If team Finland would be a NHL team, would they win the cup?

[MrThomas]

Mikko Rantanen - Aleksander Barkov (A) - Patrik Laine
Erik Haula - Mikko Koivu (C) - Mikael Granlund
Teuvo Teräväinen - Valtteri Filppula - Sebastian Aho
Joonas Donskoi - Leo Komarov (A) - Joel Armia

Olli Määttä - Rasmus Ristolainen
Esa Lindell - Sami Vatanen
Markus Nutivaara - Julius Honka

Pekka Rinne
Tuukka Rask
Antti Raanta

I think this is very young and hungry team with a great veteran and selke finalist captain. There are still missing some good players (feel free to add) but I think this is very solid team and could win the Stanley cup if this team would be a NHL team.

What do you think?

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[DearDiary]

No, they'd get beaten by team Sweden

 

[The Macho King]

No. That D is bottom third in the league. Forwards are good though.

 

[MrThomas]

No, they'd get beaten by team Sweden

I think they both would have an amazing team. Hard to say really. Sweden has much much better defence but Finnish offence looks maybe even better and goaltending for sure!

 

[nobody]

Top 6 looks very good, rest of the team looks mediocre with declining goaltending. Would probably challenge for playoffs though. Maybe.

 

[MrThomas]

No. That D is bottom third in the league. Forwards are good though.

Yeah but luckily they have 2 elite 2-way forwards Aleksander Barkov and Mikko Koivu to help them out.

 

[tny760]

yes, 6-1

 

[Machinehead]

No. That D is bottom third in the league. Forwards are good though.

That's being nice. That D is a god damn catastrophe.

 

[Gurilla]

Not great D but some pretty good defensive forwards. Would be a solid playoff team but likely not a contender.

 

[MrThomas]

Top 6 looks very good, rest of the team looks mediocre with declining goaltending. Would probably challenge for playoffs though. Maybe.

Their 3th line is also top6 for sure! At least Teräväinen and Aho are playing first line in Carolina and doing really good.

 

[Hint1k]

This team has a good roster and can win the cup. However, it does not look unbeatable as Sweden team does (if this was the real question of the topic?)

 

[The Podium]

Built like Toronto, 3 top 6 calibre forward lines, weak D, 8-12 range #1 G

Depending on who coaches theyd be a comfortable playoff team IMHO.

 

[MrThomas]

This team has a good roster and can win the cup. However, it does not look unbeatable as Sweden team does (if this was the real question of the topic?)

I mean if this team would compete against other NHL teams. For sure Swedish team looks better.

 

[MrThomas]

Built like Toronto, 3 top 6 calibre forward lines, weak D, 8-12 range #1 G

Depending on who coaches theyd be a comfortable playoff team IMHO.

I think this team has much better forwards than Toronto. The defence is pretty weak though. Rinne is elite and with Rask and Raanta there are 3 number one NHL goalies

 

[TheAngryHank]

Rented mules.

 

[93LEAFS]

No, they don't have a legit number 1 defender, their D, in general, is pretty bad.

 

[Lunatik]

Like I said in the Sweden thread, with cap restraints it's hard to say. But they definitely couldn't ice that team.

 

[StatisticsAddict99]

Not quite yet, let’s see how Tolvanen, Puljujarvi and Heiskanen(and some other prospects) develop and Then we shall talk.

 

[GnrlDisarray]

On paper team Finland looks better than in years, at least forwards do. Defense is still lackluster to say the least. Damn shame we don't get to see any NHL players in the Olympics.

 

[flamesforcup]

Surprised me that team Finland has such a bad defense

 

[Baxterman]

Is that team cap compliant?

I don't think they do as that defense is so weak and I don't think the forwards are good enough to make up for it.

 

[BagHead]

Man, is that really how their defense looks these days? Wow. Gone are the days of Timonen and Numminen, I guess.

Just looked it up... those are literally all of Finland's NHL defensemen. Just enough of them to fill one team. I feel like they've usually had a deeper defense than that. Am I remembering incorrectly?

To answer the question, I think they're a team that would make the playoffs, probably, but I wouldn't call them favorites with that defense.

 

[jaloviina]

as of now I'd wait few more years there is some heavy duty D just coming to NHL.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Like I said in the Sweden thread, with cap restraints it's hard to say. But they definitely couldn't ice that team.

Why not? The cap hit of those players is 70.768333. Finland doesn't have the same cap issues that Sweden had when picking their team. Sweden can easily ice a cap compliant team that would stomp the competition on the way to the cup but some really good players would be left off for cap reasons. If this is Finland's best team it's cap compliant, and I took a peak at some other players and this is pretty much it. Could add Lehkonen, and Markus Granlund as extras up front to make up the full 23 roster and still be cap compliant. Nobody is really missing.

As for whether it would win. I guess it could on the back of its forward depth, but I really wouldn't want to rely on that D to get it done.

 

[Nick Hansen]

Man, is that really how their defense looks these days? Wow. Gone are the days of Timonen and Numminen, I guess.

Just looked it up... those are literally all of Finland's NHL defensemen. Just enough of them to fill one team. I feel like they've usually had a deeper defense than that. Am I remembering incorrectly?

To answer the question, I think they're a team that would make the playoffs, probably, but I wouldn't call them favorites with that defense.

They used to have more good top 4-defenders like Sami Salo, Toni Lydman and Joni Pitkänen.