Montreal Canadiens: Oliver Kapanen Named to Finland’s World Junior Team

Montreal Canadiens prospect Oliver Kapanen was officially named to the roster for Finland at the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championship.

Kapanen was selected by the Canadiens in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft. He played last season with Kalpa in their Under-20 program and he had a fantastic season. He was just 17 during last season and he scored 41 points in 33 games to lead his Junior team in scoring.

The impressive thing is, Kapanen is known more for his defensive prowess than his obvious offensive instincts.

This season, Kapanen, though he just turned 18 in the summer, has been splitting time between the Under-20 roster and the Liiga, pro level team. He scored two goals and seven points in six games for the Junior squad before being called up. He has two points in 11 games at the Liiga level this season.

Kapanen will likely take on a third line centre role for this team, sliding behind Roni Hirvonen and Aatu Raty on the depth chart. He still might find a spot on the second power play and is a likely candidate to be killing penalties as well due to his hockey sense and awareness on the ice. He plays centre, but he’ll have a very similar role to Jesse Ylonen, who was a third line winger and power play guy for Finland when they won a gold medal in 2019.

Finland, like Canada and the USA have won two gold medals in the past six years. They will be a tough out again this year with a deep, but unspectacular team. Finland usually doesn’t need a spectacular looking roster to win, they just rely on smart defensive play and winning battles all over the ice to win games.

Finland will start their tournament on December 26th when they face Germany. They face Austria the next day and should get off to a 2-0 start. They wrap up their pool play with games against Czech Republic on December 29 and Canada on December 31.