WJC: Team Finland 2018 U20 WJC Roster Talk

[DoingItCoolKiwi]

Is there someone on twitter who might be reporting on camp practices? Would love to hear what the first lines and D-pairs look like. Also if Vesalainen is skating, or even with the team, since the reports on his injury were pretty lacklustre

 

[Jorma Heart]

His whole team was struggling in the first two months. He has been picking it up with the team lately.

He got 4 of his 6 points in two games. He still is boy against men in Liiga, but can be difference maker at junior level. Still not fast or strong enough and makes lots of boneheaded plays with the puck, but hands and shot are elite.
His teammate Eetu Luostarinen other hand is ready for Liiga but I don't think he has to lot a offer offensively at WJC, could be good C to bottom six though.

 

[Hokinaittii]

Getting a terrible feeling that our roster is gonna be super overrated and we'll go home without a medal. Im still having nightmares from last year.

On top of having great depth in our roster, I don't think we've had many times in recent years all star-players like Heiskanen and Tolvanen who can single handedly win us some games.

I am personally sold on our team and I'm sure the players themselves want to prove that the performance they had last year can only happen once in a century.

 

[illone84]

Is there someone on twitter who might be reporting on camp practices? Would love to hear what the first lines and D-pairs look like. Also if Vesalainen is skating, or even with the team, since the reports on his injury were pretty lacklustre

Vesalainen is still injured.

 

[FinPanda]

Vesalainen is still injured.

Nope he will play tonight.

 

[Hockeyisl1fe]

Speaking of Vesalainen, I think posters here don't value him as much as they should. Already the best player for his team in Liiga and he has always been performed great against his peers.

 

[Hockeyisl1fe]

Vaakanainen-Heiskanen
Välimäki-Juolevi
Kotkansalo-Jokiharju
Salo , my pairings. Yes, I would cut Räsänen. He would offer PP point producing, but I don't think that will be a problem without him. Especially questioning his skating for this level, it already was a problem in the last WJC.

 

[Halla]

Has to be one of the deepest teams on the back end ever for finland

Vaakanainen - Heiskanen
Juolevi - Välimäki
Salo - Jokiharju
Räsänen

thats five 1st rd picks and two 2nd rd picks. Doesn't include Kotkansalo who was a mid 3rd rd pick

 

[illone84]

Nope he will play tonight.

Nice! Awesome news!!!!!

 

[Hockeyisl1fe]

Has to be one of the deepest teams on the back end ever for finland

Vaakanainen - Heiskanen
Juolevi - Välimäki
Salo - Jokiharju
Räsänen

thats five 1st rd picks and two 2nd rd picks. Doesn't include Kotkansalo who was a mid 3rd rd pick

Not "one of the deepest", it really is the deepest ever with a wide margin. To put it into perspective: we had 1 dman drafted in the 1st rd in the 2000s, now we have 5 in the same team.

 

[Trilliann]

Not "one of the deepest", it really is the deepest ever with a wide margin. To put it into perspective: we had 1 dman drafted in the 1st rd in the 2000s, now we have 5 in the same team.

We've had 2, Risto & Määttä, but yea

 

[SpinninRodIntoArmpit]

We've had 2, Risto & Määttä, but yea

I think he meant between 2000-2010, since there has also been Honka during this decade. Last decade all Finland had was Pitkänen.

I'm not that confident with this year's forward group tho, there is more question marks over the secondary scoring than there was for example two years ago. Also a lot of the playmaking responsibilities lie on Heponiemi, who I've not seen much. Of course his numbers are not from this millenium, scoring at around the same pace as Theo Fleury did back in the 80s.

Defencemen are quit capable with the puck, but you need someone creating plays up front. Capitalizing on chances shouldn't be an issue.

 

[DoingItCoolKiwi]

Speaking of Vesalainen, I think posters here don't value him as much as they should. Already the best player for his team in Liiga and he has always been performed great against his peers.

He will definitely be a big part of the offense. I think Tolvanen, Heponiemi, Kuokkanen, and Vesalainen are quite easily the best forwards in this years team

 

[Hockeyisl1fe]

We've had 2, Risto & Määttä, but yea

I meant it as a decade (00-10). Only Joni Pitkänen was drafted in the 1st round then.

 

[sobrien]

Nope he will play tonight.

How'd he look?

 

[FinPanda]

How'd he look?

Didn't watch the game. Just noticed that from twitter.

 

[Razamanaz]

X-cuse me. If I'm totally blind or something ...but where the heck is the Olympic icehockey thread on this site? Juniors are juniors. Not olympians. Que!?

 

[Scrantonicity 2]

X-cuse me. If I'm totally blind or something ...but where the heck is the Olympic icehockey thread on this site? Juniors are juniors. Not olympians. Que!?

It's right in this forum, it was just renamed World Junior Championship U20 while the tournament is going on. Look at the non-stickied threads, there's lots about the Olympics.

 

[Vohaul]

It is a lineup of great depth.. got a pretty good feeling of this years team. Maybe the forwards aren't quite on the same level as the amazing WJC 2016 forward crop with Aho, Laine, Pulju, Rantanen etc but still really strong with the likes of Tolvanen and ?(maybe) Vesalainen and I feel the defense is overall stronger this time.

 

[Caracal87]

Couldn't get sleep so here is the Line-UP:

Heponiemi - Kuokkanen - Tolvanen
Vesalainen - Ikonen - Turkulainen
Kupari - Räsänen - Koivula
Nurmi - Koppanen - Tuulola
(Moilanen)

Reason i break-up Vesalainen - Räsänen - Tolvanen from past tournaments is i couldn't pass by Heponiemi - Tolvanen duo together. I see biggest problem in C position. There is no 1st grade Centers and our best face-off (Räsänen) is needed now more in defensive role. He also lacks speed to go in 2 first lines offensive role in small rink. Kuokkanen just is best choise for 1st line C of the all possibilities. Heponiemi has to be put on wing as he sucks in face-off's and Ikonen is too artistic to put in the middle of Heponiemi and Tolvanen. 2nd line should be quite balanced in roles. Ikonen is clear center compared to other options this team has. Plays as center in Liiga also. Vesalainen slot might be switched with Kupari in some point if results isn't good enough. 3rd line wing is possibly only place where you could put Kupari as talented youngster and Räsänen - Koivula could help out and give quite good balance for he's game. Turkulainen will be on 2nd line or not in the line-up at all. Can't be in defensive role and not least because of he's size. One thing i'm maybe most exited about this team is 4th line. Look it has everything you need for defensive and grinding role. Perfectly balanced two-way winger Nurmi, hard working natural center Koppanen and huge under the skin grinder Tuulola. I think this line up should be quite good in balance and roles. Mostly i'm worried about center situation and all of them has to stay healthy. Moilanen added as most possible 13th forward as he has most of the rest experience from small rink and there won't be jetlag at all.


Heiskanen - Jokiharju
Juolevi - Välimäki
Vaakanainen - Kotkansalo
(Räsänen)

Where to start! Oh well nothing needed to say about upsides. Only thing to point out is Vaakanainen suits best of the top 5 to defense first role and does so in Liiga also. Big sized Kotkansalo over Räsänen or Salo to be pair with Vaakanainen because has most experience in small rink over Salo and is better skater than Räsänen. Best defense in attack ever. Little bit worried if its too forward minded as we don't have elite level goalie prospect this year.


Luukkonen
Lehtinen
(Who-ever)

Luukkonen will play and be something like 90-91% and 2.0-2.5 GAA goalie for us. Defence HAS to help a lot this time.


In overall quite balanced team with huge talent (Tolvanen, Heiskanen) and nice possibilities for good performance's in second wave (Vesalainen, Ikonen, Heponiemi, Turkulainen, other D). Lack's 1st lvl Center and Goalie.

Sorry for rusty english. What do you think of this?

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Couldn't get sleep so here is the Line-UP:

Heponiemi - Kuokkanen - Tolvanen
Vesalainen - Ikonen - Turkulainen
Kupari - Räsänen - Koivula
Nurmi - Koppanen - Tuulola
(Moilanen)

Reason i break-up Vesalainen - Räsänen - Tolvanen from past tournaments is i couldn't pass by Heponiemi - Tolvanen duo together. I see biggest problem in C position. There is no 1st grade Centers and our best face-off (Räsänen) is needed now more in defensive role. He also lacks speed to go in 2 first lines offensive role in small rink. Kuokkanen just is best choise for 1st line C of the all possibilities. Heponiemi has to be put on wing as he sucks in face-off's and Ikonen is too artistic to put in the middle of Heponiemi and Tolvanen. 2nd line should be quite balanced in roles. Ikonen is clear center compared to other options this team has. Plays as center in Liiga also. Vesalainen slot might be switched with Kupari in some point if results isn't good enough. 3rd line wing is possibly only place where you could put Kupari as talented youngster and Räsänen - Koivula could help out and give quite good balance for he's game. Turkulainen will be on 2nd line or not in the line-up at all. Can't be in defensive role and not least because of he's size. One thing i'm maybe most exited about this team is 4th line. Look it has everything you need for defensive and grinding role. Perfectly balanced two-way winger Nurmi, hard working natural center Koppanen and huge under the skin grinder Tuulola. I think this line up should be quite good in balance and roles. Mostly i'm worried about center situation and all of them has to stay healthy. Moilanen added as most possible 13th forward as he has most of the rest experience from small rink and there won't be jetlag at all.


Heiskanen - Jokiharju
Juolevi - Välimäki
Vaakanainen - Kotkansalo
(Räsänen)

Where to start! Oh well nothing needed to say about upsides. Only thing to point out is Vaakanainen suits best of the top 5 to defense first role and does so in Liiga also. Big sized Kotkansalo over Räsänen or Salo to be pair with Vaakanainen because has most experience in small rink over Salo and is better skater than Räsänen. Best defense in attack ever. Little bit worried if its too forward minded as we don't have elite level goalie prospect this year.


Luukkonen
Lehtinen
(Who-ever)

Luukkonen will play and be something like 90-91% and 2.0-2.5 GAA goalie for us. Defence HAS to help a lot this time.


In overall quite balanced team with huge talent (Tolvanen, Heiskanen) and nice possibilities for good performance's in second wave (Vesalainen, Ikonen, Heponiemi, Turkulainen, other D). Lack's 1st lvl Center and Goalie.

Sorry for rusty english. What do you think of this?

Why so many are not on ERäsänen? I think he is our second best d-man
- had a great rookie season last season in the OHL,has been so much better this season
improved in everywhere.

Heiskanen-ERäsänen
Juolevi-Jokiharju
Vaakanainen-Välimäki

 

[SpinninRodIntoArmpit]

Turkulainen will be on 2nd line or not in the line-up at all. Can't be in defensive role

Again. First, why should there be two, or actually even one purely defensive line on a team? Second, how is Turkulainen bad defensively? It's not like wingers have to wrestle in front of their own net. IMO foot speed and positioning are the most important defensive assets on a player. On top of that, Turkulainen is 11th in the league in the good ol' +/-.

In comparison, he's much less of a liability than Koivula. But of course the big boy has to be better, 'cause he might hit someone really, really hard.

 

[DieTomi]

Why so many are not on ERäsänen? I think he is our second best d-man
- had a great rookie season last season in the OHL,has been so much better this season
improved in everywhere.

Heiskanen-ERäsänen
Juolevi-Jokiharju
Vaakanainen-Välimäki

Take off the homer glasses. I like Rasanen but he's not beating out any of the top 5. If he has a great camp he may crack the line up on the bottom pair but he doesn't have the quality or skating the others possess.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Heponiemi-Kuokkanen-Tolvanen
Turkulainen-Ikonen-Vesalainen
Koivula-Räsänen-Kupari
Nurmi-Koppanen-Tuulola

Heiskanen-Vaakanainen
Juolevi-Jokiharju
Välimäki-Räsänen
Kotkansalo (Salo)

Probably my final team before seeing them play.

 

[BusQuets]

I'm baffled. Where is this notion coming that Luukkonen is not a great goalie? From what i've seen he's as solid as anyone at his age.