By the way, any word on Matias Sointu yet? I don’t see any mention of him on Ottawa’s site but it sounds like the powers-that-be with Ilves were expecting him to leave there.

Thanks for the comparison, too.

The study you mentioned seems interesting. I’ll have to check it out, if it is available somewhere. I guess Haula was more correct than I thought he was. Gabriel Desjardins did a nice job of comparing the level of the USHL here: http://www.behindthenet.ca/content/USHL.htm

In reviewing your tour of the prospects camps was wondering if you could help me out with a few things – and also had a couple of observations. I believe the Stars did not have a prospect camp (and a couple of other teams cancelled them as well due to finances). With regards to Oskar Osala, he was traded to Phoenix. Also, I saw you mention Ilkka Pikkarainen – I’d be interested in your assessment of another free agent signed this year – Mika Pyorala (Flyers).

One other note you might find of interesting – in your other story about the players selected in the CHL draft you mentioned that Erik Haula said there was not much difference between the USHL and Canadian junior. That is an interesting debate here in North America. A couple of years ago a website here http://www.ushr.com (admittedly with a bias towards college hockey versus juniors) compared the stats of some of the players who had gone from one to the other – mainly college players who decided they didn’t want to play in school for whatever reason and went to play in Canada. Admittedly, it was a small sample but most of those players had higher numbers in Canadian junior than they did in the USHL. While there may have been other factors (the players had matured/developed more, etc), he seemed to feel that it showed the USHL was as competitive if not moreso.

Just some food for thought.

Thanks again for all the info on Finnish hockey.