Is there any common history for Jalonen and Lehkonen? If he makes it back before the playoffs start and Colorado gets eliminated in the first, maybe second round, would there be a place and a role for Lehkonen on the team? He has a contract, there is no problem here. From my point of view, he is one of the few players that would be worth waiting for Jalonen.
Team Finland WC 2023
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JabbaJabba
Registered User
I have this weird feeling that his dad Ismo Lehkonen would tell him not to go to WHC. I'm not sure why I feel that way, but I do. Perhaps it's because his dad Ismo Lehkonen is known to be a hardcore NHL guy. He commentates NHL games for Finnish TV with good knowledge in my opinion. I don't however see it very realistic that Colorado will drop out fast. Also the recovery from the surgery he has right now might be too much to join for WHC, even if he plays in the NHL playoffs. Artturi Lehkonen to join is a far-fetched thought now.
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
Any word on the squad for Slovak tournament yet?
That should give us some insights.
Can someone kindly post it up once it's known?
That should give us some insights.
Can someone kindly post it up once it's known?
Many weeks ago it was said that the first training camp starts at 10th of April. I don't know if this was the date for the first game or what or that they would announce the first players on that date. We'll surely hear something soon.
On another topic, it sucks that Florida got a win last night of one of their biggest wild card rivals which is Buffalo. It would be ideal that both Florida and Pittsburgh won't take both of the wild card spots in East if we're hoping to make our WHC team as strong as possible as early as possible. New York Islanders is currently holding the second wild card spot and they are tied in points with Pittsburgh, so we should hope that Islanders keep winning games now.
On the other hand Jokiharju should be available if he wants to join and I'm guessing that he will based on his willingness on previous years.
Our first camp roster:
Goaltenders:
Lassi Lehtinen
Jussi Olkinuora
Defence:
Niklas Friman
Nikolas Matinpalo
Atte Ohtamaa
Arttu Pelli
Ville Pokka
Valtteri Pulli
Juuso Riikola
Vili Saarijärvi
Antti Tuomisto
Forwards:
Juhamatti Aaltonen
Marko Anttila
Hannes Björninen
Markus Hännikäinen
Janne Kuokkanen
Heikki Liedes
Eetu Liukas
Julius Mattila
Ahti Oksanen
Patrik Puistola
Mikael Ruohomaa
Arttu Ruotsalainen
Antti Suomela
Jerry Turkulainen
Markus Granlund and Harri Pesonen will join later. I can see plenty of these guys making it to the final roster.
Goaltenders:
Lassi Lehtinen
Jussi Olkinuora
Defence:
Niklas Friman
Nikolas Matinpalo
Atte Ohtamaa
Arttu Pelli
Ville Pokka
Valtteri Pulli
Juuso Riikola
Vili Saarijärvi
Antti Tuomisto
Forwards:
Juhamatti Aaltonen
Marko Anttila
Hannes Björninen
Markus Hännikäinen
Janne Kuokkanen
Heikki Liedes
Eetu Liukas
Julius Mattila
Ahti Oksanen
Patrik Puistola
Mikael Ruohomaa
Arttu Ruotsalainen
Antti Suomela
Jerry Turkulainen
Markus Granlund and Harri Pesonen will join later. I can see plenty of these guys making it to the final roster.
SantosHalper
Get off my lawn
Yup.
X1 - X2 - X3
Ma.Granlund - Suomela - X4
Pesonen - X5 - Ruotsalainen
Kuokkanen - Björninen - Anttila
X6, Oksanen
X7 - X8
X9 - X10
Friman - X11
Ohtamaa - Pokka
X12
Olkinuora
Lehtinen
X1 & X3 & X4= Laine, Mi.Granlund, Lundell, Luostarinen, Armia, Kapanen, Maccelli, Pärssinen, Hartikainen, Innala, Rajala, Kossila, Jm.Aaltonen
X2= Barkov, Mi.Granlund, Lundell, Pärssinen, Kossila
X5= Lundell, Luostarinen, Pärssinen, Kossila, Lehterä, Lammikko Ruohomaa, Leino
X6= Sallinen, Lammikko Ruohomaa, Leino, Pakarinen
X7= Lehtonen
X8= Jokiharju, Vatanen
X9= Välimäki, Määttä
X10= Vatanen, Kemiläinen, Saarijärvi
X11= Kemiläinen, Saarijärvi, Välimäki, Määttä
X12= Saros, Husso, Lankinen, Säteri
According to YLE Barkov could possibly come. I haven't seen him for a long time playing in the Finnish NT. When did he play the last time at a WHC?
JabbaJabba
Registered User
Regardless of who makes the playoffs as a wild card *Florida, Pittsburgh etc, there is no way in hell that jalonen and lehtinen dont wait for first round dropouts considering the amount of potential quality Finnish players that will be available. The key fact is that the playoffs start April 17 this year while the Skoda cup commences May 12. Lots of time to get at least 3-4 first round exits.
I pretty much agree, because I made a very similar line up myself before I read your post.
Unlike YLE's Tommi Seppälä said, I think that Kapanen will be coming. So a bad scenario for us is if Florida and Pittsburgh takes both of the wild card spots and Islanders would not make it to the playoffs. Let's assume that Islanders knocks out one of those teams though.
Laine-Barkov-Lundell
MaG-Suomela-Kapanen
Pesonen-Luostarinen-Kuokkanen
Anttila-Björninen-Armia
Jokiharju-Välimäki
Määttä-Saarijärvi
Ristolainen-Riikola/Friman
Ohtamaa-Pokka
With little bit of optimism we could have the above and still be adding more NHL players later from 1st or 2nd playoff round. Not to forget more players from Switzerland, Liiga and Sweden should be coming.
With Pittsburgh out of the playoffs and Florida in:
Laine-MiG-MaG
Armia-Suomela-Kapanen
Pesonen-X-Kuokkanen
Anttila-Björninen-Ruotsalainen
In this scenario we'd definitely need one or two more centers from some playoffs (and before someone says it, I don't want to do any Laine as a center experiments in the WHC tournament lol). I didn't want to put Granny to the middle, because he's better as a winger or at least we'd get more out of him if he would play as a winger, but if Granny wouldn't be a center, then that would leave a hole to our center department so got to unite the brothers and do Laine-MiG-MaG.
That's true. Is the schedule of NHL ahead compared to last year? The reason for that could've been some kind of precaution for Covid moving games, but we know now that it's not an issue anymore.
If I'm not mistaken the matchups will most likely be (I will bold some potential WHC players who have contracts for next season, meaning we can get them for WHC. Questionable injury cases underlined):
East:
#1 Boston ------------------------------------------ #8 Florida/NYI/Pitt (Granny, Lundy, Barky, Luost...y?)
#2 Carolina (Aho, TT, Kotkaniemi, Pulju, Raanta) -- #7 Florida/NYI/Pitt (Granny, Lundy, Barky, Luost...y?)
#3 Rangers (Kakko, Mikkola) ---------------------- #4 New Jersey (Haula)
#3 Toronto ----------------------------------------- #4 Tampa
West (top seed battles are tighter here but Vegas & Colorado will most likely be #1 & #2, because they have 1 game less played):
#1 Vegas (Manninen) --------------------------------------------- #8 Winnipeg/Calgary/Nashville (Mäenalanen, Saros, Pärssinen)
#2 Colorado (Rantanen, Lehkonen) ------------------------------ #7 Seattle (Tolvanen)
#3/#4 Dallas (Hintz, Heiskanen, Lindell, Hakanpää, Kiviranta) -- #3/#4 Minnesota
#3/#4 Edmonton ------------------------------------------------- #3/#4 Los Angeles Kings (Kupari=RFA)
I know that Manninen isn't playing for Vegas and instead he's playing in the AHL. I checked and his AHL team is not making the playoffs. Jalonen would surely take his guy. However I will remind that Manninen doesn't have a contract for next season.
Tolvanen seems like a safe bet to be in the WHC team if Jalonen wants to take him & Tolvanen wants to come, because Colorado will beat Seattle.
SantosHalper
Get off my lawn
That's a good and realistic roster too but the lines are way off. No way in hell Ruotsalainen plays in the 4th line.
MaG - MiG - Laine
Pesonen - Suomela - Kapanen
- Pesonen is similar player as Armia but the handness fits better
Kuokkanen - Ruohomaa/Lammikko - Ruotsalainen
- in EHT Kuokkanen played on the left wing and Ruotsalainen played on the right wing. Ruohomaa and Lammikko are the most likeliest center options in this scenario. Ruotsalainen is more suitable than Armia and Pesonen in this line, since Ruotsalainen brings more skill which this line needs.
Armia - Björninen - Anttila
- very Jalonen-esq 4th line.
Well as a Red Wings fan, i kinda hope this scenario. At least 15th overall pick bay-bay!
That's a good and realistic roster too but the lines are way off. No way in hell Ruotsalainen plays in the 4th line.
MaG - MiG - Laine
Pesonen - Suomela - Kapanen
- Pesonen is similar player as Armia but the handness fits better
Kuokkanen - Ruohomaa/Lammikko - Ruotsalainen
- in EHT Kuokkanen played on the left wing and Ruotsalainen played on the right wing. Ruohomaa and Lammikko are the most likeliest center options in this scenario. Ruotsalainen is more suitable than Armia and Pesonen in this line, since Ruotsalainen brings more skill which this line needs.
Armia - Björninen - Anttila
- very Jalonen-esq 4th line.
Well as a Red Wings fan, i kinda hope this scenario. At least 15th overall pick bay-bay!
You're probably right about the handedness as I just quickly put the players together without thinking right or left wings that much. It's completely fine to swap the wingers inside the lines. About Ruotsalainen I did have second thoughts as well. I could've moved him out and just inserted anything there really. Like Pakarinen from HIFK, but he probably won't make it into the final team. At least he's another Jalonen familiar who might be on the camp soon. I'd also love Lammikko to be the 3rd center, although he's more of #4 center to me, but in Jalonen's system, it's fine. I'd also insert Tolvanen to my lines now after realizing that Colorado might be Seattle's first round opponent. I really hope that we get stacked enough team to be able to put Armia to the 4th line. He's so good at stealing pucks and doing SHG goals. I think he did another one of those last night.
In the end it might be too early to think about the lines yet as the team is most likely going to change big time, because NHL seems to be ahead in schedule this season compared to the last one if I'm not mistaken, but it's still fun to put some lines together.
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By the way for which team does play Anttila nickname "Mörkö" in Finland? Does he play for the title of the Finnish championship or is his team eliminated?
JabbaJabba
Registered User
Plays for Kärpät. They got eliminated already which was a shock 'cos they have quite big budget.
swissdude
Registered User
- May 18, 2019
- 482
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based on this seasons performance I'd prefer almost any NL forward to Kuokkanen. Don't get me wrong I think Kuokkanen has high potential and is a fine hockey player but I think guys like rajala, sallinen, ruotsalainen, filppula, hartikainen, lammikko would be more useful even if center or "wrong" side and outperformed him this season, just my opinion
From national team perspective I think he's better with less games played in the club team, so he's fresher.
You are probably referring to my post about Kuokkanen and I suggested him based on old merits mostly. His stats seem to be all right this season in Switzerland and he might be more well rounded when we consider two way play compared to Ruotsalainen, so I thought that he might be an all right guy to put into the line up for now, until better guys show up. I also like the fact that Kuokkanen is bigger than Ruotsalainen.
I'd love to have this trio of Filppula, Hartikainen and Lammikko in the team. Also Sallinen for 4th line is an option for sure and we know how much Jalonen loves him. Filppula would be amazing if he hasn't quit his national team career yet. We still don't know if he quit. As for the defenders go Vatanen and Lehtonen would be welcomed as well.
swissdude
Registered User
- May 18, 2019
- 482
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I didn't expect Vatanen to come back so strong after his inury but him, Hartikainen and Filppula certainly are a big factor why geneva eliminated the reigning champion in the semis tonight. But you guys have such a deep pool of players to chose from I fully expect suomi as a contender as always despite who will make the team or depending on who's available from the NHL
SantosHalper
Get off my lawn
You have to think an exact role for every player, that's how Jalonen thinks and builds the team. Second thing what you have to consider is how much Jalonen values the EHT games. For the European league players who has zero EHT games during the season, has no chance to get in the WHC team.
Kuokkanen has played 5 EHT games this year and he played 1 game in the 2nd line and 4 games in the 4th line. I think it's safe to assume that Jalonen believes that Kuokkanen is a candidate for the 4th line and PK role. So Kuokkanen is not fighting from the same spots as Rajala, Ruotsalainen, Filppula and Hartikainen. He is fighting for a spot against Sallinen and Lammikko, but both them are more familiar to Jalonen therefore they have the edge. But Jalonen does like to have extra centers in the roster even if Jalonen selects Sallinen and Lammikko, Kuokkanen will still have a shot making in the team. Allthough Kuokkanen played all of his EHT games as a winger, so Jalonen might see him as a winger. Was he center or winger in NL this year?
swissdude
Registered User
- May 18, 2019
- 482
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he has been a healthy scratch more often than not late season and if he played then mostly as winger, lammikko and sallinen played center in their respecive teams
SantosHalper
Get off my lawn
He is a winger then like he was in EHT also, so the role what Kuokkanen is fighting for is the 4th line winger and 2nd PK unit guy. Not many challengers for that role at the moment, Oksanen, Liukas, Liedes and Mattila. Armia, Sallinen, Pakarinen and perhaps Savinainen, Tikka and Jääskä, who are still playing could drop Kuokkanen from the team.
Lammikko was 4th line center in 2016 WJC and in 2019 WHC tournaments, in 2022 WHC tournament he was 3rd line center. Sallinen was a 3rd line center in the 2019 WHC tournament and a 2nd line winger in the 2022 tournament. Both them have a stronger chance than Kuokkanen to get selected in to team, based on familiarity, versatility and ability to play in bigger role.
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