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In this, the first look at a "Hot List" for the 2014 Draft, we're looking at some players who made big moves up the rankings in Europe.
The first two players, Adrian Kempe and Juho Lammikko, are players who have been on the GTPD radar since early in the season. Their small drops in the rankings actually work in the Blues' favor; these players are now a little more likely to still be available when the Blues' turn comes to pick near the end of each round.
The other players on this ranking are players who have made big jumps in the rankings from Midterm to Final (or, in the case of Oskar Lindblom, are players who, like Kempe and Lammikko, have been on our radar for a while). Several players here were not ranked at all at Midterm, only to jump into Top 50 or even Top 30 spots on the final rankings.
The column headings should be, for the most part, self-explanatory. The "MID" column is the player's rank by Central Scouting at midterm, the "FIN" column is the player's final ranking by Central Scouting, and the "+/-" column represents how many spots the player moved up or down from midterm to the final ranking.
| PLAYER | CLUB/LEAGUE | PS/SH | HGT | WGT | DOB | MID | FIN | +/- | .. | ||
| KEMPE, ADRIAN | MODO JR (SWE) | LW/L | 6' 01.50" | 187 LB | 09-13-96 | 003 EUR | 006 EUR | - 03 |  |
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| LAMMIKKO, JUHO | ÄSSÄT JR (FIN) | RW/L | 6' 02.50" | 189 LB | 01-29-96 | 013 EUR | 014 EUR | - 01 |  |
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| OLLAS MATTSSON, ADAM | DJURGÅRDEN JR (SWE) | D/L | 6' 04.00" | 209 LB | 07-30-96 | 017 EUR | 015 EUR | + 02 | |
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| GAVRIKOV, VLADISLAV | YAROSLAVL 2 (RUS) | D/L | 6' 02.00" | 191 LB | 11-21-95 | 030 EUR | 017 EUR | + 13 |  |
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| LAGESSON, WILLIAM | FRÖLUNDA JR (SWE) | D/L | 6' 02.00" | 196 LB | 02-22-96 | 040 EUR | 018 EUR | + 22 | |
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| BERGMAN, JULIUS | FRÖLUNDA JR (SWE) | D/R | 6' 01.00" | 187 LB | 09-13-96 | 022 EUR | 019 EUR | + 03 | |
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| WALLMARK, LUCAS | LULEÅ (SWE) | C/L | 6' 00.00" | 176 LB | 09-05-95 | 024 EUR | 020 EUR | + 04 | |
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| LINDBLOM, OSKAR | BRYNÄS JR (SWE) | LW/L | 6' 01.25" | 191 LB | 08-15-96 | 023 EUR | 023 EUR | + 00 | |
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| SÖDERBERG, ANDREAS | SKELLEFTEÅ JR (SWE) | D/L | 6' 04.00" | 201 LB | 06-16-96 | N/R EUR | 029 EUR | +112 | |
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| ENGLUND, ANDREAS | DJURGÅRDEN JR (SWE) | D/L | 6' 03.25" | 189 LB | 01-29-96 | 049 EUR | 030 EUR | + 19 | |
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| SOPANEN, EETU | PELICANS JR (FIN) | D/L | 6' 05.00" | 222 LB | 04-24-96 | 042 EUR | 031 EUR | + 11 | |
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| BJÖRNINEN, HANNES | PELICANS JR (FIN) | RW/L | 6' 01.00" | 183 LB | 10-19-95 | N/R EUR | 040 EUR | +101 | |
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| VORONKOV, YEVGENY | CSKA 2 (RUS) | D/L | 6' 01.00" | 191 LB | 03-12-96 | N/R EUR | 046 EUR | + 95 | |
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| BERGKVIST, OSKAR | DJURGÅRDEN JR (SWE) | LW/L | 5' 11.00" | 181 LB | 05-10-95 | N/R EUR | 060 EUR | + 81 | |
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| WESTLUND, DAVID | BRYNÄS JR (SWE) | D/L | 6' 03.00" | 207 LB | 02-05-95 | 083 EUR | 068 EUR | + 15 | |
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Ten of the 15 players on this initial list are Swedish, indicative of how Sweden has come to be the dominant European hockey nation in recent years, surpassing even the Russians. Six of those ten Swedes are defensemen, a position at which an organization can never have too much depth.
The two Finnish forwards, Lammikko and Björninen, were both Top 30 scorers in the Finnish junior league, the Nuorten SM-Liiga. Björninen finished 11th overall in the scoring parade with a 16-35-51 scoring line (plus-7, 30 PM, 4 PPG) in 48 games played, while Lammikko finished 28th overall with a 17-25-42 line (plus-24, 32 PM, 2 PPG, 1 SHG, 1 GWG) in just 37 games.