(Edmonton) The Anaheim Ducks may have had a few poor seasons, but their rebuilding looks promising.
Updated yesterday at 10:12 p.m.
Their 2019 first pick, ninth overall, center Trevor Zegras flew past the 2021 World Junior Championship with 18 points in 7 games on the American top line, one point short of the record set by Doug Weight in 1991.
The second center in the Ducks’ future roster, Mason McTavish, third overall pick in 2021, added two goals to his tally on Saturday against the Czech Republic, to bring his total to ten points, including six goals, in just three games since the start of the World Junior Championship.
Canada earned a third straight victory in Edmonton, 5-1, after defeating Latvia 5-2 and Slovakia 11-1. The Canadian team shot 57 times on the poor goalkeeper Tomas Suchanek, solid despite everything.
Czechia’s lone scorer, Martin Ryzavy, a 2021 Columbus Blue Jackets seventh-round pick, bragged about his keeper after the game.
I have known him for 14 years. He is an extraordinary goalkeeper. At his best, he could probably allow just three goals on 60 shots. So he has all our respect, he helped us a lot.
Martin Ryzavy
McTavish is eight points away from equaling the Canadian record for most points in a tournament set by Brayden Schenn in 2011 and Dale McCourt in 1977. He will have two to four games to do so, depending on Canada’s results.
Ducks director of recruiting Martin Madden Jr. also dared to draft 5’9″ defenseman Olen Zellweger in 2021, 78 points in 55 games in Everett, Junior League West, another important part of the Canadian team in this tournament.
Things will start to get a little more serious for Canada starting Monday against Finland.
The Czech Republic has bet on reconstruction this summer. It represents the youngest team in the tournament after Slovakia, crushed on Thursday, and has only six 19-year-old players (as of December 31, 2021, when the tournament was presented, finally postponed to August), the lowest total of all registered teams. The Czechs additionally have five 17-year-olds in their squad.
Already better endowed in talent, Canada has 14 players aged 19, 10 aged 18 and only one aged 17 or under, not the least of whom is Connor Bedard.
The Czech Republic, led by Canadian prospect Jan Mysak, a 2020 second-round pick, and young defenseman David Jiricek, sixth overall pick in 2022 by the Blue Jackets, defended for half a period, before to give in to Canadian pressure.
The Michigan sauce goal of Kent Johnson, fifth choice overall by these same Blue Jackets in 2021, at the end of the first, seemed to demoralize the Czechs. “The worst thing is that he told me he wanted to score a goal like that before the tournament, he’s crazy,” commented his teammate Brennan Othmann.
Mysak had a low-key game, like the rest of his teammates. The young man remains the great offensive leader of his team, has a lot of speed and tenacity but, barring a major surprise, he should not be seen as a possible offensive player in the NHL. At 19 last winter, he amassed just over a point per game (64 points in 61 games) with the mighty Hamilton Bulldogs of the Ontario Junior League. By comparison, Hamilton teammate McTavish, a year his junior, had 40 points in just 24 games after being acquired.
Bedard was not transcendent, but with such talent, it only takes a gesture, a light pass, to produce a goal. He sent McTavish on a breakaway to allow him to score his second of the game.
Another Canadian prospect, Joshua Roy, relegated to the third line, had a lackluster but effective match.