Well i hope you're right! But there is no guarantee for that! Not any of the talented youngsters have shown any "future star status" yet,like for example Filip Forsberg,and last night E Lindholm had a 5 point game...Barkov is pretty the same player as last season...Granlund too...
There is no hoping. The numbers already prove that the system has been fixed.
A total of 29 Finns have gone in the first round in the NHL draft. Six of them have been goalies. That leaves 23 skaters.
From the first (Teemu Selänne in 1988) to 1999, a total of seven Finnish skaters went in the first round in various drafts: Selänne, Saku Koivu, Aki Berg, Teemu Riihijärvi, Miika Elomo, Olli Jokinen, Jani Rita. Four of them became career NHLers. Two went on to become what could be called NHL stars, at least in their prime. And of course, one superstar.
Over the years 2000-2009 there was eight Finnish skaters who went in the first round: Mikko Koivu, Tuomo Ruutu, Joni Pitkänen, Jesse Niinimäki, Sean Bergenheim, Lauri Tukonen, Petteri Nokelainen, Lauri Korpikoski. Four became career NHLers, none became bona fide stars. Koivu and Pitkänen are borderline cases.
Now, from 2010 to present... we have had eight this far: Mikael Granlund, Joel Armia, Olli Määttä, Teuvo Teräväinen, Aleksander Barkov, Rasmus Ristolainen, Julius Honka, Kasperi Kapanen. Mikko Rantanen will go in the first round this year. And we already know at least one name you can bet money on for 2016, but the chances are there will be more.
Think. It's only been five years since the start of the decade - and we've already produced
more first-round picks than on either of the previous two decades. Also, you can already say that all of those names up to Honka will be career NHLers. The jury is still out there for Kapanen and Rantanen, but their chances certainly don't look bad. Also, given how young they are, all of them still have the potential to be bona fide stars. And the machine is not slowing down, oh no... it's picking up more speed.
And note that we still have names like Vatanen, Markus Granlund, Pulkkinen, who did not go on the first round but are still shaping up to become career NHLers.
There is no guarantee that we will see some real star power in the upcoming years. But there is serious strength in those numbers. More than enough for me to say with reasonable confidence that ten years from now, Finnish hockey players will be known for something else than their mediocrity.