Kekalainen named Finland Assistant GM

[Jasmine]

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6890 ... l:topheads

[Josh]

Re: Kekalainen named Finland Assistant GM

Great choice. They could have a pretty scary team. Goaltending is always solid; they have Rask, Rinne, Niemi, Lehtonen, Backstrom, and Ramo! Usually defense would be a hole for them, but this season has seen Olli Maata, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Sami Vatanen start playing regular minutes in the NHL. Sami Salo and Kimmo Timonen will probably form the top pair. That laves the always interesting forward corps, likely to see Jokinen, Jokinen, Koivu, Koivu, Ruutu, and Ruutu all in the lineup. My guess for five of the other six would be Selanne, Leino, Filppula, Bergenheim, and Korpikoski. For the final forward, Joensuu seems like a good bet, though I could see Granlund or even Barkov (if he keeps up his pace) making it.

[Victor]

Re: Kekalainen named Finland Assistant GM

Jokinen, Jokinen, Koivu, Koivu, Ruutu, and Ruutu

seem to have a bit of a stutter there Josh :P

[Matt the Aussie]

Re: Kekalainen named Finland Assistant GM

Bring back Jarkko! :P

[Jasmine]

Re: Kekalainen named Finland Assistant GM

Jokinen, Jokinen, Koivu, Koivu, Ruutu, and Ruutu

seem to have a bit of a stutter there Josh :P

hahah I thought the same thing :D

[matchesmalone]

Re: Kekalainen named Finland Assistant GM

With all the aging stars, and considering that the top prime-aged players are good players, but no stars, Finland really needs some of this young blood to pan out the way they're hoping. There's definitely a ton of potential, led by Bakov, who could be the new face of the Finnish hockey (a la Crosby to Canada or Ovechkin to Russia) Terravainen, Granlund, Vatanen, Maatta and Ristolainen, maybe even Pulkkinen. Of course, only probably one or two of those will make the team this year. Being in that in between state this year, I don't see them as a serious gold-medal contender this team around. Regardless, they are a team not to be taken lightly, as usual.