Hintz’s reach and powerful skating make it relatively easy for him to find open space on the ice when playing in Jr.A. These two attributes will be more closely matched at the next level, that’s when he’s going to be truly measured.He seems to have appeared out of nowhere (he wasn't on Finland's Ivan Hlinka roster, but has outperformed everyone on it in Jr A play). I'd very much like to hear a scouting report on him (Strengths/weaknesses etc).
Hintz was close to making the Hlinka roster after the summer camp, but ended up being only an injury reserve. He was with the U18 national team in November, but played wing instead of his more usual position which is centre. I guess you could say he hasn’t found his role in international circles yet.
Without the injury history he would be a certain draft pick I think, but now I’m not quite 100% sure. A lot depends on the rest of the season and how many games he gets in.Any info on Eetu Sopanen(2014 draft)?
Is he even NHL-prospect at this point?
Who are the best players of the bunch? Do they have NHL potential? I know they are young but it would be nice to know
My top-5 for 2016 would be something like this at the moment:
1. W - Patrik Laine (Tappara)
2. W - Jesse Puljujärvi (Kärpät)
3. D - Olli Juolevi (Jokerit)
4. D - Markus Niemeläinen (Tappara)
5. C - Otto Mäkinen (Tappara)
Patrik Laine is a player you need to go see if you haven’t seen him yet. He’s almost like an Ovechkin impersonator out there on the ice, IMO the most entertaining prospect in Finland at the moment.
Pretty good size, skill and skating, has some physical presence as well. Not in my top-10 Finns for 2015 at the moment, but with good development could end up be there next season.Tormentor or anybody else?
What kind of player Topi Piipponen (1997, 6'0) is? He is playing in U18 league as an 16-yrs old and he's 3rd in the league scoring with 20+22=42 points in 27 games. Seems like he is doing almost everything by himself as his best teammate has 27 points in 26 games.
All-around a pretty good defenseman, but size is a bit of a concern at this point. He’s maybe 5’10’’ tall or a tad more, and while he’s a competent skater he doesn’t have Vatanen-esque wheels.Didn't see the games (my own military service) but Reunanen seems to be a very good prospect (5 points in 3 games).
See what U16 coach Jussi Ahokas talked about before the Sweden games.With an average height of 183cm, this u16 team is probably taller than some u20 teams that Finland has iced in the past. What's more impressive is the fact that they swept the series without the three best 1998-born players.
Some of the measurements on that line-up might not be up-to-date, for example Otto Koivula is for sure taller than 183cm.
Still very early, but Juuso Välimäki, Urho Vaakanainen and Olli Kaskinen might be the top 2017 eligible D’s at the moment.Felixson and Niemeläinen look like interesting prospects in addition to Vaakanainen and Juolevi from the 98 and 99 d-man group.
At least Alexander Nylander wasn’t there.Was Sweden playing with best players?
Interesting story, comes from a remote small village in eastern central-Finland and needs to travel quite a long ways to even play for a half decent lower division team. Has pretty good skill level, but as of now he’s not very tall. Most of the more skilled guys in this Finnish 99-born age group are on the smaller side, hard to see that many serious NHL prospects at this point, hopefully some of them grow.My mistake, I assumed he was Finnish, how about Jussi Vikholm? http://www.legacyglobalsports.com/stats/team_instance/388262?subseason=102623&tab=team_instance_player_stats&tool=729324