When the
season starts on 10th of september with the match between last year’s finalists
Kärpät and Tappara, one team will be gone. It will be Year 1 after Jokerit. But
don‘t worry. The new season has some new stories to tell and some new exiting
faces. Like the team that will fill Jokerit’s spot: Vaasan Sport. But let’s
have a closer look at the teams and the challenges they face:
Espoo
Blues:
The biggest
changes for the Blues probably came up front. Espoo lost 3 of its 5 top scorers
in Tomi Huhtala, Eetu Pöysti (both Jokerit) and Tomi Salinen (Leksand). The
points they scored will now be expected by Roope Talaja (HIFK) and Kai Kantola
(Ilves). It sounds like a loss of offensive power, so it would be a good idea
to build on your defense. Therefore Espoo acquired Czech national player Petr
Zamorsky from Czech champion PSG Zlin. The Blues will probably end up somewhere
in the Pre-Playoff spots.
Helsinki
IFK:
IFK could
keep most of its offensive corps and even add Tomas Zaborsky from Ufa, who will
mainly have to substitute the great old man Ville Peltonen, who retired after a
long and successful career, and Iiro Pakarinen, who wants to start one on his
own in Edmonton next season. Bigger changes have come to the defense, which
will be led this season by Daniel Grillfors, who spent most of last year in
Linköping and Yohann Auvitu, one of France’s best coming over from Jyväskylä.
IFK should be able to avoid another pre-playoff elimination this year, but it
might not yet be enough to compete for the crowne of Finnish ice-hockey.
HPK
Hämeenlinna:
Looking at
the HPK roster you will spot a lot of familiar faces this year. Continuity is
the key. The only exception to this rule is the first line around leaving top
scorers Borna Rendulic, Ville Viitaluoma and Juha Kiilholma, but HPK fans don’t
need to worry too much as they found some great help up front in Saku Salminen
(Jokerit) and Eero Somervuori (HIFK). With a well settled team HPK might be
able to crack the Top6 this year and who knows what is possible when you have a
run at the right time of the year.
Ilves
Tampere:
Ilves lost
a couple of players over the summer they could have needed in yet another
difficult season ahead. Kai Kantola and Michael Keränen will most certainly not
be completely replaced by Mark Hurtubise, who arrived from AIK and the loss of
Simon Gysbers in defense will create another hole to fill.
JYP
Jyväskylä:
The heaviest
fluctuations JYP has to face are on defense. A couple of key players left and
they will give some youngsters the chance to excel under the lead of Mikko
Mäenpää, who came from Lev Prague. In their offensive department they lost Max
Wärn and Ossi Louhivaara. If this gap can be filled by Darryl Boyce, who
returns to JYP from the AHL remains to be seen, but JYP will be a Play-Off
contender once again as there is enough quality left.
KalPa
Kuopio:
After a
horrible year for KalPa with lots of changes to the roster during the season,
the key will be to bring back consistency to get a team on the ice that knows
each other. Between the pipes this task
will go to Eero Kilpeläinen, who spent last year in Zug. Despite losing some
top scorers, the concept seems much more promising this year and bringing in
Michal Birner, Tomas Kubalik (both Lev Prague), Sami Mutanen (HIFK) and Janne Keränen
(Lukko) might not catapult KalPa into the top spheres of Liiga again, but it
will definitly give them a decent chance to make the Play-Offs this year, even
if they have to play one more round than some other teams.
Kärpät
Oulu:
Oulu had to
bid adieu to some star players, however they managed to find similarly talented
replacements and had a very deep roster to start with. In goal for example
Rynnäs will be replaced by Iiro Tarkki, who arrived from Linköping. And also
for the duo Esa Pirnes and Juhamatti Aaltonen, they found great help up front
in Patrick Davis (SaiPa) and Juha-Pekka Haataja (Atlant, KHL). In general
Kärpät liked what they saw in Lappeenranta last year as they also acquired
SaiPa’s defense duo Ryan Glenn and Dan Spang. Oulu can be expected to go for
the title again, but it will not be easier as some of its rivals have improved
their teams as well.
Lukko
Rauma:
One of
these teams is Lukko. On their offensive lines Rauma has done a great job in
the off-season. While they didn’t see important players leave, they acquired
more depth in Janne Lahti and Henrik Koivisto (Jokerit). In their defense they
had to cope with the losses of Matt Generous and Petteri Nummelin, but found
more than just replacements in Mikko Kousa (Jokerit), Janne Niskala (Atlant,
KHL) and Henrik Forsberg (HIFK). With a carefully improved team Lukko might be
one of the top contenders for the title this year.
Pelicans Lahti:
The
Pelicans should be in a similar position as last year. Oskari Korpikari was
looking for the challenge of the KHL and went to Jokerit for that reason, while
two of their best scorers left with Pärssinen and Niinimäki. But Tomas Kudelka
(Vitkovice) will help out in defense this season, and Jordan Smotherman is a
man with great scoring skills coming from Karlskrona of the Allsvenskan. So
after all Lahti should be able to compete for a spot around the Pre-Playoffs once
again.
SaiPa
Lappeenranta:
Lappeenranta
has to take care not to experience the downfall that Ässät can tell them some
stories about. After a great season, that only ended in the Semifinals, they
lost too much of their key players and could not find the replacements needed
to repeat that run. Defensively they lost 4 of their Top6 D-men. Sam Lofquist
(Djurgarden) and Brian Salcido (JYP) will try their best to make them forget,
but even if they manage to do so, the holes left in the offense will be too big
to make the Semis again. Giliati, Davis and Piitulainen will be missed for
sure. SaiPa will most probably drop a bit in the standings, but the Play-Offs
are still in reach.
Vaasan
Sport:
If there is
one team you shouldn’t expect too much from this season in Liiga, it is Vaasan
Sport. But they do have a good excuse indeed. The jump from Mestis to Liiga proved
to be too hard for a lot of teams in the past, which we saw regularly in the
relegation rounds that usually went to the Liiga team easily. Sport now took
benefit of Jokerit leaving, although this sparked a lot of discussions among
the fans as Vaasa was not the team that qualified for Liiga. KooKoo Kouvola won
the Mestis championship, while Vaasa didn’t even reach the Semi Finals, but
Liiga wanted to have Vaasa in. Maybe due to the fact that they carry a big
fanbase. Nevertheless fans in other places did not really like the news.
In the end Vaasa had to change its team almost completely to be able to compete
on the higher level. The goal will be guarded by Ville Hostikka, who backed up
Norrena in Turku last year, while the defense will be led by Matt Generous and
Miko Malkamäki along with one of the few leftovers from last year, Ari
Gröndahl. The goals to win a few games shall mainly be provided by Damien
Fleury (from Lausanne) and Canadian Kelsey Tessier (from Rögle). Obviously it
will be a very tough season for Vaasa, but they are looking into the future
already as they put together a team of young talents with room to improve.
Tappara
Tampere:
Similar as
Lukko, Tappara also did not have a lot of changes, but managed to get more
quality in. In the backend Nick Bailen left for the KHL, but David Kolomatis already
showed in the first CHL games, that he can be a great replacement and beyond
that they also lured Tuukka Mäntylä into a return to Liiga. Offensively Teddy
da Costa will get a chance to prove himself on a higher level after dominating
Mestis play last season. Tappara will be another team to go for the title.
TPS Turku:
Turku’s
second to last place finish will not be repeated this year. In terms of
improvement TPS might have made the biggest jump among Liiga teams. After
Norrena ended his career TPS had to look for a replacement and found it in
Växjö’s back up Teemu Lassila. If this should not work out they still have
Mestis champion Kristian Järvinen to back him up. On defense they brought in
experienced journeyman Petteri Nummelin, Tomas Nakladal and Simon Gysbers. As
this should provide more safety for the own goal, TPS also provides more
offensive fire now after signing three players with great scoring abilities:
Radek Smolenak, Ryan Lasch and Lauri Tukonen have all shown their skills in the
past and will try to let Turku emerge again as a Play-Off contender.
Ässät Pori:
For the
champion of 2013, the downfall will most certainly not be stopped immediately.
Hagman and Umicevic already left during the season and the only players coming
in, who could provide offensive help are Juha Kiilholma (HPK) and Kristian
Ruisma out of Mestis, but don’t expect them to pick up the same numbers as the
guys, who left. Pori will face another uphill fight in order to make it to the
Pre-Play-Offs.