Prospects Ladd, Wheeler, Olesz and Tukonen

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Raimo Sillanpää

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Mar 11, 2003
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Lauri Tukonen GP:12 2+1=3 -1
Doesn't sound like much right?
Well consider this, he's Espoos 5th best point producer(!!), two of those ahead of him have only one point more (Teemu Elomo,Landon Wilson 4) and the other two are the only Blues players producing decent points (Kohn 12, Ahonen 7)
For a team thats started it's season this bad (last place in SM-Liiga), Tukonen's been one of its few shining stars, showing great work ethic and commitment night in, night out.

Hannu Virta got the sack, Barry Smith (assistant coach, Detroit Red Wings) was appointed interim coach until Pekka Rautakallio returns from sick leave (some kind of thigh injury?? Since when do coaching staff get injured?)

I assume that an NHL coach will try to instill a more direct NHL like approach to the game, and that can't hurt Tukonen's progress as he'll be in the NHL sooner rather than later.
How that affects his icetime, might be a different story. But the important thing to remember now, is that dispite Tukonen's low point total, he's been playing great, looking strong, solid and mature and worked hard constantly. He's been one of the few players a Blues fan can be proud of, the rest of the team have sucked. Tukonen and a few others, haven't.
 

Eb0la11

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Hey RS, thanks again:) I really look forward to your posts on him, let me know how he does under this NHL assistant coach. If he gets more or less ice time, also what kind of player does he seem to look like? Does he seem to be more a defensive specialist as his two way style suggest or is there quite a bit of offence? Also does he have much speed out their or is he a bit more like a Bertuzzi type player? Hows he look in front of the other teams net? Does he stand in front of it on the pp? Just little things like that for now.


Also Miss hockey, is there an english translation of the site you directed me too? Id actually be very interested in getting this channel? How often do they play SM Liga?
 

Eb0la11

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rtafts said:
Ladd
Olesz
Tukonen
Wheeler

I dont agree with this one much, I dont think Ladd is all that hot, Ive seen him play several times in Calgary, he drives to the net hard and has some finish but I think his ceiling is 2nd line.
 

Raimo Sillanpää

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Espoo, Finland
Eb0la11 said:
Hey RS, thanks again:) I really look forward to your posts on him, let me know how he does under this NHL assistant coach. If he gets more or less ice time, also what kind of player does he seem to look like? Does he seem to be more a defensive specialist as his two way style suggest or is there quite a bit of offence? Also does he have much speed out their or is he a bit more like a Bertuzzi type player? Hows he look in front of the other teams net? Does he stand in front of it on the pp? Just little things like that for now.


Also Miss hockey, is there an english translation of the site you directed me too? Id actually be very interested in getting this channel? How often do they play SM Liga?


I'm not very good at making player judgements like that, one thing I've liked about Tukonen though, is that in the tv game's when there's commotion in front of the net, you look for Tukonen and sure enough, there he is!
Bit more luck, bit more confidence and he'll be banging those in..

Hmm, I dont think mtv3 have an english site, hmm, there's a feedback form they say they read every mail.. try this url:
http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/hockeynight2004/erik.shtml?palaute

nimi is name
sähköpostiosoite is email adress you want them to reply to,.

ask your question there!
 

Raimo Sillanpää

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Last season Urheilukanava showed SEL games, dunno if they show them this season (I don't get it because my building has old old tv network)
MTV3 shows SM-Liiga games on sunday and playoffs, MTV3+ (digital) shows most of the games, almost all. But for that, you have to subscribe to the MTV3+ HockeyNight package.
I have no idea if these are available outside of Finland.

Tukonen had an assist in last nights game, didnt see the match, just noticed him in the stats (0+1) last night.
 

ES

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Feb 14, 2004
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Tukonen is the best WJC eligible scorer at the moment in SM-liiga, despite having no more than 2G and 2A.
 

Jormungandr

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Aug 14, 2002
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D.Legwand said:
i have seen wheeler a bunch, he needs to grow into his body and get more physical. he has skills, and remember he just turned 18.
he is tied for first on his team in points. it's not like the Yotes expected him to step in and play this season.

http://www.pointstreak.com/prostats/teamplayerstats.html?teamid=3134&seasonid=594
Wheeler had 2 goals and 2 assists for a 4 point night last night against Indiana, and now has 10 points in 8 games. After a slow start to the season he seems to have really adjusted to the speed and higher level of play. :yo:
 

Eb0la11

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10 points in 8 games, thats not a heck of alot for a guy whos suppose to tear the high school leagues apart... Thats where he is playing right now isnt he?

Any more updates on Tukonen RS?:)
 

Raimo Sillanpää

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16: 3+2=5 -1 0PIM

scored a powerplay goal not too long ago, can't for the life of me seem to find it on video anywhere..
6th top scorer on his team, best of the Tukonen-Nokelainen-Korpikoski bunch from last year's draft. (The other two have 2 points each)
 

X-SHARKIE

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Actually Blake WHeeler has been playing really good. He's in the USHL by the way, which is a big step up from High School hockey.

Green Bay isn't a good team this year by any stretch, and Wheeler has really been the lone bright spot, he started off very slow but now he is starting to come around.

Wheeler reminds me alot of Eric Daze.
 

jepjepjoo

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Dec 31, 2002
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X-SHARKIE said:
Actually Blake WHeeler has been playing really good. He's in the USHL by the way, which is a big step up from High School hockey.

Green Bay isn't a good team this year by any stretch, and Wheeler has really been the lone bright spot, he started off very slow but now he is starting to come around.

Wheeler reminds me alot of Eric Daze.

Ryan Malone has had 2G 1A in 9 games on Blues vs Tukonen's 3G 2A in 16 games...
 

Pepper

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Aug 30, 2004
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For comparison, Krys Kolanos has 3g 3 a in 3 games playing in the same team...

Lie, bigger lie, statistics you know...
 

Raimo Sillanpää

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Pepper said:
For comparison, Krys Kolanos has 3g 3 a in 3 games playing in the same team...

Lie, bigger lie, statistics you know...

Mostly it says, imho, that Malone sucked (which he did) while at Blues, and Kolanos now, has arrived into a Blues team just starting up. So he's in the right place, at the right time, and he's motivated and performing well. Could be an ideal environment for him (SM-Liiga generally)
 

Eb0la11

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Has tukonen been recieving alot of ice time with Malone? Or is he still mostly recieving like 3rd line minutes?
 

Pepper

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Varies a lot, one game he plays on the top line and gets lots of icetime, the next game he's playing on 3rd or even 4th line with little icetime.

Regardless of that, he has been playing great. I'd say that he's the 4th best forward in the team and has showed lots of good stuff.
 

PanthersRule96

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Right now it's hard to judge any of these prospects as all have question marks somewhere. Wheeler played high school and you never know with high school players. He may never make the NHL or he may turn into a Superstar. Olesz could IMO turn into a superstar before any of these players as IMO he and Wheeler have about equal star potential.

Keep in mind, when I talk about Olesz, I talk about the guy before the hit at the WJCs as this was a player who was expected to challenge Malkin and Ovechkin as the top 3. He was even regarded as being a potential #1 overall back in November, almost a year ago. That was IMO definatley a bit optimistic for him though. People question his offensive skills, but he's scored similar points over the course of his career in the czech league. I don't know much about the other guys, but I have seen Olesz a few times, only at the WJC's though so it's not really that great of an idea of him. He played a checking role on his team last year so he had limitied ice time and was not expected to score. This year it's the same thing with the NHL players there as he doesn't get the icetime that he needs to develop which could be a problem. Could he play in the AHL??? If so, I think he should. Or maybe the CHL but it'll be too late soon. Olesz plays a character game and has good offensive skills that are questioned often though. He has great vision and plays phyiscal and is an above average skater with good hands. He could be a Patrik Elias player IMO, a player who has great vision, but will hit and play a team game for you, and scores a bit but gets more assists. I see Olesz as having top line potential if his development goes as well as it had prior to the hit.

Ladd I do not know anything about other than the type of game he plays and that I wanted the panthers to pick him because I though Olesz would already be taken at #3 ahead of Barker.

Tukonen I hear is good, but I also hear that his offensive abilities are not that of a real sniper if you know what I mean.

All have question marks so it's really impossible to tell who will develop into the best player.
 
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