Finnish players in 2023-24 card sets

Let's see how far I get - but I need your help especially with the team issued sets. MVP and Tim Hortons on its way to Finland, but this was the first set where I completed my quest:




Kalle Kangas (selected 223rd overall by the Penguins in 2023) appears in the new postcard set from Jokerit Helsinki. Jokerit withdrew from the KHL in April 2022 after Russia attacked Ukraine and did not play anywhere for the 2022-23 season. They are now starting over in the Finnish leagues and were given a license for the 2nd highest level (Mestis). They have created quite the buzz in Mestis and have already rewritten the single-game attendance records. Kangas has appeared in all the Jokerit games so far this season, but yet to record a point.

For the Finnish sets I will only be going for the players who have played or have been drafted to the NHL. For the European or the North American sets I will go for all the Finnish players, but will skip the parallels.

To be continued...

And moving onto the next 2023-24 set that has reached Finland.
There were 55 Finnish players appearing in NHL from Finland last year. UD selected 15 of them for this set. Artturi Lehkonen was the highest scoring Finn not to get a card. There was not a big selection of Finnish rookies left to choose from. In fact on top of Koppanen and Merilainen only Mikael Pyyhtia – Columbus would have been available but he made his appearance very late last season so I guess not really an option for this set.








Barkov (4), Laine (3), Heiskanen, Hintz, Rantanen, Saros (all 2) getting multiple cards. Ville Husso interestingly only appearing in an insert set, not the base. 24 cards in total, not taking the parallel cards into consideration. If I missed anything, please let me know!




MVP is never really up-to-date with the player movements: Kapanen (Blues) and Puljujarvi (Canes) have long moved from the teams depicted in these cards. The latter also on long term injury list with an uncertain future. Joonas Donskoi unfortunately had to retire from hockey altogether with concussion issues. He did not play at all last season so that also makes it an interesting choice to make the checklist. Joona Koppanen is now in the Penguins organization and might actually become the first Finnish player to play over 300 AHL games (245GP at the moment). The current record holder, Sami Helenius, stopped at 296 games.
Looks like the next set will be Tim Hortons, unless sets from Europe manage to make a surprise.

Cool thread, thank you for sharing. Looking forward to any Saros cards you pickup, as I am a big fan of him.

:beer:

Thanks for the comment!

No European miracles yet, next one up Tim Hortons







9 cards (base+inserts) of Finnish players in this set. No new players to add to the mix.
Barkov, Laine and Rantanen getting 2 cards each. Which also forms the top three leader board over two sets with Barkov (6 cards), Laine (5) and Rantanen (4).

Very cool PC! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the comment!

Two more sets completed with this picture when it comes to Finnish players.
Soo Greyhounds and London Knights have new sets out by Choice Marketing.
Arttu Kärki is a 3rd round pick by the Golden Knights and Kasper Halttunen a 2nd round pick by the Sharks from 2023. Both are currently leading their teams in scoring, Halttunen with 15 goals and Kärki 14 goals in 21 games. I guess what makes it even more remarkable is that Kärki is a defenseman.

Upper Deck Series 1 has finally reached us here in Finland.
Season debuts for Finnish players in this set were made by 12 players: Välimäki, Maccelli, Luukkonen, Teräväinen, Kotkaniemi, Lehkonen, Pärssinen, Lankinen, Kakko, Granlund, Lundell and Kähkönen. Which makes the total of different Finnish players in this year's NHL sets now 27. Kasperi Kapanen gets his first appearance as a member of St.Louis Blues. UD can’t keep up with Mikael Granlund who now gets his first card as a Penguin but has already moved onto the Sharks. Eetu Luostarinen now takes the ”torch” of most points (43) last year but no cards this year.
The number of 27 different players should still hopefully go up a bit (OPC?), at least with the rookies Merelä, Matinpalo, Järventie and Pyyhtiä from last season.







Rantanen and Aho get the most cards (5) in this set, followed closely by the rookie Koppanen with 4 cards. Barkov, Rantanen (Both 9 cards) and Laine with 8 cards are the ”leaders” after 3 sets.










Next one up should be something European.

One more parcel picked up today from the local post office.
After this I shall remain quiet at least for a wee while.

In Czechia they have a similar thing to Game Dated Moments going. From what I have understood these cards are available for purchase for a week and then when the week is over they print the exact number of cards that have been purchased. Therefore for example this card is /42.
Juhamatti Aaltonen was drafted to NHL back in 2003 in the final moments of that draft. He was drafted 284th overall by the Blues in the draft that had 292 picks. Veteran of 13 Finnish League seasons and 4 KHL seasons, he has also played 3 seasons in Sweden and 1 season in Switzerland before moving to Czechia at the age of 38. He has represented Finland in 5 World Championships and 1 Olympic Games. Very good player in the European level, but never tried it in NA.



This particular card celebrates Juhamatti’s three point night (1+2) to start off the season.

Very cool. Nice to see the same North American programs be recreated in Europe. Always enjoyed European card sets.

nice cards

I enjoy the Kapanen as I was a big fan of his dad

Thanks for the comments!

Whilst trying to complete NA and European sets I managed to track down this team issued postcard-sized set from Kalpa who plays in the top league in Finland. Printed on a nice and sturdy stock.

As per the collection keeping the Finnish NHL drafted player for myself, everything else available



Kalpa has 4 Finnish players with an NHL connection this year. Aapeli Räsänen (153rd overall, 2016 Oilers), Juha Jatkola (121st, 2023 Predators), Oliver Kapanen (64th, 2021 Canadiens), Kasper Simontaival (66th overall, 2020 Kings). Jatkola is an interesting case, got drafted last summer as 20 year old goalie. Maybe a continuation for the Finnish Mafia in Nashville Rinne-Saros? Oliver Kapanen is a cousin of the current NHL:er Kasperi Kapanen and nephew of Sami Kapanen.

bonnev659 said:

nice cards

I enjoy the Kapanen as I was a big fan of his dad

Click to expand...

As an extra here is the card of Konsta Kapanen, another son of Sami, born 2003 in Voorhees, New Jersey. Has not been drafted to the NHL and also still struggling to make it in the top league in Finland.

Nice team issued cards. Those can be super tough to find for the collection.

Next in line, the 2023-24 Sticker set from DEL2, which is as the name suggests the 2nd highest level of hockey in Germany.
Here are the Finns:




A few there with dual citizenships, for example Tommi Steffen (GER/FIN) and Alexander Ruuttu (USA/FIN).
That last name might sound familiar to some, Alexander is the son of Christian "the greatest NHL-Pass of the 80s" Ruuttu, who is probably best remembered
from the few good seasons he had with the Sabres. Alexander is the only player from this lot who has been drafted to the NHL at 51st overall by the Phoenix
Coyotes in 2011. Incidentally (or not) a certain C.Ruuttu was then one of the European Head Scouts for the Coyotes.
Another player with an NHL dad is Sami Blomqvist, whose dad played for the Capitals and the Devils also in the 80s. Sami was born in Sweden where Timo was playing at the time.
Loads of coaches from Finland as well in this set. Hopefully I did not miss anybody. 3 Finnish players who have played in DEL2 did not make the cut for this sticker set.

Fall Expo Incompleted

2023 Upper Deck Fall Expo

And I think this is me ”completed” with this set:



The set does have a 4th card of a Finnish player, a fella called Teemu Selänne, but that one seems to be out of my reach. Very nice card, picturing him with the Jets of Winnipeg. Only 4 were made which is the problem. 4/4 just surfaced and sold for 273 CAD on Ebay. My flex ended at bit more than 100 CAD and then the big boys came to play. So don’t think I have a chance to land a copy, but if you can help send me a PM

Love the sticker sets! Especially the 80s Pastiche RC cards (Raty, Maccelli shown here). Jokiharju, Raanta, Levtchi, Luostarinen, Makiniemi, Maenalanen making their season debuts here. Levtchi and Maenalanen already back to Europe. The latter has only an UD Compendium card from 2018-19 when he was playing with the Hurricanes. First appearance on a card/sticker with the Jets. Saros with 5 stickers in this set.

Cool updates, nice Saros adds! I am a fan of his.

Thanks for the comment! Keep hearing some rumours here in Finland about Saros possibly getting traded but we will see



Two 23-24 team issued sets completed with the addition of Jalasti and Kumpulainen.
Kumpulainen has been almost ppg this season with Oshawa. He was drafted 53th overall by the Wild last summer.
Jalasti on the other is available in the 2024 draft, but with 10 points and -15 in 43 games might be a long shot for selection next summer.

Unfinished Slovakia and Czechia

And then with an addition of a couple of unfinished sets from Slovak and Czechia.
These I might not ever finish as they have quite a few cards with low print runs and not much visibility online.
In case I get any more of these, will add in this post.



Only 2 out of the 7 Finnish players in the top level in Slovakia made this set.
But this is quite expected as it seems that the rest have joined the league at some point during the season.
Neither Jääskeläinen nor Kuru has been drafted to the NHL. Both have appeared for the Finnish U20s.
Missing these cards from this set:
AUTHENTIC SIGNATURE - LEVEL 3 SL3-JJ KOS JOONA JÄÄSKELÄINEN /30
SHOWCASE SC-SOJ KOS JORDON SOUTHORN, JENS OLSSON, JOONA JÄÄSKELÄINEN /10
SLAP SHOT SIGNATURE SS-HK HCH HANNU KURU /15






Similar story with the top league in Czechia. Have quite a lot of the numbered cards missing.
So far have only managed to locate the Juhamatti Aaltonen jsy card which is /85.
Henri Kiviaho was selected by the Stars in 2012, 144th overall. Has some ECHL experience.
Jani Lajunen was drafted by the Predators, 201st overall in 2008. Jani appeared in 134 AHL games scoring 7 goals and registering 23 points for Milwaukee and Peoria over two seasons.
Alex Lintuniemi played junior hockey in Ottawa and was drafted by the Kings 60th overall (2014). He appeared in 180 AHL games registering 60 points.
As mentioned earlier in this thread, Juhamatti Aaltonen was also drafted to the NHL (one of the last players in 2003, by the Blues), but no other player has
been picked from the players in this set.
Missing these:
AUTHENTIC SIGNATURE - LEVEL 2
SL2-JH KVA JOONA HUTTULA

AUTHENTIC SIGNATURE - LEVEL 3
SL3-HK MHK HENRI KIVIAHO

LETTEROLOGY
LL-MJ MBL MATTI JÄRVINEN
LL-JL SPA JANI LAJUNEN


LUCKY LACES
LA-AL KOM ALEX LINTUNIEMI
LA-HK MHK HENRI KIVIAHO

GAME JERSEY
GJ-IK KVA IIKKA KANGASNIEMI

Unique Mark UM-IK KVA IIKKA KANGASNIEMI /11
Unique Mark UM-JA MBL JUHAMATTI AALTONEN /8





Amazingly also the 2nd highest level in Czechia has a full cardset out.
No NHL drafted players here apart from Henri Kiviaho who has been very busy this year and appeared in two levels in Czechia and also in the Finnish elite league.

Missing:
Autograph
3 Aleksi Salonen ZLN