It’s questionable whether Finland will have a better team than last year. Last year’s team had solid goaltending, good defensive core and overall better depth players. Every player on that team could be relied on in difficult situations.
Pros and cons time!
+ Granlund is probably the best player Finland has ever had in a u20 tournament
+ Pulkkinen, Donskoi, Armia, Määttä are all a year older. Especially we should see a big improvement with Määttä and Armia.
+ Especially improved Salomäki, who will be very important for the team
+ Center position is very deep this year. Haula, Nättinen, Virkkunen, Tuominen <<<<<< Granlund, Mustonen, Barkov, Salomäki
- No Vatanen
- Less depth in forwards, after top 9 the level drops drastically,
- Defense is young and unexperienced. Still, not as big of a minus as some people make it out to be. Määttä, Hakanpää and Pokka in my books are solid SM-liiga calibre defensemen, maybe Ristolainen as well. Last year Vatanen, Jokipakka, and Kivistö were SM-liiga regulars, of which Kivistö was brutal in last years tournament.
- Ortio > Aittokallio, Aittokallio and Gibson are questionmarks
I still take this years team over last years pretty clearly, this year we have way more game braking talent and offense. While our defense isn't as solid as last year, it is a lot more talented, and there are guys that can raise their game to the next level.
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