Riddarn
1980-2011
- Aug 2, 2003
- 9,164
- 0
Mattihp said:Best players end up in the swedish league? Right now I would say there are three finnish players in the elitserien that were on top the last time they played in Finland, Tomi Kallio(was a really good two-way player), Jani Hassinen and Fredrik Norrena. The most of the players in Elitserien hailing from Finland are in my opinion pretty average, or at least were when they played in SM-Liiga.
Peter Ahola - Old. Would be nothing else than a depth player in SM-liiga, probably would be retired.
Kimmo Eronen - One of my favourites but can in no way be seen as one of Finland's finest playing in europe.
Janne Grönvall - A good defenseman. No further than good though.
Kari Haakana - Decent defenseman.
Hannes Hyvönen - Was as close one comes to being a grinder, did show a little scoring touch
Joonas Jääskeläinen - Decent depth forward, had a fluke goalscoring year
Erik Kakko - decent offensive d-man
Kimmo Kapanen - Was one of the worst starters
Toni Koivunen - Decent utility player
Markus Korhonen - Decent backup goalie
Kalle Koskinen - Decent defenseman
Valeri Krykov - Decent playmaker
Mikko Kuparinen - average defenseman
Veli-Pekka Laitinen - Decent two-way defenseman
Mika Lehtinen - Good defenseman, but no star
Jouni Loponen - Good defenseman, but no star
Tommi Miettinen - Inconsistent player, has all the skills but has no heart nor intensity
Tuukka Mäntylä - Good defenseman
Pasi Määtänen - Decent two-way forward
Antti-Jussi Niemi - Almost good defenseman, still an enigma
Mika Niskanen - Average
Mikko Peltola - He is old now. Not good enough for higher leagues anymore
Tommi Rajamäki - Decent defenseman
Juha Riihijärvi - Starting to decline
Juuso Riksman - Decent backup
Kalle Sahlstedt - Captain of TPS, good leader, decent defensive centre
Mika Strömberg - OLD, can't hold his own in the positional play
Jussi Tarvainen - Decent leech.
Pekka Tirkkonen - Old forward with decent passing
Antti Törmänen - Old, used to be a star but those days are over.
Kimmo Vesa - Come on? They must be joking...
Jyrki Välivaara - Decent defenseman
Sinuhe Wallinheimo - inconsistent decent starter
YOU point at those who were stars in SM-liiga. IMO it seems like they want to take anyone who has a finnish name....
Great post Matti. I wonder why all swedish teams insists on recruiting semi retired finnish players, and pay them pretty good too. I think it is because finnish hockey players are so very well respected in sweden, and the fact that the level of play in the SEL isn't what it should be.. Also we should at least try to start developing some goaltenders ourselves because as you point out, out of all those finnish tenders, only Norrena is worth the money.