In recent years, Finland’s success curve in junior hockey tournaments has shown a dramatic downward trend. In both the 18- and 20-year-old World Championships, Finland has missed out on medals in the previous two World Championships.
In Kaukalo, Canada, the United States and Sweden are already skilfully following their own paths in these age groups. Finland has inevitably fallen behind the pace of other top countries.
The worrying current state of Finnish player production has also been seen at the NHL’s annual booking event, which is a showcase of the countries’ player production.
The number of Finnish bookings in the first round of the NHL draft has already been dramatically low in recent years. In the 2018–2024 booking events, only ten Finnish players have been selected in the first round.
The current barren state of Suomi-kieko’s player production will be revealed at the latest by examining the recent history of the NHL draft. The point of comparison with Sweden’s player production, for example, is blatant. In the 2018–2024 NHL drafts, no fewer than 28 Swedish players were booked in the first round.
The managers of the NHL clubs do not consider the state of player development in Finland to be too alarming, at least not yet.
– I think good work is still being done in Finland. Player production sometimes goes in different cycles, the longtime GM of the Dallas Stars Jim Nill commented to Urheilu in November in Tampere.
– Finland’s way of player production is not broken in any way and I think the country’s player development model is good. The right people are leading the activities and Finnish ice hockey has nothing to worry about, he continues.
Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice was in connection with the November NHL games along the same lines as Dallas’ Jim Nill.
– There is nothing wrong with Finnish player production. It’s a question of cycles, of athletes maturing in different stages, and there have been first-round bookings from Finland in recent years as well, Maurice downloads.
– The last time I was here as a coach of the NHL team, it was discussed why only “working men” come to the NHL from Finland and never star players. Now Finland is producing star players, says the recent Stanley Cup coach.
Thirty years ago, the current GM of Dallas, Jim Nill, who started as the director of player development for the Detroit Red Wings, paints a bigger picture of the world view of young players, which includes more than just investing in hockey.
– In ice hockey, we generally think about how to develop young players who do other things in their lives. These issues are being tried to be resolved everywhere in hockey, he explains.
Adaptation is key
Let’s go back to the Finnish first-round NHL bookings for the years 2018–2024. Of the reserved ten, only three (Anton Lundell, Goof off Second, Jesperi Kotkaniemi) has been able to immediately take a permanent playing spot on his own NHL team.
Rasmus Kupari has only now been able to break into the regular lineup. This was preceded by a club transfer from Los Angeles to Winnipeg.
A first-round booking is therefore never a one-way ticket to a regular role in the NHL, and not necessarily a guarantee of even a decent chance to create a career in the world’s leading hockey league.
We have to ask the NHL’s well-known executives why young Finnish players, including first-round draft picks, have an even bigger job of getting a spot in the NHL and what qualities they lack in the fierce competition for spots.
– You cannot generalize and there is no single reason. It’s often a question of how to adapt to the North American way of playing, Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito stated in an interview with Urheilu at the NHL games in Tampere.
– Some players just need to improve their skating, for example, while some players are naturally great skaters who adapt to the skating and tempo of a small rink faster.
Already in his fifteenth season as GM of the Dallas Stars, Jim Nill politely shapes the current level of Suomi-kiekko’s development work in a North American style. He chooses a positive line when assessing the situation in Finland.
– In Finland, attention has been paid to skills training. Here, the rinks have also been reduced in order to make the game more entertaining, the players would think faster and the Game Intelligence would speed up, Nill estimates.
– I like it when the Finns play in a North American way, with a will to fight. I also like how the Finns always play specifically as a team, and that has been the guarantee of Finland’s success, he praises.
Attitude and work ethic
Head coach of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers Paul Maurice especially praises the attitude of young Finnish players when they arrive to pursue their NHL dream.
Having seen almost 1,900 NHL games as a head coach, Maurice knows what he is talking about.
– Finnish players are already very professional and ready athletes at a young age. When they come to North America, they know the meaning of work and their work ethic is high, Maurice enthuses.
– They play hard and know how to fight and are not afraid of corner situations.
The head coach of the Panthers is even overly polite when talking about Finnish player development.
– If I didn’t know anything beforehand about the state of Finnish ice hockey or the country’s player production, I would immediately say based on what I have seen that the country’s player development is fantastic, he states with a convincing expression.
– I can see it as soon as I look at the four Finns on our team, the charismatic Stanley Cup coach laughs.