Day 3 WJC Prospects Update

Team: 2020-21 Custom Team

Initial Creation Date: Dec. 27, 2020

Published: Dec. 28, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

From now on I'm gonna put the team or draft year of guys in brackets after I mention them for the first time in case I mention a guy y'all have never heard of (I hadn't heard of some of these guys lol). I did end up watching the 2nd period of yesterday's USA vs. Austria game, went pretty much how I expected. Trevor Zegras (ANA) was phenomenal, Matt Boldy (MIN) and Jake Sanderson (OTT) looked dominant, and Matthew Beniers (2021) was impressive as well. Dustin Wolf (CGY) was perfect, not that Austria got many scoring chances but still, he didn't let boredom prevent him from making the 10 stops he had to. Shoutout to Sebastian Wraneschitz (2021 overager), USA got 73 shots, that's absurd. He only allowed one goal in the first despite facing 22 shots. Probably not gonna get drafted or anything, but he was absolutely peppered and the fact that the USA wasn't up by 5 after the 1st is impressive. Today I watched part of the 2nd and the last half of the 3rd in the Finland vs. Switzerland game, the entire Canada vs. Slovakia game (on and off though, was doing chores around the house and honestly was bored out of my mind watching them gain the zone and not shoot), and none of the Russia vs. Czech Republic game but I sure wish I did lol. I'll start with an overview of Canada and then move onto Sens and Flames prospects as usual and finish with general comments.

Canada honestly kinda sucked today. They looked like they were overpassing, trying to make the perfect play, like they weren't yet over how they finished the German game. That's fine when you're up by 10 goals but in a tight match you've gotta reset and focus on getting the puck to the net to create chances, you can pass it 90 times and it'll never go in. What was most infuriating though was that when they did decide to shoot, they decided to try and feather it through traffic, inevitably leading to the puck bouncing off of a stick or a shin pad because it's not gonna get through three guys ever. They had a lot of offensive zone time but honestly never looked all that threatening, Slovakia should have been far further behind in both shots and goals than they were. They'll have to have a little tune up and fix these problems, go back to the basics and focus on volume shooting, before facing Finland (the only reasonable competition they'll face in the round robin), or they'll get eaten alive in the knockout rounds. This is a problem every damn year for Canada after their annual blowout win against the relegation team, it's frustratingly predictable and I don't know how the coaching staff lets it happen every year.

Roby Jarventie (OTT) - I thought Jarventie looked a little lost out there, he seemed to be floating/puck-watching a lot, noticeably with his stick in the air where it does no good. In the offensive zone it was kind of okay because he managed to drift into the open spots and find room for himself in the slot, which I liked to see, but again, even though he was in the right place, he didn't look ready to receive the puck. In the defensive zone he didn't know where to be and was largely ineffective. His play away from the puck is something I definitely think he can work on.

Jakob Pelletier (CGY) - I thought he looked really energetic out there again, really solid on the forecheck. It would probably help him out a bit if Byfield decided to wake up and do anything, literally the only time I saw Byfield is when he deflected a pass into the bench because he couldn't handle it. Still, I like that he was trying to get involved, and he had a decent chance on the rush on a pass from Zary at one point which was pretty cool to see (I think he rang it off the post).

Connor Zary (CGY) - He got bumped up the 3rd line with Byfield and Pelletier in the wake of the Holloway injury which was nice to see, he still didn't play much though. He had a nice feed to Pelletier as I previously mentioned and looked okay on the cycle, but didn't make much else happen that I saw. This line is primed for a breakout imo, Pelletier is putting in the work and Byfield and Zary are both talented enough to explode one of these days, I hope they can figure something out.

Other players:
- Finalnd's top line of Anton Lundell (FLA), Roni Hirvonen (TOR), and Kasper Simontaival (LAK) looked amazing, they were dominant in this game and frequently produced high quality scoring chances.
- Brad Lambert (2022) looked really good while I was watching, you don't see many 17 year olds as poised in the offensive zone as him (he only just turned 17 like 8 days ago too). His feed on the Aku Raty (ARI) goal was perfectly placed, and he did a good job of opening up the lane to make it possible.
- Not gonna say I noticed him much, but Juuso Parssinen (NSH) apparently played really well, he scored before I started watching (great individual effort, I saw the highlight) and won player of the game for Finland.
- Finland's top defensemen had a pretty solid outing today, Ville Heinola (WPG), Topi Niemela (TOR), and Santeri Hatakka (SJS) all played really well. Heinola in particular was fantastic offensively, he showed off some sick dangles, made some well-timed aggressive plays, and set up several high quality scoring chances (including an easy back-door tap-in that Hirvonen somehow missed, that play was all Heinola).
- For Switzerland, Simon Knak (2021 overager) and Raymond Fust (2021) were buzzing in the offensive zone, the only time the Swiss looked like they were making anything happen, both guys were in the thick of it. Fust will play for Chilliwack in the BCHL this year and then the University of Nebraska-Omaha the year after, we'll see if a good tournament here can springboard him into contention for a late round flier in next year's draft.
- Thibault Fatton (2021 overager) looked great in net, he kept Switzerland in the game much longer than they should have been honestly. This was probably more of him just having a good game rather than a sign of a legitimate prospect, but it was good for him and the team, made it more interesting to watch when it was close for most of the game.
- Quinton Byfield (LAK) had another poor showing. He was absolutely invisible and as I mentioned, the only time I noticed him was when he failed to receive a clean pass with no pressure on him. He really needs to step up his game, I'm not sure what it is about the world juniors that turns him into a log when he normally rips it up in junior, but he should really focus on the simple things to try and find his game and turn into an effective player at some point this tournament. If Canada's gonna go all the way, they're gonna need him to step it up a notch and provide some depth scoring (Mercer and Tomasino have that covered for now, but he should really be pushing for a top 6 role, not floundering in an easier position).
- Philip Tomasino (NSH) was great again, very little ice time but still managed to score a nice little goal. He got the goalie to go down early by faking a move to the backhand then just chipped it top shelf. He's very good at reacting to what the goalie does and picking the shot to beat him, he did the same thing on his odd man rush goal against Germany yesterday (instead of passing, he elected to shoot when he saw the goalie cheating early and scored). I would not be surprised if he earns his way up the lineup as a result, could see him in the top 6 by the medal rounds if this continues (similar to McMichael earning his way up the lineup last year).
- Speaking of Connor McMichael (WSH) he was one of the few Canadian players who would actually shoot the damn puck today. He had a few solid shots including a between the legs attempt in front that just about fooled Hlavaj.
- Samuel Hlavaj (2021 double overager) was solid in net today for Slovakia. Canada wasn't testing him nearly enough, but he kept Slovakia in the game a lot longer than they had any right to be. He won player of the game and deservedly so, but if I'm being straight up, I don't think he was unbeatable at all, he wasn't busy enough to get sloppy or anything. If Canada had popped off another 20+ shots, I bet 3 or 4 more woulda gone in and made this game a lot less tense.
- Devon Levi (FLA) was great in goal for Canada, grabbing the win on his birthday. He had a brilliant toe save at the end of the 2nd to preserve the 1-0 lead going into the 3rd. That was probably the most pivotal moment of the game, the offense definitely let Slovakia think they had a chance at coming back by not scoring enough, but Levi was the brick wall that decided no, they weren't going to come back, and held strong. Good for him, should be a confidence boost moving forward, which is only good news for Canada, a confident and collected goalie is what you want.
- Dylan Cozens (BUF) looked pretty good today, picked up an assist on the Tomasino goal and was one of the few guys that made himself known. I do think he has another level that he didn't tap into though, he's good enough that he should've dominated this game, and he only looked slightly above average if that makes any sense. Expecting big things moving forward.
- Jamie Drysdale (ANA) and Bowen Byram (COL) are absurdly good, it's not really fair that they're on the same team, let alone the same pair. Both guys were actually creating chances in the attacking zone (something Canada struggled with as I mentioned, like come on only outshooting SLOVAKIA 23-18?? Smh) and still looked solid defensively. Byram was also showing off a physical side to his game, he had a couple really clean open-ice hits and was dishing out bruises in the corners too. Love to see it, this is definitely a championship-calibre top pair.
- Justin Barron (COL) was kind of responsible for the Slovakia goal, he should've cut off the far side shot and let Levi face Chromiak on the short side. Pretty simple fix though, it likely won't happen again. It did give me a scare though, Slovakia should not have been within one at that point.
- Speaking of Martin Chromiak (LAK), he's got an absolute rocket, looking dangerous out there. He's definitely a guy you've gotta pay attention to when defending, especially when he's on the power play. Scored a nice goal late to bring Slovakia back within one prior to the empty netter.
- Cole Perfetti (WPG) was one of the guys I thought was playing the style I mentioned at the top about trying to make everything too pretty. He for sure has the skill to pull it off sometimes, but it wasn't working today, and he should've adjusted and just started peppering the goalie honestly.
- Shoutout Jordan Spence (LAK) for coming in as a healthy scratch, playing the least amount of time (barely 5 minutes), and still making an impact by making no mistake and scoring early. He'll probably be out of the lineup again vs. Switzerland once Schneider is back, but he's a good team player for sure, and definitely helped get the win today.

Overall today was a great day to be a Kings or Preds fan, some of their more fringe prospects were tearing it up.