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Team Finland WC 2023

Lartsaman said:
No. None of them will join. NHL-players tend to say no to this tournament, especially if they had to represent Finland.
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Not really a Finland thing. Every country gets declines. Canada just got a decline from a junior player, all the Calgary Swedes said no, no Hertl or Vrana for Czechia etc.

Anyway i think there's a decent chance we get some guys from Florida/Dallas. But even if nobody comes from 1st round, i still don't think it will be only Kapanen and Määttä. Granny and Armia likely join soon and then there's Pärssinen who i think deserves a spot. But who knows with guys like him or Luostarinen, since Jukka likes to go with his guys even if they're less skilled, and well we shouldn't really question him now should we.

So even if we don't get anyone from 1st round it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe something like this.

Mi Granlund - Pärssinen - Kapanen
Ma Granlund - Manninen - Hartikainen
Oksanen - Suomela - Armia
Pesonen - Björninen - Anttila
Ruotsalainen/Kuokkanen

Määttä - Lehtonen
Välimäki - Jokiharju
Lindbohm - Vatanen
Ohtamaa - Pokka

Lankinen/Säteri/Olkinuora

Välimäki and Jokiharju are actually intresting names. I think atleast Välimäki said he'd want to come but no word on Jokiharju. Both Tampere boys too.
 
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Kibe said:
Not really a Finland thing. Every country gets declines. Canada just got a decline from a junior player, all the Calgary Swedes said no, no Hertl or Vrana for Czechia etc.

Anyway i think there's a decent chance we get some guys from Florida/Dallas. But even if nobody comes from 1st round, i still don't think it will be only Kapanen and Määttä. Granny and Armia likely join soon and then there's Pärssinen who i think deserves a spot. But who knows with guys like him or Luostarinen, since Jukka likes to go with his guys even if they're less skilled, and well we shouldn't really question him now should we.

So even if we don't get anyone from 1st round it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe something like this.

Mi Granlund - Pärssinen - Kapanen
Ma Granlund - Manninen - Hartikainen
Oksanen - Suomela - Armia
Pesonen - Björninen - Anttila
Ruotsalainen/Kuokkanen

Määttä - Lehtonen
Välimäki - Jokiharju
Lindbohm - Vatanen
Ohtamaa - Pokka

Lankinen/Säteri/Olkinuora

Välimäki and Jokiharju are actually intresting names. I think atleast Välimäki said he'd want to come but no word on Jokiharju. Both Tampere boys too.
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Isn't Jokiharju injured?
 
It would be great to hear about few new NHL names when the next week starts, else it would be a little bit worrying if we haven't heard about anything of these names by then. Sometimes the exit interviews and teams' own doctor checks/evaluations take some time and there's no hurry for some of these players to go through that, so maybe that's what's delaying the announcements of them joining. Hopefully it's about that right now. I don't think that Jalonen & Lehtinen are pushing for some faster procedures either as they want to see how NHL playoffs first round develops. My feeling is that the deadline for regular season NHL exit players announcements would be on the week that Czech's EHT tournament starts, but like I said it is already worrysome if we don't hear something about these names during next week.

To recap it, these names are still possible:

Mi. Granlund
Välimäki
Pärssinen
Armia
Lankinen

The ones skipping some games because of injuries when the season ended:

Laine - it was pretty much confirmed that the injury isn't big.
Jokiharju - it's unknown to me what kind of injury he has, big or small.

I still wouldn't completely count out Maccelli either. He doesn't have a contract but it's proven that Jalonen liked him already when he was playing in Finland, so maybe he gets his contract sorted out in time or maybe he comes without a contract? Lammikko was the guy that did such thing not too long ago.

Of course the real jackpots in the horizon are in the Dallas-Minnesota (1-2) and Boston-Florida (2-1) series. Let's not forget Tolvanen either, whose team Seattle is facing Colorado (1-1). Not the easiest task in the world for Seattle to over come. If NYI takes next game from Carolina, then that's 2-2 and a BO3 decides, so it's not impossible either.
 
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Arizona : Maccelli, Välimäki
Buffalo : Jokiharju
Columbus : Laine
Detroit : Määttä
Henderson : Manninen
Montreal/Laval : Ylönen
Montreal : Armia
Nashville : Lankinen
Pittsburgh : MiGranlund
St.Louis : Kapanen


hoping for from Florida : Barkov, Luostarinen, Lundell
hoping from NJD : Haula

without the above


Maccelli-Granlund-Laine
Kapanen-Manninen-Hartikainen
Pesonen-Lammikko-Armia
Sallinen-Björninen-Anttila
Ylönen


Välimäki-Lehtonen
Määttä-Jokiharju
Friman-Pokka
Ohtamaa

Lankinen
????
 
Laine for the Finland Lions! ... way to go for hunger after a new gold.

Total, total respect to him joining the Finland team.

Forever Finland - Finland Forever.

Thank you.


 
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Razamanaz said:
Laine for the Finland Lions! ... way to go for hunger after a new gold.

Total, total respect to him joining the Finland team.

Forever Finland - Finland Forever.

Thank you.


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Laine and Husqvarna's return on the same day. Oh my :).

David OSullivan said:
Yessssssss!!!!!!!!

Laine Suomela Kapanen
Ma. Granlund Manninen Hartikainen

That's already great for WC.

Come on for more. Really hoping Lankinen joins. He s been really good this season.
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Yes. With this top-6 Finland 0-2 Denmark type of results would be pretty hard to achieve and we must assume it will only get better. Now it's easier to get Barkov as well with his mate Laine in. All of the Florida boys have to join as well since their captain is joining. Lundell will surely have to go to wing if this overload of centers situation happens. Filppula might be an option as well. I'm pretty sure that Jalonen used him as well as a winger few times last season. I'd take that as well.
 
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The second J.Jalonen era teams seem to be strong even without NHL stars...However, talented and flashy player like Laine does make watching games more entertaining.
 
My guess is that MiG joins as well, but going pessimistic and imagining a line up without Granny. I noticed that Manninen has played in the wing in the past. I didn't know about that before checking eliteprospects, so I'd go with this:

Lundell-Barkov-Laine
Manninen-Suomela-Hartikainen
Tolvanen-Luostarinen-Kapanen
Anttila-Björninen-Filppula

If Hintz joins as well, then who to kick out lol. Hintz would of course be in the wing of the top line with Laine and Barkov. I really don't want to remove Suomela. I want to see him getting a real chance in the WHC tournament.
 
Mestaruus said:
My guess is that MiG joins as well, but going pessimistic and imagining a line up without Granny. I noticed that Manninen has played in the wing in the past. I didn't know about that before checking eliteprospects, so I'd go with this:

Lundell-Barkov-Laine
Manninen-Suomela-Hartikainen
Tolvanen-Luostarinen-Kapanen
Anttila-Björninen-Filppula
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FYI, Luostarinen is presently playing on Florida's top line as Barkov's wing. So, if the Cats go down, you can add Laine and you have a line.
 
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FiLe said:
FYI, Luostarinen is presently playing on Florida's top line as Barkov's wing. So, if the Cats go down, you can add Laine and you have a line.
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Sure that would do as well. I definitely want to include Luostarinen. We might have plenty of guys who are close to pure center types so it feels like some kind of a positive problem. Barkov would probably do both PK (with Luostarinen) and PP in this one. Filppula + Lundell could be a 3rd pair if ever needed, unless Filppula does that with Björninen instead of Björninen+Mörkö. Who ever is with Björninen is obviously the top PK pair.

Luostarinen-Barkov-Laine
Hartikainen-Manninen-Tolvanen
Lundell-Suomela-Kapanen
Anttila-Björninen-Filppula
 
Mestaruus said:
Luostarinen-Barkov-Laine
Hartikainen-Manninen-Tolvanen
Lundell-Suomela-Kapanen
Anttila-Björninen-Filppula
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And I might add that even this isn't necessarily the best case scenario. If you take a gander to the west, you might notice that Minnesota is giving Dallas some real hard time. There's probably still some hockey left in that series, but the Wild advances, I'd say it's quite likely that Hintz would join. We know he wanted to last year, but couldn't due to an injury.

In that scenario, our top-three centers would probably be Barkov-Hintz-Manninen. Sorry Suomela.
 
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Laine makes me even more excited to watch the games. I mean I was excited already because seeing Määttä on a Leijonat jersey but is amazing that Laine is coming to play in front of the home crowd. Now just waiting if Mikael Granlund is coming.. and Lankinen too. Hopefully we get more good news within a week or so.
 
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FiLe said:
And I might add that even this isn't necessarily the best case scenario. If you take a gander to the west, you might notice that Minnesota is giving Dallas some real hard time. There's probably still some hockey left in that series, but the Wild advances, I'd say it's quite likely that Hintz would join. We know he wanted to last year, but couldn't due to an injury.

In that scenario, our top-three centers would probably be Barkov-Hintz-Manninen. Sorry Suomela.
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Yes I'm well aware. Loosing Pavelski mattered a lot. That fantastic top line of Dallas isn't the same without him. Not to mention Pavelski's leadership skills and how liked guy he is.

If that was to happen with Suomela, it wouldn't be the end of the world. He'd still be a selection to the WHC team and be there playing few games. Jalonen would certainly cycle the roster a bit and we would most likely see a forward injured at some point so that could make some space later for Suomela.
 
I don't see Filppula having any energy to come and play, he's 39 and it's been a long season for him. He's in the finals now and if he wins, he just might want to chill and enjoy the moment. Guys he's age don't recover that fast anymore and if he loses the finals, motivation to play might quite low.
 
FinPanda said:
Laine makes me even more excited to watch the games. I mean I was excited already because seeing Määttä in a Leijonat jersey but is amazing that Laine is coming to play in front of the home crowd. Now just waiting if Mikael Granlund is coming.. and Lankinen too. Hopefully we get more good news within a week or so.
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Why no one is talking about Säteri? He's playing in the finals of Swiss league and the #1 goalie of his own team. He could be our #1 in the tournament as Olkinuora has had an ackward season with the team changes and so on. Can't expect Olkinuora to be the same Olkinuora of last WHC. I'd trust Säteri more than Olkinuora and Lankinen vs Säteri would be close. Säteri was our starter in the Olympic gold tournament.
 
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