Free washer | World Junior Championship: a sometimes misleading tournament

The World Junior Championship being over for a few days, we have to play the killjoy today.

Joshua Roy certainly amazed with his 11 points in 7 games, including the assist on the winning goal in the final, within the best trio of Canada; Adam Engström played in the first pair of the Swedish defence; Oliver Kapanen and Vinzenz Rohrer were at the center of the top three for their respective teams, Finland and Austria; defenseman Lane Hutson has four points in seven games at just 18; Filip Mesar was an offensive catalyst for Slovakia and Owen Beck was eventually called up by the Canadian team and showed great efficiency in a limited role at just 18 years old.

Of this group of seven CH hopefuls, the highest total among the teams of the National Hockey League, how many will eventually play in Montreal in an important role? In light of the past, two or three, four in exceptional circumstances.

They were also seven in 2019. With his eight points, including five goals, in seven games, Ryan Poehling was crowned the tournament’s most valuable player. This first-round choice of the Canadian in 2017 obviously finished first in the American scorers, ahead of Alexander Chmelevski and a certain Jason Robertson, drafted about fifteen rows further, in the second round, by Dallas.

Cayden Primeau had been smoking hot in the American net with four wins and a loss, and a 1.61 average. Alexander Romanov had finished leading the counters among defenders with eight points in seven games, without forgetting the robustness and the spirit to wish.

Jesse Ylonen, a second-round pick in 2018, had six points in seven games, second in scoring for Finland, but Nick Suzuki had settled for three assists in five games, well behind the top three in scoring. Canada, Morgan Frost, Maxime Comtois and Cody Glass.

Defenseman Josh Brook had had a modest tournament, but his mere presence with the Canadian team was a pleasant surprise, while Jacob Olofsson remained an unsung prospect.

We could hope, at the conclusion of the tournament, to see at least three or four of these hopefuls eventually have an impact in Montreal, with in mind obviously Poehling, Primeau and Romanov, perhaps Ylonen. Suzuki’s performance had chilled many.

Poehling followed that up with three goals in his Montreal debut against Toronto a few months later. Here he is today in a fourth line with the Pittsburgh Penguins, with eight points in 31 games, not bad, but dropped by Montreal last summer in the exchange of Jeff Petry to reduce the payroll. Jason Robertson, who was content with one goal and six assists for the Americans at this tournament, is now fourth in NHL scoring with 57 points in 41 games, behind McDavid, Draisaitl and Pastrnak. How the World Junior Championship is a bit of a deceptive beast.

Cayden Primeau, 23, is still in the American League. After an impressive playoff run last year, he’s had a tough season plagued by injuries.

Alexander Romanov has become a good defenseman in the NHL, but not the offensive defenseman he was for the Russians. He served as bait to get Kirby Dach and plays in the first pair for the Islanders, is employed for about twenty minutes like his four other colleagues Dobson, Pelech, Mayfield, Pulock, and shows 13 points in 41 games, in road to a 26-point season.

Ylonen, 23, is progressing well in Laval. He has 27 points in 34 games, but not enough to warrant a recall just yet. Antony Richard had this chance, Rem Pitlick and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard will undoubtedly be the next.

Jacob Olofsson is still in Sweden and should stay there, he doesn’t even belong to the Canadiens organization anymore. Brook is trying to revive his American League career with the Calgary Flames, but he’s still waiting for the chance to play his first NHL game.

In the case of Suzuki, no need to tell you the rest, we wouldn’t trade him for ten Poehlings.

An encouraging fact nevertheless for the current vintage: all the hopes of the Canadian in 2019 were 19 years old. They were among the oldest at this tournament, so in a position to dominate.

This year, besides Joshua Roy and Oliver Kapanen, Filip Mesar, Lane Hutson, Vinzenz Rohrer, Owen Beck were all 18 and are eligible for the tournament next year. Adam Engström is also from the 2022 vintage, but turned 19 six weeks before the start of the tournament, therefore considered a late in professional jargon.

A bold prediction? Hutson will become the best of the group and an important defender for the Canadian.

Slafkovsky and Wright, two opposite roads

Shane Wright has just been sent back to the junior ranks in Ontario, where he would be close to being traded to the London Knights. The Canadian and the Kraken adopted two approaches at the antipodes for these two players drafted in the top 4 last summer.

Wright started the NHL season as Slafkovsky, but was scratched several times before being returned to the American League in November to regain form. He played a match with the Kraken on his return, against the Canadian, before being loaned to the national junior team.

After a lackluster tournament, Wright will end the season with the juniors, where he will have the chance to dominate with the Hunter brothers’ London Knights, dominating in recent weeks after a more difficult start to the season.

Some blame the Canadian for not allowing Slafkovsky to represent Slovakia at the World Junior Championship. We opted for stability. The young man remains in the same environment and gets his dozen minutes per game, even if he does not produce much these days.

Wright has the opportunity to face less competitive competition, but he will have played for four clubs and as many coaches in recent weeks: the Kraken, the Coachella Valley Firebirds in the American League, the Canadian junior team and finally the Knights.

Wright’s approach hasn’t worked well with Barrett Hayton and Dylan Strome in Arizona, although Strome has been doing better since leaving the desert, but has been positive for Mark Scheifele.

The Slafkovsky approach hasn’t worked well with Jesperi Kotkaniemi in Montreal or Alexis Lafrenière in New York (at least so far), but has worked with Jack Hughes and, at the time, Joe Thornton and Vincent Lecavalier.

The future will tell us!