Group A
Canada
The Canadian team not only has the two possible first draft picks, Connor Bedard and Adam Fantilli, but it has also received a boost from the Arizona Coyotes and the Seattle Kraken with the loans of forwards Dylan Guenther and Shane Wright. The Los Angeles Kings did the same with defenseman Brandt Clarke.
Only four players in the squad are under 19, including the gifted Bedard and Fantilli. Canada have the depth to afford to pass CH prospect Owen Beck and first-round picks Conor Geekie and Matthew Savoie.
The Canadians will be big, averaging 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds. On defense, only Olen Zellweger, their best, is under 6-foot-2.
Their goalkeepers Ben Gaudreau and Thomas Milic will have their first experience at the World Junior Championship, but they have experienced the World Under-18 Championships.
We must once again establish Canada as the favorite going into this tournament.
Sweden
Sweden would have liked to count on their best defender, Simon Edvinsson, but the hope of the Red Wings, chosen in 6e rank in 2021, preferred to stay in the American League. The state of health of two members of their super trio of young people, Noah Östlund and Jonathan Lekkerimäki, is not optimal since they were inactive in the weeks preceding the tournament.
Sweden will nevertheless have a first-class formation. Only one defenseman, Ludvig Jansson, will return, but she still has four of the top five scorers 20 or under in the Swedish Premier League (SHL), including Canadian prospect Adam Engström.
There is no shortage of talent on offense with Liam Öhgren to complement Östlund and Lekkerimäki, in addition to fellow first-round picks Fabian Lysell, Filip Bystedt, Isak Rosén and youngster Leo Carlsson, a likely top-five pick in 2023. Sweden hasn’t won gold in 20 years at this tournament.
Czech Republic
This team finished fourth in the World Championship last summer and is counting on the return of many players. It will be to follow.
The defense will be led by the sixth choice in 2022, David Jiricek, already dominant in the American League within the Columbus Blue Jackets school club, with whom he even played a few games. the top 4 is completed by Tomas Hamara, Stanislav Svozil and David Spacek, all drafted in the NHL and already accustomed to this tournament.
The best forward also already dominates in the American League. Jiri Kulich, the Sabers’ late first-round pick, has 16 points in 24 games at just 18 years old with the Rochester Americans. The other forwards don’t have his track record, but seven of their forwards are at least 6-foot-3 and several of them are already drafted. It will also be necessary to keep an eye on the young Eduard Sale, probable choice in the top 10 in 2023.
Goaltender Tomas Suchanek knows tobacco as he led the Czechs to fourth place in the most recent tournament.
Germany
This team has already been more powerful. But his best youngsters, Tim Stützle, Moritz Seider and Lukas Reichel, are already in the NHL, or close to it, and too old for the tournament. Germany reached the quarter-finals last summer but have since lost several players. Only two defensemen have Championship experience, Adrian Klein and Nils Elten, but they aren’t on the NHL’s radar.
The attack is also very inexperienced. Only two forwards have been drafted into the National League, Haakon Hanelt, the Capitals’ 2021 fifth-round pick, and Julian Lutz, the 2022 second-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes but whose first experience at Worlds will be junior.
The Germans will have to rely on their collective game and their enthusiasm, but unless there is a surprise, they should settle for a single victory, against Austria.
Austria
The challenge for this nation will be to avoid the massacre against Canada, Sweden and Czechia, but also relegation in anticipation of 2024.
Austria is without its best player, center Marco Kasper, eighth choice by Detroit in 2022. We chose to keep him in Sweden, in the SHL, where he has scored 14 points in 26 games so far with Rögle. It seems to be a trend from the Red Wings, who had done the same thing with Moritz Seider and are repeating it with Edvindsson and Kasper.
The offense will therefore rest on the frail shoulders of the Canadiens’ third-round pick in 2022, Vinzenz Rohrer, one of Ottawa’s best 67s in the Ontario Junior League. But he is not very well surrounded. It will nevertheless be necessary to follow the young Ian Scherzer, a candidate for the next repechage who obtained three points in four games at the World Championship last summer.
David Reinbacher will be the leader in defense. He took part in the tournament last summer and plays with the men in Switzerland in Kloten, where he has 14 points in 28 games. He’s one of four returning defenders, which is noteworthy.
Group B
United States
Americans have things to be forgiven. After posting a perfect record in four games in the preliminary round, they lost in the quarterfinals to the Czech Republic in the most recent tournament.
The goalkeeper who cracked in the quarters, Kaidan Mbereko, is back. He’s 5-foot-11 and has never been drafted, but he’s still very athletic. He will have to rise to the occasion in critical moments.
The defense is a strong point for the Americans, among others with the presence of Luke Hughes, fourth choice in 2021, but also of the hope of CH Lane Hutson, whose name is now associated with the leaders of the team despite his 18 years. .
The offense is talented, but still young, with Logan Cooley, Jimmy Snuggerud, Cutter Gauthier and Rutger McGroarty all 18 years old. The oldest were confined to secondary roles.
It could therefore be a transitional tournament for the Americans, with the departures of Matt Beniers, Matt Coronato, Matthew Knies, Jake Sanderson and Brock Faber, all selected for the December 2021 tournament.
Finland
The Finns will have a lot to do to repeat their exploit of the summer with a silver medal. They might even have won gold if Mason McTavish hadn’t stopped a flying puck on the edge of his overtime goal in the final.
Their best forward, Joakim Kemell, led last summer with 12 points in 7 games, and was drafted 17the rank of the first round by the Nashville Predators, but his offensive production is lower than last season in SM-Liiga this season.
Brad Lambert is the other Finn drafted in the first round in 2022, at 30e rank by Winnipeg, but he doesn’t break anything in the American League. He should nevertheless be able to stand out against youngsters of his age, even if he was relegated to the bench in important moments last summer by his coach during the most recent tournament. We could even entrust the center of the first line to the hope of Canadian Oliver Kapanen, 19, a second-round choice in 2021 who does not however have a great offensive profile.
The best-known defenseman is Aleksi Heimosalmi, a 2021 Hurricanes second-round pick who’s been pretty productive in SM-Liiga at Assat for a 19-year-old with 12 points in 25 games.
We must not make the mistake of underestimating the Finns with their formation on paper, because their collective game and their aggressiveness always make them a nation to follow.
Swiss
Switzerland will fight with Latvia, Germany and Austria to avoid relegation. His goaltender from last summer, Kevin Pasche, is back, but he wasn’t brilliant in the most recent tournament and he’s been struggling this winter in Omaha, USHL.
The star on defense is first-round pick Lian Bichsel at 18e rank, in 2022 by the Dallas Stars, but the only other defenseman drafted by a National League club, Brian Zanetti, has had very little impact this season in the Ontario Junior League despite being 18 years old.
There is no big name on offense, apart from several QMJHL players, Attilio Biasca, 27 points in 28 games in Moncton, his teammate Jonas Taibel and Louis Robin, 14 points in 16 games in Val-d’ Gold and Shawinigan.
Switzerland will have to take advantage of a great collective performance and the prowess of their goalkeepers to hope to win a match or two, as in their lean years.
Slovakia
Despite the presence of some top young players, including Simon Nemec and Filip Mesar, we will have to lower our expectations of Slovakia, especially after the crushing defeat suffered against Canada in the preseason match. Juraj Slafkovsky’s presence certainly wouldn’t have hurt.
The team remains very young, full of talent, and it could eventually replace Slovakia among the great hockey nations as in the past.
Goalkeeper Matej Marinov, unlike his colleague from Switzerland, shines in the USHL in Fargo and he is 19 years old. The defense is obviously dominated by the second choice in 2022, Simon Nemec, but he is supported by Viliam Kmec, also 18, already a member of the first pair at the World Junior Championship last summer. The other two members of top 4 of the most recent tournament, David Natny and Maxim Srbak, are back.
Mesar, a late first-round pick, will be the top forward, but he’s only 18 too. To back it up, Servac Petrovsky, Adam Sykora and Adam Zinka have all already been drafted by NHL clubs. 17-year-old Dalibor Dvorsky, already in the pros in Sweden, could be a National League top-10 pick in 2023.
Latvia
This small nation of less than 2 million people has had great success since the arrival of Bob Hartley as the spiritual father of its national teams, but it will be fighting against giants during the holidays. Latvia owes its place in the world group to the suspension of Russia and Belarus by the International Federation.
His goalies, Patrik Berzins and Deivs Rolovs, play in second-rate circuits, although Berzins is due to join the University of Maine next year.
Its two best defenders, Niks Fenenko and Bogdans Hodass, are in the Canadian junior ranks, the first in Baie-Comeau, the second in Medicine Hat, where they do not hurt. Hodass is a big defender with a more defensive character.
The offense still has three NHL draft picks, Sandis Vilmanis (Florida), Klavs Veinbergs (Tampa) and Dans Locmelis (Boston), but none were selected until the fourth round.
Without top-tier attackers, the Latvians would have to rely on the famous strategy of rope-a-dope popularized by Muhammad Ali, that is to say to try to resist the enemy grapeshot and hope to count on his rare occasions…