Building the all-time Finnish Edmonton Oilers roster

What comes to mind when you think about Finland and hockey?

Lately, I’m sure thats a fairly easy question for hockey fans: goalies, and a lot of them. The Scandinavian country is home to some of the best goaltenders to grace the NHL recently with all of Juuse Saros, Mikka Kiprusoff, and Pekka Rinne being from there. If that isn’t where your mind went, it probably conjured up names such as Teemu Selanne and, of course, the original Finnish Flash, Jari Kurri.

Finland and the Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers, in their vast history, are no strangers to the skilled hockey players that come from Finland. Kurri was instrumental in the team’s dynasty throughout the ‘80s and as time wore on, a lot of Finns have had the opportunity to suit up in Edmonton uniform.

With the offseason nearing its end, I thought it would be a fun idea to go through the history of Finnish hockey players suiting up for the Oilers and take a shot at constructing a roster of players all from the same country.

This won’t be the only country that gets this treatment. Over the next few weeks we will construct our very own Oilers Olympics with all-time teams from countries such as Sweden, Russia, the United States, and maybe a Team Europe as well.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at Team Finland!

Forwards:

Esa Tikkanen – Matti Hagman – Jari Kurri

Jussi Jokinen – Lennart Petrell – Jesse Puljujarvi

Raimo Summanen – Markus Granlund – Iiro Pakarinen

Lauri Korpikoski – Risto Jalo – Teemu Hartikainen

This is an interesting group of forwards, that’s for sure.

Things start off pretty good on line one with both Esa Tikkanen and Jari Kurri manning the wings. Though Matti Hagman was never a top flight player during his NHL career, he shouldn’t have much trouble generating some offence.

The second line is the same story as having a Jussi Jokinen in his prime and a Jesse Puljujarvi playing to his best abilities is not a bad combination for the top-six. The problem is that this team has no center depth.

Hagman on the top-line I can live with because he is flanked by two Oiler greats. Lennart Petrell acting as the pivot on the second line is more of an issue, even if his wingers aren’t the worst. As we move into the bottom six, I don’t hate the third line all that much. Markus Granlund was career bottom-sixer so it isn’t unreasonable to see him in this kind of spot, the same goes for Raimo Summanen and Iiro Pakarinen.

Risto Jalo on the fourth line is a deep cut as he only played three NHL games, though he did score three points during that time. Oilers fans of a recent age should also have some memories of Teemu Hartikainen being an easy guy to root for before jetting to the KHL.

In all, this forward group features some really good top-six wingers, no center depth, and two “meh’” NHL fourth lines.

Defencemen:

Janne Niinimaa – Risto Siltanen

Joni Pitkanen – Reijo Ruotsalainen

Markus Niemelainen – Kari Haakana

This isn’t half bad.

The Oilers actually have a pretty decent stash of Finnish defenders to pick from their history. Janne Niinimaa and Risto Siltanen is a very respectable top pair that could pack a decent offensive punch. The two have over 600 NHL points between them.

Following them up is another decent offensively inclined pairing with Pitkanen and Ruotsalainen. Both players enjoyed their primes outside of Edmonton but did string together a few decent seasons. It’s not unreasonable at all to have them in top-four roles.

The third pair is pretty easily the weakest link, featuring two players who either didn’t or have yet to have an impact at the NHL level. Neimelainen is at risk of topping out as a tweener that couldn’t stick in the NHL while Haakana only ever managed 13 games in the show and no points. It might be rough if they get caught out for an extended period of time.

Goaltenders:

Mikko Koskinen

Jussi Markkanen

I’m going to hit you with an unpopular opinion and say that Mikko Koskinen was actually pretty good during his time with the Oilers. The guy had an 83–59–13 record for the club and a .907 save percentage, while having to endure some pretty piss-poor efforts in front of him at times. It’s unfortunate that he became a scapegoat of the fanbase and media as I think he did well with what he had to work with. No, never remarkable but good nonetheless. He’s the de-facto starter for this roster.

Backing him up will be Jussi Markkanen. He spent five seasons in the Oilers organization, all as either a backup or depth option. He wasn’t fantastic but he wasn’t the worse with a 35–35–14 record. I’d peg him as a “meh” option in relief.

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Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire