Five Finnish defensemen played in the NHL in 1989-90: Numminen, Lumme, Ruotsalainen, Siren and Gronstrand. Of those five, the right-shot Numminen (6-foot-2, 198 pounds) and the left-shot Lumme (6-1, 210) would have been an obvious choice to be the top pair. They were smart players with lots of hockey sense and size.

Finland is adding defensemen Henri Jokiharju of the Sabres and Urho Vaakanainen of the Rangers to its roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Urho Vaakanainen of the New York Rangers and Henri Jokiharju of the Buffalo Sabres have been added to the Team Finland roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off as injury replacements for defenseman Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars and Jani Hakanpaa of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

New York Rangers defenseman Urho Vaakanainen has been added to the Team Finland roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off as an injury replacement for defenseman Miro Heiskanen. #NYR defenseman Urho Vaakanainen has been added to the Team Finland roster for the #4Nations Face-Off.

The Rangers will have another representative during the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament later this month, as defenseman Urho Vaakanainen was added to Team Finland’s roster as an injury replacement 10 days before the first game.