The significance of our goalies is downplayed largely because goalies are so separate from the rest of the team. You can stick Kiprusoff between the pipes and the forwards will still look mediocre, but having a developed Pitkänen on the ice supports them - even more so in people's minds. Make no mistake, the system isn't overrated, it's accomplishing more than any position at any given time in Finnish history. A+ in every respect, led by the best prospect imaginable. The only setback is the first two real hopes, Noronen and Ahonen, underachieving.
In the defense, Pitkänen's value is now at an all-time high (bust probability dimished by progress but still as many years ahead as possible), as high as Finland can afford to hope once a generation. If Väänänen hasn't yet convinced someone that he's a legit first-pairing guy, he will very soon. Timonen, Lydman & Co still have some years left in them. The problem is, our prospect depth is actually poor, it looked downright horrible before this draft. Now we could hope for an expected value of one long NHL career out of Laakso and Lepistö and another one out of the rest (Korhonen, Mielonen, Leinonen, Korpikari...). Fortunately the national team will make do with only about two new decent defensemen for years to come.
In the offense we can see the main problem, which is fortunately the past: The '75-thru-82-born age groups were horrible. Out of the eight age groups, the forward to make the second best career will be one of Kallio, N Kapanen, Hagman, Miettinen or Rita, which is just weak. These guys are 22-30 years old and should be carrying the national team right now. Because of that, the fading of the '70-74-born stars coincides with the younger guys becoming useful. Until now the quality was stable instead of progressing, from now on it will be stable instead of regressing. In the next decade we can hope to improve again. The age groups past the superstars, from '85 on, aren't that impressive but at least they're something different from the players of the lost generation - who, ironically, made incredibly and optimally successful U18 teams.
Truth be told, T Ruutu, M Koivu, Bergenheim, Tukonen, Nokelainen etc. aren't very special either, they only offer a solid contribution. I'm placing my hopes on the likes of J Jokinen and Filppula (who are sadly the only players of that type) who may not be the greatest of prospects but who just ooze offense while still playing solid. From the scoring lines of the NHL or not, I feel they will be valuable to the national team.
It's only up to Russia and USA if we can challenge the two. Right now they're progressing the fastest of all and we can't possibly respond to that. Sweden isn't really up for a catastrophe but may still be likely to eventually fall below us than not. Slovakia isn't producing players in vast quantities, but some balance alone could help them a lot, and they're a force to be reckoned with. Sadly, just around the age of the Finnish superstar juniors it seemed that the Czechs could be challenged, but then the tables turned and players all the way to FrolÃk and beyond are taking them uncomfortably far.
There's not much more to help wrap it up, the situation up front sums things up the best. Of course the subject can inspire discussion down to very small detail.
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