Quote:
Originally Posted by calgaryblood
I'm glad the Canucks passed on him for a Finnish defenceman.
From the top of my head there hasn't been many top defenceman from Finland. I wonder why that is? Either way I think there's something to that. Not many great defencemen come from Finland and I think that's not about to change with the Canucks pick. Not writing him off but I definitely wouldn't have taken him at fifth.
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Depends on your definition of "top" I guess. Kimmo Timonen, Jyrki Lumme, Teppo Numminen were all more than decent. All around ~1000 games and .5 PPG. Those guys had a big part in bringing Finland all those "surprise" olympic medals. Lumme might still be the record holder for most points by a Canuck defenseman. Sami Salo was pretty good when he was healthy. Janne Niinimaa was okay.
Of course overall there just haven't been that many top players from Finland, other than goalies, and that has "only" been for about a decade.