Top European 88s

[pats613]

who so far is looking to be the top 1988 birth year players, not just player eligible for next season but late birth year players as well. any kind of list would be awesome, with positions, hts and wts.

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[hameenlinna]

who so far is looking to be the top 1988 birth year players, not just player eligible for next season but late birth year players as well. any kind of list would be awesome, with positions, hts and wts.

Finland (in this order, from the top of my mind):

G Niko Hovinen of Jokerit Helsinki, 6'5 200lbs
W Jesse Joensuu (87) of Ässät Pori, 6'4 200lbs
C Tommi Huhtala (87) of Ilves Tampere, 6'0 180lbs
W Robert Nyholm of IFK Helsinki, 6'1 190lbs
G Riku Helenius of Ilves Tampere, ?

I'd say Hovinen and Joensuu are 1st round locks.

Russia has several talented kids coming up, someone else can probably brief on them.

 

[Korkki]

Joensuu seems to be a top 5 pick especially because he has gone a lot ahead this summer and he seems to cope with the expectations. If he will get the ice time he deserves in SM-liiga 20 points is not impossible and he has capacity to make even more.

Other good Finnish are:
Oskar Osala (late 87)
Joonas Kemppainen

 

[Trav]

Another is...

Michal Repik from the Czech Republic, going to be playing for the Vancouver Giants this year, he's already considered a top prospect for the 2007 NHL Draft. He was third in scoring in the Czech U-20 Jr League.

 

[cagney]

I'm really curious just how good Repik is. He's a dominating scorer in the Czech junior leagues, putting up even better points than a guy like Frolik (Repik was born on December 31st 1988 and is just a few hours away from being an '89. As such, he is almost 10 months younger than Frolik). As far as I can see, the only times he doesn't seem to totally dominate are at international competitions.

Besides those two, forwards David Kveton and Jiri Tlusty and d-man David Ruzicka are Czech '88s to watch.