Day 2 WJC Prospects Update

Team: 2020-21 Custom Team

Initial Creation Date: Dec. 26, 2020

Published: Dec. 26, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

I only got to watch the second half of the Sweden vs. Czech Republic game (last half of 2nd + 3rd) so most of my comments are on Swedish players because they were dominating the play most of the time I was watching lol. The shot count/score indicate the Czechs hung in there for a while, but Sweden started rolling them right as I turned the game on haha. I watched all of the Canada vs. Germany game naturally. Not planning on watching the USA vs. Austria game, not a huge fan of watching blowouts when I'm not cheering for one of the teams, and there isn't much to learn from a scouting sense. If I do watch part of it and notice anything relevant I'll include it in tomorrow's update. I expect Rossi to be the only Austrian that makes a single thing look like it might happen and the USA wins 14-1, with Zegras and Caufield padding their point totals a bit to try and keep up with Cozens. Another couple things I wanted to mention that other people pointed out (and I actually noticed too but forgot about) were that Stutzle played with a physical edge against Finland, which was fairly unexpected but nice to see, and Chinakhov was all over the place in a good way for Russia, he had several good chances, including a breakaway opportunity.

For overall comments on Team Canada, I'll say they played a pretty solid game at both ends of the ice and passes were crisp, which is a good sign, but Germany was very shorthanded, on the second leg of a back to back, and less talented anyway, so it's not really a good test. One thing to watch out for is they seemed to make a LOT of drop passes in this game, this will likely lead to giveaways against better teams if they keep it up. Just because they can get away with it now doesn't mean it's a good habit.

I'll start with Sens and Flames prospects but most of my comments are on other guys today.

Tim Stutzle - He played a lot again for a shorthanded German team, and you could tell he was their best player. Any time it looked like the Germans had any sort of offensive possession, he was right in the middle of it. He made a couple nice plays, including a great move off of a feed from Peterka on a 2 on 1 that forced Levi to make an incredible save. Nice to see a little feistiness from him (had a little shoving match with Cozens at one point) but he was clearly getting more frustrated as the game went on. At least he hates to lose.

Jakob Pelletier - Great positioning on the first goal, he took the German defenseman out of the play by tying him up in front and screened the goalie for a bit, giving Guhle the opportunity to walk in unobstructed from the point and score. He was also really solid on the forecheck. He got a fairly meaningless goal in the 3rd (Canada's 14th oof) but he was in good positioning alone in the slot. This is more on the defensive lapses of an exhausted German team with their mediocre backup (third best goalie if you count the starter they lost to covid pre-tournament) in net rather than his personal skill, but still nice to see.

Connor Zary - He had the lowest ice time of any Canadian, and honestly I didn't really notice him. Saw him out there only a couple times but nothing really happened. One of only three Canadian skaters without a point, and one of those got kicked out after less than 2 minutes of ice time and both are defensive defensemen anyway, so that's not great. Looking for him to have more of an impact later in the tournament.

Other guys:
- Elmer Soderblom is massive and uses his body well to be strong on the puck and defend it in the corners. He was also good at making room for himself in front of the net and screening the goalie, and showed off some good hands when he scored his between the legs goal.
- Emil Heineman looked effortlessly fast on his shorthanded breakaway goal, he had all the time in the world. Not sure if the Czech defensemen were just slow, but yeah, it looked like he was flying and not even trying, which bought him enough time to do what he wanted on the breakaway.
- Philip Broberg was outstanding. He jumped up to pinch at the right times, never looked out of position, and was completely in charge of running the offense from the blueline, making good plays that led to several great chances and a few goals. Everything was going through him and Sweden looked dominant as a result. His ability to jump up, make a play, and get back in position was on point.
- You can tell Alex Holtz is a sniper through and through. He's very good at finding space in the offensive zone and moving to avoid the defense and get open. Plus he has an absolute bomb of a shot lol, his clapper broke someone's stick and every shot he took looked like it was going in.
- I didn't notice Lucas Raymond much in the 2nd period, but he was engaged physically which kinda surprised me. He was better offensively in the 3rd, he made a great pass to set up Soderblom's goal.
- Simon Holmstrom was aggressive in the offensive zone. This did lead to him taking a stupid tripping penalty 200 feet from his own net, but he looked dangerous with the puck on his stick and had a couple good scoring chances.
- Stanislav Svozil made a pretty nifty offensive play on the power play, dangling through several Swedes and nearly leading to a good scoring chance. Didn't really expect this (I've read that he's more of a defensive defenseman) but it was a pretty good play. Defensively I didn't really notice him, but Sweden scored 7 goals lol. He took two penalties, and honestly neither were very good. The first was a hold in the corner when he was caught flat-footed and the second was an elbow to the head late, likely borne of frustration.
- Michal Teply looked like the only Czech player trying to make anything happen offensively while I was watching.
- Bowen Byram had a play where he whiffed on the puck at the blueline and lost it to Peterka, but he caught up to him and managed to prevent even a shot by stripping him of the puck and stopping the breakaway chance. He then carried the puck all the way back and got a clean zone entry. He also set up several other high quality scoring chances with beautiful passes, including the second Krebs goal. Good plays at both ends of the ice, as you'd expect from the guy I think is the best D at the tournament.
- J.J. Peterka is clearly the second best player on Germany. Like Stutzle, he was involved in everything they came up with offensively, had a nice feed to Stutzle on a 2 on 1 early, and scored the first German goal.
- Dawson Mercer was solid on the forecheck, and this led to the second Canadian goal, where he pressured the German goalie into losing the puck and tucked it in with a nice wraparound into the open net. Scored twice today.
- Devon Levi didn't face many shots, but he was pretty solid. He made a beautiful save on Stutzle early as I mentioned above, and the Peterka goal only beat him due to a redirection.
- Arno Tiefensee (the German goalie) was obviously gonna be in tough against an uber-skilled Canadian squad, but he wasn't very good anyway. This was especially obvious on the first Tomasino goal, he was cheating over to the right predicting a pass, which allowed Tomasino to rifle it cleanly past him. He also wasn't tight to his post on the Guhle goal, and mishandled the puck later on, losing it to Mercer leading to another goal. Got the yank after the 1st, but his backup did even worse unfortunately. Just bad overall for Germany in net, even if Canada's offense wasn't lethal it would have been a poor performance.
- I'd never heard of Florian Elias but he's replacing Reichel on Germany's top line and doing a pretty good job honestly. I wouldn't say he's driving the line by any means, but he's keeping up with Stutzle and Peterka and holding his own in the offensive zone. He got the primary assist on the Peterka goal with a nice cross-ice feed and a goal with 18 seconds left. He had a goal and an assist against Finland yesterday as well. A good tournament here could earn him some interest as a late-round overager next year. Dobber had him as a solid late round option this year but he was passed on, likely due to not being able to make the DEL (he was playing in the U20 league last year and is on loan to DEL2 right now apparently), if he can make the jump there that would obviously help, but yeah, he's putting his skill on display at this tournament for sure.
- Alex Newhook is very strong on the puck, on both of his goals he outbattled the defender to open up some room for himself to tuck it in.
- Dylan Cozens is also very good lol, just in general. Blew past the D and scored a nice goal in the 2nd. Hat trick and like 6 points overall? I lost count lol
- Connor McMichael, Dylan Holloway, Jamie Drysdale, and Cole Perfetti had pretty solid showings too. All of them were on the scoresheet and looked good, not that that was a particularly challenging task today.
- I'd like to see more from Quinton Byfield and Jack Quinn, didn't see them much at all and I feel like they can both be difference makers. Both only got a single assist.
- Braden Schneider was a naughty boy, hits to the head are bad. Might get suspended for a game or two on top of missing nearly the entire match against Germany.