe four established NHLers (Jokiharju, Armia, Ristolainen, Ruotsalainen) who won't make the playoffs and have expressed interest. Perhaps there are other 3-4 we're eyeing as potential additions (Donskoi, Laine, Lammikko, Kuokkanen), but whose stances we don't know yet. However, conventional wisdom states that the turnout of the players theoretically available is rarely 100%.

Finally, there's a bunch of players who are presently in the NHL but haven't fully established themselves yet (such as Maccelli, Thomson, Borgström and Hatakka), and it's anybody's guess if the coach would be interested in handing any of them a direct invite, is perhaps thinking about checking them out on EHT, or simply figures they aren't upgrades over his euro familiars.

Overall, I think this team will feature around 5-8 NHLers when all is said and done - 4-5 will be there from the get-go, and 2-3 might join as late additions after the first round. The rest will almost exclusively be returnees from the olympic team, with perhaps 1-2 left field picks from euro leagues thrown in.

 

[JabbaJabba]

This is more or less what's been talked about here since the thread was made.

Right now, we know of three, maybe four established NHLers (Jokiharju, Armia, Ristolainen, Ruotsalainen) who won't make the playoffs and have expressed interest. Perhaps there are other 3-4 we're eyeing as potential additions (Donskoi, Laine, Lammikko, Kuokkanen), but whose stances we don't know yet. However, conventional wisdom states that the turnout of the players theoretically available is rarely 100%.

Finally, there's a bunch of players who are presently in the NHL but haven't fully established themselves yet (such as Maccelli, Thomson, Borgström and Hatakka), and it's anybody's guess if the coach would be interested in handing any of them a direct invite, is perhaps thinking about checking them out on EHT, or simply figures they aren't upgrades over his euro familiars.

Overall, I think this team will feature around 5-8 NHLers when all is said and done - 4-5 will be there from the get-go, and 2-3 might join as late additions after the first round. The rest will almost exclusively be returnees from the olympic team, with perhaps 1-2 left field picks from euro leagues thrown in.

Where has Ruotsalainen expressed his interest to join? BTW, Ristolainen got injured last week, which might prevent him from joining the team.

 

[FiLe]

Where has Ruotsalainen expressed his interest to join?

It was some Twitter post or other. Sure, sure - grain of salt and all that. Makes sense, though, as he's not exactly looking at a big raise with this season's showings despite running out of contract.

Ristolainen got injured last week, which might prevent him from joining the team.

His official status is DTD, so I guess we'll see. I know they've said he might miss the rest of the season, but at this stage any knock that sidelines a player for a couple of weeks is season-ending. And he doesn't have anything to be concerned about contractwise.

 

[SantosHalper]

Eine finnische Zaubermaus auf dem Weg in die Schweiz – wohl nach Rappi oder Lugano
Apparently Ruotsalainen is returning in Europe for next year. No need to worry about contract situation in his case.

 

[Eye of Ra]

2018-19	HIFK	Liiga	56	16	26	42	36	18	|	Playoffs	13	3	2	5	18	-3
	Finland	WC	9	1	4	5	8	2	|
	Finland (all)	International	18	2	4	6	16	3	|
2019-20	Luleå HF	SHL	50	11	18	29	42	25	|
	Finland (all)	International	5	0	0	0	2	-2	|
2020-21	Luleå HF	SHL	49	13	22	35	61	0	|	Playoffs	7	3	2	5	42	-4
2021-22	Luleå HF J20	J20 Nationell	1	0	1	1	2	1	|
	Luleå HF “A”	SHL	36	11	19	30	76	13	|	Playoffs	4	1	2	3	4	1

Tyrväinen is a monster. Cant belive so many wants Mäenalanen over him.

 

[mattihp]

Eine finnische Zaubermaus auf dem Weg in die Schweiz – wohl nach Rappi oder Lugano
Apparently Ruotsalainen is returning in Europe for next year. No need to worry about contract situation in his case.

I love that they call him Zaubermaus

 

[mattihp]

[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]2018-19[/TD]
[TD]

HIFK[/TD]
[TD]Liiga[/TD]
[TD]56[/TD]
[TD]16[/TD]
[TD]26[/TD]
[TD]42[/TD]
[TD]36[/TD]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]|[/TD]
[TD]Playoffs[/TD]
[TD]13[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]-3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]

Finland[/TD]
[TD]WC[/TD]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]|[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]

Finland (all)[/TD]
[TD]International[/TD]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]16[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]|[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2019-20[/TD]
[TD]

Luleå HF[/TD]
[TD]SHL[/TD]
[TD]50[/TD]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]29[/TD]
[TD]42[/TD]
[TD]25[/TD]
[TD]|[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]

Finland (all)[/TD]
[TD]International[/TD]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]-2[/TD]
[TD]|[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2020-21[/TD]
[TD]

Luleå HF[/TD]
[TD]SHL[/TD]
[TD]49[/TD]
[TD]13[/TD]
[TD]22[/TD]
[TD]35[/TD]
[TD]61[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]|[/TD]
[TD]Playoffs[/TD]
[TD]7[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]42[/TD]
[TD]-4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2021-22[/TD]
[TD]

Luleå HF J20[/TD]
[TD]J20 Nationell[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]|[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]

Luleå HF “A”[/TD]
[TD]SHL[/TD]
[TD]36[/TD]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]19[/TD]
[TD]30[/TD]
[TD]76[/TD]
[TD]13[/TD]
[TD]|[/TD]
[TD]Playoffs[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Tyrväinen is a monster. Cant belive so many wants Mäenalanen over him.

Then you haven't watch Mäenalanen play with team Finland. Don't fix what isn't broken. I don't get what is so magic about Tyrväinen. With some injuries he could still make it, he is a Jalonen guy.

 

[BB88]

I've been under the impression that Laine is looking for a short term deal, so he can sign with Florida eventually. Or is this just some Tappara fans propaganda?

The guy is rich. This is the only time during his career when Tampere is hosting this tournament so it could mean even more for him than best on best Olympics. It's possible. If there is even a small injury he won't come because it's pretty close already.

Another thing on this could be that he had a short season because he was injured for quite some time and maybe he wants to extend his season a bit. It seems like he is having fun out there playing now so it seems to me like he could be motivated to continue.

Laine is rich but he’s never gotten paid.
He’s taken shortterm deals, you are kidding yourself if you think Laine isn’t setting up himself to get paid.

We are looking at 8M per season atleast no matter the term he’s after, he’s not risking that.

For Florida, Florida has zero intrest in Laine.
They are signing Hubs this year to extension which will kill the Laine to Florida dream completely.
It’s only Finnish/Tappara fans who think there’s a chance.

So that shouldn’t really weigh much on Laines contract talks

 

[Mestaruus]

Laine is rich but he’s never gotten paid.
He’s taken shortterm deals, you are kidding yourself if you think Laine isn’t setting up himself to get paid.

We are looking at 8M per season atleast no matter the term he’s after, he’s not risking that.

For Florida, Florida has zero intrest in Laine.
They are signing Hubs this year to extension which will kill the Laine to Florida dream completely.
It’s only Finnish/Tappara fans who think there’s a chance.

So that shouldn’t really weigh much on Laines contract talks

Well we can probably stop speculating on Laine because he has an injury. Even if it's a small injury, it might be too many factors against him joining the team.

I'll speculate on one thing though. If Laine wasn't injured I think that he could risk that. There's no big risk for a guy who is multimillionaire already. It's not just any tournament especially for those Tampere guys.

If he joined the tournament and got injured in it, that money difference wouldn't kill him, especially if it's a short term deal. Might be that he wouldn't get injured at all during that tournament. Maybe he could even improve his contract situation if he would play well in that tournament. The upcoming WHC will be played on small ice against many teams with a good amount of NHL players, so it's good info for the NHL teams interested of him and for their scouts, at least better than in the recent years.

 

[BB88]

Well we can probably stop speculating on Laine because he has an injury. Even if it's a small injury, it might be too many factors against him joining the team.

I'll speculate on one thing though. If Laine wasn't injured I think that he could risk that. There's no big risk for a guy who is multimillionaire already. It's not just any tournament especially for those Tampere guys.

If he joined the tournament and got injured in it, that money difference wouldn't kill him, especially if it's a short term deal. Might be that he wouldn't get injured at all during that tournament. Maybe he could even improve his contract situation if he would play well in that tournament. The upcoming WHC will be played on small ice against many teams with a good amount of NHL players, so it's good info for the NHL teams interested of him and for their scouts, at least better than in the recent years.

Remember last offseason?

People were thinking is Laine worth his Q offer, add another injury+ another prove it deal and Laine could be looking at missing out on big time money. He’d be under extreme pressure next year and injury could/ would ruin his offseason.
Just way way too risky.

We hear every year players saying no because they don’t have a contract.
When you are talking about 30-60 million on next contract you don’t risk it, you take it

 

[Mestaruus]

I want to talk about Ruotsalainen. I'm not pointing fingers on anyone but I got the impression that some people here think that he is locked to be in the final team and that it would be a sure bet that he would feature as one of the top-12 forwards in Jalonen's team. I want to challenge that idea and I think that he's close to same level as players like Innala, Rajala, Ojamäki and Petrus Palmu.

I didn't watch any of his AHL games lately, so I'm just basing my opinion on watching stats. His stats are good but AHL is not much different than Liiga. He was never able to secure his NHL spot in a weak NHL team. That's not something to be proud of. Any time when the competition got tougher when he got to play in the NHL or with team Finland his numbers dropped. He's no more Jalonen familiar than Rajala, Ojamäki or Innala.

Ruotsalainen - 18+32 = 50 points - 52 games - +/- -7 - AHL
Rajala - 22+26 = 48 points - 51 games - +/- 18 - NLA
Ojamäki - 29+14 = 43 points - 48 games - +/- -3 - KHL
Innala - 18+30 = 48 points - 54 games - +/- +13 - Liiga
Palmu - 26+33 = 59 points - 59 games - +/- +27 - Liiga
H. Pesonen - 21+23 = 44 points - 50 games - +/- -12 - NLA

Based on these stats Ojamäki is the most impressive one by far but the problem with him is that he simply cannot score the same way with team Finland as he does with his club teams.

Maccelli isn't guaranteed to be in the camp but if he wanted to join let's compare his AHL stats to Ruotsalainen because it's the same league, AHL. Would you take Maccelli over Ruotsalainen?

Maccelli - 14+41 = 55 points - 42 games - +/- -3

We got only a small amount of slots and personally I'd avoid getting too many mickey mouse sized players. Many of the players I just mentioned are smallish.

MaG-Manninen-Hartikainen
X-X-X
Armia-Filppula-M.Aaltonen
Mäenalanen-Björninen-Anttila

For me the bolded players are locked and M.Aaltonen is almost locked as well. So there are 3 slots left the way I see it unless something in the upcoming practice matches change that. Also some more players might be coming like Kuokkanen and Donskoi and maybe few more after NHL playoff round 1. Somehow we would have to squeeze in Ruotsalainen in that while he isn't above those players I listed at all in my opinion. He perhaps deserves a camp invite but he would have to show that he is better than the rest of them in the EHT Sweden tournament. That's 3 games, which is not many and I don't think that he can arrive before that.

 

[Mestaruus]

Remember last offseason?

People were thinking is Laine worth his Q offer, add another injury+ another prove it deal and Laine could be looking at missing out on big time money. He’d be under extreme pressure next year and injury could/ would ruin his offseason.
Just way way too risky.

We hear every year players saying no because they don’t have a contract.
When you are talking about 30-60 million on next contract you don’t risk it, you take it

I must admit that he's on a good spot right now, because he's simply playing well and joining Team Finland now would involve more risk for couple of reasons mentioned in my previous post regarding this topic. His agent would probably try to convince him not to come. I personally think that he'd probably want to come playing in his home town. Unfortunately some kind of injury has happened now which I was afraid of so we can forget about Laine. I gave up all hope at least.

 

[FiLe]

I want to talk about Ruotsalainen. I'm not pointing fingers on anyone but I got the impression that some people here think that he is locked to be in the final team and that it would be a sure bet that he would feature as one of the top-12 forwards in Jalonen's team. I want to challenge that idea and I think that he's close to same level as players like Innala, Rajala, Ojamäki and Petrus Palmu.

What gives Ruotsalainen an advantage is that he was a member of last year's silver team, and a rather effective part of it. In other words, he's now one of Jalonen's guys. It won't give him an advantage over an established NHL option but it might make him the preferred option over those euro names you mention, especially if there's a hole in the top-six with no one else placing a strong claim to it. But if we hear a positive signal from, say, Donskoi, then Ruotsalainen's stock would fall. His middling season aside, Donskoi would still be an upgrade over any of those other names mentioned.

Another challenger could be Maccelli, but it's still anybody's guess what kind of interest Jalonen really has in him. Not someone who's earned himself a direct spot, I'd say, but we'll see if he'll feature in that final EHT team. That's probably the minimum stage we can also expect Ruotsalainen to make, given his last year's heroics.

For me the bolded players are locked and M.Aaltonen is almost locked as well.

Aaltonen will be in the final team. He's the designated 2C without a top shelf NHL center joining the squad, and it's looking highly likely that in order to get one, we'll have to wait and see if any are available after the first round. Though there are still enough games left for either Dallas or Nashville to miss narrowly... But even in that case, Aaltonen's the highest profile euro guy we have for a middle-six role - be it center or winger. The minimum level we can expect of him is that he'll be among the first 12 forwards registered as the tournament begins - with pressbox being an option if there're one or two high profile late additions.

 

[Mestaruus]

What gives Ruotsalainen an advantage is that he was a member of last year's silver team, and a rather effective part of it. In other words, he's now one of Jalonen's guys. It won't give him an advantage over an established NHL option but it might make him the preferred option over those euro names you mention, especially if there's a hole in the top-six with no one else placing a strong claim to it. But if we hear a positive signal from, say, Donskoi, then Ruotsalainen's stock would fall. His middling season aside, Donskoi would still be an upgrade over any of those other names mentioned.

Another challenger could be Maccelli, but it's still anybody's guess what kind of interest Jalonen really has in him. Not someone who's earned himself a direct spot, I'd say, but we'll see if he'll feature in that final EHT team. That's probably the minimum stage we can also expect Ruotsalainen to make, given his last year's heroics.

Innala has been part of Jalonen's team as well. Same with Rajala, H.Pesonen and Ojamäki. These all are his "familiars". I don't see that Ruotsalainen has much on them with that, considering that Ruotsalainen hasn't been particularly productive offensively when the competition gets tougher in NHL or with team Finland.

Heroics you say. My view on it is that if we had some better player instead of him playing in the final, it could've helped Finland beat Canada on regular time already. He has on and off games on the highest level and the final was one of those off games. That's the reason why Buffalo didn't keep him with the NHL squad and sent him to the AHL instead.

Considering that Ruotsalainen has only 3 games in EHT Sweden to convince Jalonen before the tournament, the time is very critical for him. Now if some of Innala, Rajala and Ojamäki all play well in most of the 8 practice matches that they may play, it will be really difficult for Ruotsalainen to knock them down in the hierarchy of top-12 forwards who would dress for the games. I see it more likely that Ruotsalainen will be a selection for the team but not playing many games.

Yeah M.Aaltonen is most likely part of the top-12. Center or wing, he's fine on both. He didn't show anything in Denmark games, partly because Ojamäki is not productive in the national team. I'd love to see M.Aaltonen have different linemate than Ojamäki for the Norway games. I still want to see a bit more from M.Aaltonen in terms of offensive production, but he's closest one to be locked out of the obvious locked players.

 

[FiLe]

Innala has been part of Jalonen's team as well. Same with Rajala, H.Pesonen and Ojamäki. These all are his "familiars".

And the only one of these who's got a better NT record than Ruotsalainen is Pesonen. Rajala is around even.

Heroics you say. My view on it is that if we had some better player instead of him playing in the final, it could've helped Finland beat Canada on regular time already. He has on and off games on the highest level and the final was one of those off games.

Are we going to blame our supposed heavy hitters of not doing enough only when they lose the final? As I recall, the last two finals they've won have been decided by grinders. Yet we seem to have no issues welcoming back the top-six guys who earned nothing but binoculars in those games.

In the end, I don't personally really care if Ruotsalainen makes it or not, but my read is that he's got better than average chances of making it in the absence of established NHLers. And as I said, unless we get something after the first round, only such option presently is Donskoi. Of course, there's also a not-nonexistent chance that somebody outplays him in the camp, or even does so well that Jalonen doesn't see much need to extend him an invite at all. Which would by no means be a bad thing.

Yeah M.Aaltonen is most likely part of the top-12. Center or wing, he's fine on both. He didn't show anything in Denmark games, partly because Ojamäki is not productive in the national team. I'd love to see M.Aaltonen have different linemate than Ojamäki for the Norway games. I still want to see a bit more from M.Aaltonen in terms of offensive production, but he's closest one to be locked out of the obvious locked players.

Out of curiosity, why do you see the need to single out Aaltonen with an initial? Are there other Aaltonens in the team, or possibly joining? I'm pretty sure JMA is done, at least.