@Lempo I'm curious about the level of competition in the 2 lower level Finnish leagues. I always thought that Mestis was at a higher level than the Jr. A SM-Liiga. Can you clarify? The reason I ask is it appears that Makiniemi is playing pretty well once he moved to Mestis. Would love to see him get a year in regular Liiga play next season. Is that a possibility given his play?
Liiga may be bit iffy, because Kiekko-Vantaa is the affiliate of KHL team Jokerit and Makiniemi's contract is with the Jokerit organization. I'm not sure if they do Loans with Liiga, I understand there's some sort of embargo the Liiga teams have been having with the Jokerit after they ditched to KHL. BUT this is something Makiniemi's camp without a doubt has taken into consideration and they got their planned routes.
I gotta admit I don't really follow the Finland scene to give a legit assessment and comparison on the level of competition. BUT, as raw facts go, Mestis is the former 1st division, so the 2nd highest level of adult hockey, and when there's an opening in the Liiga the Mestis organizations are the ones who fight for it. So the teams are adult teams right below the Liiga level, and Eetu is moving on up.
If we trust Sebastian Aho, and we obviously should, I guess his assessment that with the grown-up the game in Liiga is more celebral (compared to juniors dump&rush) also applies to Mestis.
Jr A SM-Liiga on the other is the "final" level of the juniors system and it is U20. There's B, C, D etc juniors according to age cohorts below them. The most promising players obviously play a couple of letters above their age, and graduate to or get given a try in the mother Liiga team when considered "ready". It is known that when the Liiga teams start have injuries amassing towards the spring, they'll raid their A juniors' locker rooms to get the filler players from among the best in there.
Laine famously did his transition to adults through Mestis playing in LeKi at 16 after having played through the Liiga juniors system but not being quite in the Liiga level.
Mestis has their own junior A Mestis that's below JR A Liiga. There is actually a relegation series played between four worst in JA A Liiga and two best in JR A Mestis, so a team can move up from JR Mestis to JR Liiga. The main Liiga is a closed series because of business and cabinets, and a Mestis team moving into Liiga is a business decision maybe more than a sportsing consideration.
Eetu is competing for the starter job with Waltteri Ignatjew, Kiekko-Vantaa's own ward, who is of same age and also moving up from JR A.
Waltteri Ignatjew at eliteprospects.com
Looking up the KV and U20 Jokerit rosters, there's a plenty of goalie Loan movement between the two Jokerit affiliates.
Jokerit U20 at eliteprospects.com
Kiekko-Vantaa at eliteprospects.com
Jere Huhtamaa is mixing it a bit, because he's bound to NCAA in 19/20 and therefore can't play in pro Mestis series to retain eligibility.
