4 Nations Roster Remix: 2000 Finland team

The top NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States will go head-to-head at the 4 Nations Face-Off, a best-on-best tournament that will be held from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.

Though this is the first tournament of its kind to feature these four countries, NHL.com and NHL.com International have put together what the rosters and line combinations for each country would have looked like in the past, going backwards in five-year intervals. The rosters will follow the same format as the current 4 Nations teams: 13 forwards, seven defensemen and three goalies.

The stories will run each Friday and Sunday through Feb. 9.

Today, NHL.com/fi writer Varpu Sihvonen reveals what her Team Finland roster would've looked like in 2000.

Forwards (13)

Ville Peltonen – Olli Jokinen – Teemu Selanne

Mika Alatalo – Saku Koivu – Sami Kapanen

Antti Laaksonen – Juha Ylonen – Jere Lehtinen

Jarkko Ruutu – Antti Aalto – Marko Tuomainen

Mikko Eloranta

Peltonen of the Nashville Predators, Jokinen of the New York Islanders and Selanne of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks combined for 134 points (50 goals, 84 assists) in 1999-2000. They would form Finland’s top scoring line. Saku Koivu of the Montreal Canadiens was sidelined for almost three months due to an injury, but he still had 21 points (three goals, 18 assists) in 24 games. Koivu would have been the center on the second line with Alatalo of the Phoenix Coyotes, playing the first of his two NHL seasons, and Kapanen of the Carolina Hurricanes.

The third line would have featured Lehtinen, who had hoisted the Stanley Cup the previous summer with the Dallas Stars, Laaksonen of the Boston Bruins and Ylonen of the Coyotes. Vancouver Canucks rookie Ruutu, Anaheim’s Aalto and Tuomainen of the Los Angeles Kings would have been the fourth line. Bruins rookie Eloranta would have been the 13th forward.

Defensemen (7)

Teppo Numminen – Jyrki Lumme

Janne Niinimaa – Jere Karalahti

Kimmo Timonen – Sami Salo

Janne Laukkanen

Finland would have had three pairs consisting of right-shot and left-shot defensemen. No question about the top pair, two Tampere players, Numminen from Tappara and Lumme from Ilves. No love lost between Tappara and Ilves in Tampere, but Numminen and Lumme played together with the Coyotes in 1999-00, and they played well. Numminen averaged 23:37 of ice time, Lumme 23:36. Numminen was a plus-21, while Lumme was a plus-9. They combined for 82 points that season (16 goals, 66 assists).

Niinimaa of the Edmonton Oilers averaged 24:28 of ice time in 1999-2000, with 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists), a plus-14 rating, and 89 penalty minutes. Niinimaa and Kings rookie Karalahti would have been a physical second pair. Timonen of the Predators and Salo of the Ottawa Senators had started making waves, each in their second year in the NHL and would’ve been the third pairing. Laukkanen, who played for the Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins during the 1999-2000 season, would have made the team as the seventh defenseman.

Goalies (3)

Jani Hurme

Miikka Kiprusoff

Mika Noronen

There was a period of seven years (1992-1999) when there were no Finnish goalies in the NHL. The first wave of Finnish goalies, Kari Takko, Markus Mattsson, and Jarmo Myllys among others, had returned home, and a new one was still in the process of developing in the AHL.

Jani Hurme of the Senators was the only Finnish goalie in the NHL in 1999-00, and he played (and won) just one game with a 2.00 goals-against average and .895 save percentage. Hurme spent most of the season in the American Hockey League with Grand Rapids, playing 52 games, finishing 29-15-4 with a 2.18 goals-against average, .921 save percentage and four shutouts.

But there was a future Vezina winner and Calgary Flames star netminder maturing in the AHL in Kiprusoff. He played 47 games with Kentucky, finishing 23-19-4 with a 2.48 goals-against average, .924 save percentage and three shutouts. Also in the AHL (Rochester) was Mika Noronen, a future backup for the Buffalo Sabres. He played 54 games for Rochester finishing 33-13-4 with a 2.18 goals-against average, .920 save percentage and six shutouts.

Hurme would have started for Finland, and Kiprusoff would have been his backup. Noronen would have been the third goalie. In 2000-01, all three of them, Kiprusoff (5 games), Hurme (22) and Noronen (2), got the call, and played in the NHL.