WC: Team Finland 2019 men's World Championships roster talk

[FiLe]

Who are your fantastic four?

Vehviläinen, Ohtamaa, Hakanpää and Leskinen.

 

[king89]

Vehviläinen, Ohtamaa, Hakanpää and Leskinen.

I would also choose those four, but i have Lindbohm over Hakanpää.

 

[FiLe]

I would also choose those four, but i have Lindbohm over Hakanpää.

I see room for both, especially if there are no additions from overseas (Välimäki, Niku, or both).

Speaking of additions, San Diego Gulls eliminated San Jose Barracuda last night. Unfortunately the Sharks advanced, but I wonder if they'd still let Suomela go. I can imagine Lehtinen's call to Doug Wilson: "Let Antti come, plz? He's your scrub, and our best centre right now is Arttu Ilomäki, (Wilson: Who?) so could kinda use him..."

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Um, that's the team that beat Sweden 5-4 today in a preliminary game, not the final team or somebody's projection of it.

Oh Elhefe said

"Looks like this is going to be the official team Finland in this year's WC."​

Then later he posted the that roster when someone asked for them.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Hilarious roster. No medals this year, again.

 

[king89]

Hilarious roster. No medals this year, again.

Not the final roster but yeah not the greatest.

 

[Svedu]

I really hope we will have O.G. soon when all the stars are playing because with Jalonen and this generation of players Finland are contenders for the gold with USA and Canada. For real, Finlands potential is almost getting to Swedens level 10-15 years ago. With hard work and a underdog stamp i do believe they could be victorious.

Goalies: Rinne-Rask-Koskinen-Vehviläinen-Saros. Not the greatest but more than decent.

Just look at the damn D we have coming. It oozes modern hockey, skill and skating. The younger ones will become great D´s on the PP as well.
Heiskanen-Jokiharju
Vaakanainen-Vatanen
Lindell-Ristolainen

Nuutivara is respectable D but i in 1-2 years i believe Vaakanainen will succeed him. Urho is smooth and can almost follow up with anyone on the defensive side.
Hopefully Juolevi will come back stronger because i think the kid always had big potential. Not the strongest mentally perhaps, but still a great talent.
Niku could become something. Välimäki, great talent and i would probably prefer him before Ristolainen to be honest. Risto has some tendencies to loose his man sometimes, then again, Buffalo has been a shit show for a long time now. Not so easy to predict his real capacity.
Sad to admit that Määttä loosed a bit of his greatness after those hard years.

Wingers: Armia, the most underrated in the NHL? Lehkonen, Teräväinen, Kapanen, Hintz, Kakko, Laine, Rantanen, Mikael Granlund, Donskoi etc.
Potential late bloomers or young bloods: Kuokkanen, Heponiemi, Kupari (i believe he will be more successful as a winger), Aleksi Saarela, Mäenalanen, Tolvanen, Vesalainen, Ylönen, Koivula(too slow, not my favorite), Salomäki(fourth line option) etc.

Centers: Barkov, Aho, Kotkaniemi, Borgström, Haula
Potential centers or late bloomers: Talvitie, Lundell, Suomela, Joni Ikonen?

We can all agree that the Finns have never had this kind of potential before. Closing the gap to the big three or four, make no mistake about it.

 

[Svedu]

Boring if it´s only Kakko, Jokiharju and Vehviläinen that excites me. I understand you can´t get them all and be successful every year, especially for a small country. But it would be fun to see potential breakouts with younger players like Välimäki, Niku etc.
Then we would have something else to see as well, not only focus on the results but also se how the young prospects are coming along.

 

[Ducks76]

I really hope we will have O.G. soon when all the stars are playing because with Jalonen and this generation of players Finland are contenders for the gold with USA and Canada. For real, Finlands potential is almost getting to Swedens level 10-15 years ago. With hard work and a underdog stamp i do believe they could be victorious.

Goalies: Rinne-Rask-Koskinen-Vehviläinen-Saros. Not the greatest but more than decent.

Just look at the damn D we have coming. It oozes modern hockey, skill and skating. The younger ones will become great D´s on the PP as well.
Heiskanen-Jokiharju
Vaakanainen-Vatanen
Lindell-Ristolainen

Nuutivara is respectable D but i in 1-2 years i believe Vaakanainen will succeed him. Urho is smooth and can almost follow up with anyone on the defensive side.
Hopefully Juolevi will come back stronger because i think the kid always had big potential. Not the strongest mentally perhaps, but still a great talent.
Niku could become something. Välimäki, great talent and i would probably prefer him before Ristolainen to be honest. Risto has some tendencies to loose his man sometimes, then again, Buffalo has been a **** show for a long time now. Not so easy to predict his real capacity.
Sad to admit that Määttä loosed a bit of his greatness after those hard years.

Wingers: Armia, the most underrated in the NHL? Lehkonen, Teräväinen, Kapanen, Hintz, Kakko, Laine, Rantanen, Mikael Granlund, Donskoi etc.
Potential late bloomers or young bloods: Kuokkanen, Heponiemi, Kupari (i believe he will be more successful as a winger), Aleksi Saarela, Mäenalanen, Tolvanen, Vesalainen, Ylönen, Koivula(too slow, not my favorite), Salomäki(fourth line option) etc.

Centers: Barkov, Aho, Kotkaniemi, Borgström, Haula
Potential centers or late bloomers: Talvitie, Lundell, Suomela, Joni Ikonen?

We can all agree that the Finns have never had this kind of potential before. Closing the gap to the big three or four, make no mistake about it.

Well, with any luck, Finland could have a star selection at a WHC next year. But it would be pointless if most would then decline. But that's what I'm afraid of

 

[FiLe]

Well, with any luck, Finland could have a star selection at a World Cup next year.

What World Cup?

---

As an aside, the Canes Caps get eliminated barely a day ago, and Ovie's already saying he's going. Roman Josi announced almost immediately that he wants to join Switzerland. While we still have answers pending from our own eliminated players. However, this is not an "everybody's going except our guys" rant, I don't really care if the answer is yes or no. But sometimes it does annoy me that it seemingly takes them eons to spit it out.

 

[FinPanda]

What World Cup?

---

As an aside, the Canes get eliminated barely a day ago, and Ovie's already saying he's going. Roman Josi announced almost immediately that he wants to join Switzerland. While we still have answers pending from our own eliminated players. However, this is not an "everybody's going except our guys" rant, I don't really care if the answer is yes or no. But sometimes is does annoy me that it seemingly takes them eons to spit it out.

Caps

But yeah I agree with you.

 

[sooni]

Well i really don´t mind, if they all say no this year... there is no way we have change without our top players. Just play with young kinds and potential future players... Let´s hope that we have all our best players next year and go then for a gold.

 

[Jussi]

Well, with any luck, Finland could have a star selection at a World Cup next year. But it would be pointless if most would then decline. But that's what I'm afraid of

There's no World Cup next year. That's been confirmed ages ago.

 

[Gold Standard]

There's no World Cup next year. That's been confirmed ages ago.

A gimmicky World Cup won't be missed, but on the + side, we do have a NHL lockout star studded World Juniors to look forward to.

 

[Ducks76]

There's no World Cup next year. That's been confirmed ages ago.

I mean IIHF WC!

 

[Jussi]

I mean IIHF WC!

It's the World Championships, or Worlds for short.

 

[fr9dd9]

A gimmicky World Cup won't be missed, but on the + side, we do have a NHL lockout star studded World Juniors to look forward to.

Is there an nhl lockout comming next season?

 

[Ducks76]

Why does Finland has so few NHL-Defender every WHC? Since decades!

 

[mattihp]

Why does Finland has so few NHL-Defender every WHC? Since decades!

Earlier it was because we only had about five...

 

[Albatros]

Indeed one doesn't have to go further back than 2014 and there literally were only five Finnish defensemen in the NHL. For much of the 1990s there were three.

 

[FiLe]

The most d-men we've had in the NHL so far was during the 2003-04 season, just before the lockout, when we had 12 - eight one could call regulars, and additional four who dressed for a handful of games, but mostly played in the AHL.

This season, we reached that number again. 12 d-men who got at least a game. Though only six I'd call regulars.

 

[schmiedi]

What is wrong this year?
Why Need saros a couple of days to say yes or no?

All other i didnt think they will come. But in saros i was pretty sure but now....

 

[Eye of Ra]

which players is realistic to get from nhl? if carolina gets kicked out someome like aho will probaly decline due to his contract.

 

[king89]

Välimäki won't come, injury problems.

 

[FinPanda]

So maybe Saros and that's it..