Joel Armia - Ässät, SM-liiga

[Tormentor]

A 17-year old Joel Armia has started his SM-liiga career by storm; 5gp 2g+2a=4p. He's eligible in 2011 NHL Draft and is starting to look like a likely first round pick.

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[BusQuets]

Great size he has

 

[R S]

Nice looking player

 

[Hale The Villain]

Sick gold helmets

 

[urho]

Top 15 pick? I've been very impressed by him so far.

 

[bruinsfan46]

Looks like a pretty good prospect for sure. He made the Under-17 WHC all star team with five goals and three assists in five games last year and had two goals and four assists in four games at the Ivan Hlinka this year. I assume he'll continue his strong international career as a member of the Under 20 Finnish team this year in Buffalo?

 

[urho]

I assume he'll continue his strong international career as a member of the Under 20 Finnish team this year in Buffalo?

Hopefully. Team Finland is pretty stacked this year (first time in years) so there are very few "obvious choices". I really hope Armia makes the team.

 

[Granlund2Pulkkinen*]

For Finland people really need to watch out for

Last|First|Position|Team|League|G|A|P|GP|GAA|S%|W|GP
Armia|Joel|Forward|Ässät|SM-Liiga Sr|2|2|4|5
Gibson|Christopher|Goaltender|Chicoutimi||||||1.78|0.941|4|5
Granlund|Markus|Forward|HIFK|SM-Liiga U20|1|2|3|4
Kokkonen|Jesper|Forward|Ilves|SM-Liiga U18|3|2|5|5
Partanen|Mika|Forward|Mississauga|OHL|2|1|3|4
Salminen|Sami|Forward|HIFK|SM-Liiga U20|0|1|1|2
Salomäki|Miikka|Forward|Kärpät|SM-Liiga Sr|1|1|2|5

Can we get more for this list?

EDIT: This is Chris Gibson?

 

[Quethas]

This guy deserves his own topic!

It is just amazing how quickly this guy has developed. One year ago he played in U18, now he plays in SM-liiga. Last spring I was concerned about his skating and didn't believe that he would make it to SM-liiga because of that. He looked slow with juniors. Now he's doing just fine against men!

He has size and skill and he can use both. He hits when he has the chance and his shot is very good for someone at his age (not in the level of Pulkkinen though).

Yesterday he was amazing. The best player on ice for sure! I was impressed by him before he got any points. In the end he got three including great pass and huge goal. It also seemed that Armia is quickly becoming new favorite player for the fans.

If he continues like this, he will be chosen to WJC and after that he might be Finland's next first round pick.

 

[Juzmo]

This.

This.

This.

This.

If he continues like this, he will be chosen to WJC and after that he might be Finland's next first round pick.

If he continues playing like he has for the five first games and continues getting icetime in the 1-2 lines he will be Finland's next first rounder (I would seriously doupt 30 other youngsters would have more interest than Armia at that point after a solid year in SM-liiga from this 17-year old, 6'4 tall attacker with great skills and a right-handed shot), we would only have to worry about how high would he go in the first round.

...and with some more muscle, oh man.

 

[ChadS]

EDIT: This is Chris Gibson?

Yes. He's actually originally from the Espoo Blues organisation(Jäähonka, to be precise) but decided early on to move to NA because of hockey. I guess his dad is possibly American/Canadian?

Apparently he's off to a very solid start with Chicoutimi in the Q.

As of Armia, I expect him to be a serious contender for Pulkkinen in the race of the rookie of the year. He has all the tools to be a great player and that's something very special in Finland these days...

 

[The Saw Is the Law]

I was going to make thread about Armia but you did first!

I believe he will be in U20 WJC team. Huge size, sniper, right, soft hands... Let's hype like mid first rounder and see Armia going in 4th round like Pulkkinen

 

[Juzmo]

I believe he will be in U20 WJC team. Huge size, sniper, right, soft hands... Let's hype like mid first rounder and see Armia going in 4th round like Pulkkinen

I really think the injury Pulkkinen suffored the year just before the draft was the big factor why he fell in it, even though to us Finns the hugeness of the drop was almost pretty funny. It would be just mind-boggling, if he would stay healthy the whole season and continues his good play and just being solid in SM-liiga and A-juniors (knock on wood) and still would fall like crazy. Well anything is possible in the draft.

 

[Jack DiBiase]

Let's hype like mid first rounder and see Armia going in 4th round like Pulkkinen

He already has more points than Pulu did in his draft season. And Armia is like 20 cm taller.

Watch out Larsson

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Great size and looks like he has very good skills, looking very good so far.

 

[ChadS]

He has an assist today against Blues.

Another Finnish '11 Draft-prospect to watch this season is JyP goalie Samu Perhonen. Central scouting's director of European scouting Göran Stubb seems to be very high on this kid.

Born in march -93, he has good size (6'03) and has started the season with JYP U20-team very well.

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=43533

 

[Tormentor]

Another Finnish '11 Draft-prospect to watch this season is JyP goalie Samu Perhonen. Central scouting's director of European scouting Göran Stubb seems to be very high on this kid.

Born in march -93, he has good size (6'03) and has started the season with JYP U20-team very well.

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=43533

It's good to see Perhonen (great name for a butterfly goalie ) doing so well after the difficult season he had last year. The kid definately has potential; great size, awareness and quickness.

It'll be interesting to see which goalies will be chosen to U18 National team for the upcoming 4 nations tournament next month. Ullberg's status as a number one goaltender might be in danger by the good start that Perhonen and Edelmann have had.

Name|DOB|H.|lbs.|L/R|Team|GPI|GAA|Pct
Mikael Edelmann|01-JUN-93|6'0|154|L|Tappara Jr.A|5|1.79|0.939|
Samu Perhonen|07-MAR-93|6'3|161|L|JYP Jr.A|6|2.86|0.911|
Richard Ullberg|16-JUL-93|6'3|176|L|HIFK Jr.A|2|3.53|0.857|

 

[ChadS]

It'll be interesting to see which goalies will be chosen to U18 National team for the upcoming 4 nations tournament next month. Ullberg's status as a number one goaltender might be in danger by the good start that Perhonen and Edelmann have had.

Name|DOB|H.|lbs.|L/R|Team|GPI|GAA|Pct
Mikael Edelmann|01-JUN-93|6'0|154|L|Tappara Jr.A|5|1.79|0.939|
Samu Perhonen|07-MAR-93|6'3|161|L|JYP Jr.A|6|2.86|0.911|
Richard Ullberg|16-JUL-93|6'3|176|L|HIFK Jr.A|2|3.53|0.857|

As a Jokerit fan I'm rooting for Kaskisuo, even though it's quite clear he won't make it...

Armia looked great again today!

 

[Juzmo]

He has an assist today against Blues.

And a fine pass it was on the only goal of the match: http://www.nelonen.fi/ohjelmat/sm-l...an-erikoiset-haastattelut?vt=video&vid=103895

Solid play again and was awarded as the third star of the match.

 

[Stanleyjub]

0+1 so far in tonights game against Tappara, 3 minutes only played

 

[The Saw Is the Law]

0+1 so far in tonights game against Tappara, 3 minutes only played

31 sec and Armia got assist. I like this kid!

 

[Phenomenon]

Joel will have a bright future. He has a great size and compared to for example Jesse Joensuu better overall skill set. It has been a positive surprise that he has claimed a spot in the league team roster at this young age.

It is good that Finland is back on the track on producing bigger players. We had a period when people thought that Saku Koivu is the prototype of future hockey player and teams started to favor stamina over size/strength. Jesper Kokkonen is another name to keep in mind.

 

[FrankTheTank]

It is good that Finland is back on the track on producing bigger players. We had a period when people thought that Saku Koivu is the prototype of future hockey player and teams started to favor stamina over size/strength. Jesper Kokkonen is another name to keep in mind.

I know that Kokkonen is big and he was MVP of the Pohjola camp but he's not that promising anymore. He has played only 5 game in A-juniors and got one goal. Also 4 game in U18 tournament in finnish jersey and 0 points.

 

[Dominus]

I love this! Not long ago we were desperate because Finland wasn't producing any good youngsters and now all of a sudden we have bunch of kids doing great in men's games; Armia, Granlund, Pulkkinen, Rajala, Rask, Vatanen... but wait! Is that a good thing? Or does it just mean that SM-liiga sucks?

 

[PuckOut]

Kalle Torniainen, C/RW (1994-03-28), Djurgårdens IF J18

Last season:
25GP/17G/14A/31PTS

This season so far:
5GP/4G/4A/8PTS