The Athletic Hockey Show - World Juniors recap: Canada gets the gold over Czechia, USA takes bronze, and Connor Bedard steals the show

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

On a brand new Prospect Series episode of The Athletic Hockey Show immediately following the World Junior Championship gold medal game, Max and Corey, on location at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, give their instant reaction to Canada’s victory and discuss Shane Wright’s big night, Connor Bedard’s all-time tournament performance, Luke Hughes taking heat online over the last week or so, Slovakian goalie Adam Gajan making a big impression, impacts on the 2023 NHL Draft, and much more.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowCancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to http://RocketMoney.com/HOCKEYSHOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey everybody, Max Boltman here with Corey Pranman for another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show's Prospect Series. Our World Junior Recap episode, Corey, you're still on site there as the chaos unfolds. Amazing finish to this game. Really a finish befitting the entire tournament. Yeah, you might hear some of the Canadian fans funneling out of here as they continue a long celebration of yet another

World Junior Gold Medal and you mentioned a great gold medal gave and since we recorded with Chris after the end of the round Robin, I think we recorded actually right before the end of the round Robin. There's been a series of just incredible medal round games. You had that thrilling Canada

Slovakia overtime game in the quarterfinals. Sweden, Finland was a great quarterfinal game and you had of course Canada, USA and a semis. Czech Sweden semis that went to overtime, a great bronze medal game between Sweden and USA, and then a fantastic gold medal game between Canada and Chequia, that went through a very long three-on-three overtime process

before it eventually concluded. Just a really highly entertaining tournament, and the fans that were here and watching it at home, I think, felt very entertained and rewarded for tuning into this one. Absolutely. I mean, let's start with Team Kemp. Canada because they do get the win. You mentioned that Slovakia game, and you can't tell that story without the

heroics of Connor Bedard. Sure. In total, to me, the response from Team Canada could not have started their tournament on a tougher note. And to come back, and, you know, even in this gold medal game, real diversity, like, they blow a 2-0 lead, and all of a sudden, you know, they could tighten up and they find a way to get it done. I think that's kind of the defining trait of this Canadian group when you look at

back on it is how they responded when it got tough. Yep, and kind of similar to the Summer World Junior, too, and how that gold medal game went. But no, this team had a lot of adversity, and despite how loaded this Canadian roster looked on paper, there were lots of issues that kind of popped up with it throughout the tournament. The reliance on Connor Bedard in that line

with him and Logan Stancoven and eventually Joshua Wada formed together was really apparent throughout the tournament. A lot of those lines were not getting going on a consistent basis. A lot of their defensemen were not really providing the kind of impact you would have hoped they were going to give him. And then as the tournament kind of concluded, that started to get a little bit better. Brad Clark was the victim on the second check goal, but then he made the play that led to the overtime goal.

But what was really interesting to me was that that top line, at least the one that was on paper is the top line, obviously Bedard's line was Canada's top line of Shane Wright in between Brian Offman and Dylan Getther. They were good, you know, played a lot of minutes. They were good two-way. they had some offense, but they weren't dominant for giving the talent on that line. And in a big moment in the gold medal game, Shane Wright had one of the best games I've ever seen from him, and Dylan Genther scores two really important goals.

Obviously, the overtime winner on that two-on-one, and then that classic Dylan Genther goal where he finishes a chance from the circles with a really elite shot. And I think that was a great common. nation of a game for King Canada where they didn't rely on Bedard after he did practically everything for them through his skill, his shot, his playmaking, his pace throughout the rest of the tournament. Let's stay on Shane Wright for a second. We are going to get to Connor Bedard, but for the ups and downs that this kid has been through in the last several months, to have this kind of game on this stage, to have this moment that he has getting to take the trophy and kind of get his

moment in the sun. The significance of that and what's next for him here, especially as we had seen him kind of coming on a little bit, even before this tournament in the HL. It's great for Shane. Obviously, he hasn't gotten maybe the ice time he's won in the first half of this season. Really, you know, tumultuous last couple of years for Shane Wright is an incredible exceptional status season as a 15-year-old. Then as a 16-year-old doesn't play outside of that one tournament at the U-18s in Dallas. His actual draft season, a 17-year-old season, really up and down, not that impressive. And then he comes here and for most of the tournament, he's not playing too too well. He's getting a lot of shit, you know, from people, you know, around Canada. And to have that

moment where he was impactful. And not just the highlight real goal. It was a great goal and one of the best goals I've seen him score. But it was like he was competing. He was pressuring guys. He was creating a lot of really positive things for Canada at both ends of the ice. And it was great to see. Now, Seattle has been doing really well of late. You know, they've had an elite offense in the NHL. As we're recording this right now, I think they're up on Toronto considerably. It's hard to see how Shane Wright fits in that lineup at this current moment. When this is a team that's pivoted from, you know, not a great NHL team to, hey, we could be a playoff team right now.

And my best guess, and just this is both just a, just a, speculation but also kind of informed from talking to people around the league is I think he will end up going back to the OHL for the second half of the season. And you think that's the right call at this point for him and in his development? I think so. Otherwise, he's going to be got that

first half where he's not really playing in Seattle. He's a healthy scratch. Maybe he gets conditioned you know, loaned down for two weeks. He won't get consistent playing time. Go back to junior, being an elite junior player, maybe win a OHL championship. I don't know if that last part is for sure. We'll see where he ends up and how things go. But I don't think Seattle right now is the best fit for him. Well, I do think

it's interesting. I mean, you just talked about with his game tonight in the way it wasn't just the goal. It's the competing. It's the pressuring. Even in the run-up to the draft, these were the things we were talking about is what made Shane Wright such an appealing prospect. Not just that he could score. And we've always known. he had that shot to him. But that he was this dimensional player. And I think, you know, it's hard to be that player at 18 years old in the NHL. And so if he could continue to go back to junior and he can really be that force.

And he kind of got away from that a little bit in his draft season. The player we saw today was vintage Shane Wright. All right. Let's get now to Connor Bedard. Obviously, probably the story of the tournament. I mean, there's no other way to put it. The best ever by an under 18. player. Yeah, I mean, he was just incredible. When you consider that this is a 17-year-old, a very

young 17-year-old, it doesn't turn 18 until the summer, and he was the clear best player at this term by a considerable margin. That's not something you really see ever from a 17-year-old. Like when, let's say, even like when he was draft eligible, Alexie LaFernier was here, you know, he was a late birthday, he was an 18-year-old, and he was the best player here. He wasn't the clear best player. When Rasmus Dalian won his MVP, he was up there, but he wasn't miles above everybody else.

This was a pretty rare performance by a draft eligible player. And you could kind of maybe nitpick and be like, well, if Mitch Koff was here, who knows what would have happened, but he wasn't. And this was the Connor Baderd show. It was the Connor Baderd show on a nightly basis. He impacted the game

in so many ways. I've never seen a team can't. A lean on a 17-year-old like this. I don't recall Crosby's World Juniors, but from the one that I've watched, it was a pretty rare performance. He gave you that feeling almost every time he touched the puck in the offensive zone that something could be about to happen. I mean, especially as this game tonight went on, you thought there was no way he wasn't going to find a way to score the overtime winner. I think it's interesting when you talk about Dylan Genther and a player who's played in the NHL this season. And it's okay. He's managed to produce close to a half point per game in the NHL.

Connor Badar just doubled up and then some what Dylan Genther did scoring was at this event and I wonder Corey is Connor Badard the best player not in the NHL right now? I mean the answer is clearly yes you know as things stand right now it's hard to think of anything otherwise you know again we can Mitch Kott's kind of any unique place over there in Russia it's hard to know exactly where his game is given how limited is it his game action has been

this season but as the first fact stand right now, yes, he is the clear best player not in the NHL. He will be in the NHL next season and he will be an excellent NHL player for a long time. I don't know how good he'll be right away as a rookie. Time will tell on that. And things could change. But as it stands right now, you're looking at a guy who looks like he's going to be an elite NHL player. Is it at center? Is it at the wink? Those are questions that need to be answered. I think anybody is going to pick him first overall. We'll have to at least try. try him at center.

He's been such a game-breaking player at the junior level at center. I think you have to try it. And then it looks like a guy you turn around a rebuild with. How about Logan Stankovina, a guy who, obviously on the Connor Bedard line, did he change his profile? Do he change what people should expect from him in any way at this tournament? I thought this was, I think, not just this tournament, but I think in general, and I've watched him in Camlips this season,

he's just playing with so much pace right now. And that wasn't something I always saw from him in his junior career. And it's why he was able to play center on that top Canadian line. Even though he's not the biggest guy, he has so much competitiveness in his game. And he's playing fast. He is fast. And he has a lot of skill and creativity to go with. That Stan Kovin looks like a really excellent pro prospect right now.

Is he going to bring all of that scoring with him to the NHL? Probably not. He is 5'8, 5'5 foot 9. there is going to probably, he's not, I don't know if he's going to be, you know, this star score in the NHL, but I see a guy who could be a top six forward in the NHL. And I, you know, every time I've watched Canaloups and watched him here at the World Junior, he's just outstanding. All right, let's talk about the checks now.

And honestly, Corey, I'm even more impressed with this check team today than I was when we recorded our mid-tournament update when I think they were still technically in, in position to win their group. I don't know if we recorded that before or after the Sweden game, but they did win the group, and obviously they have a tough disappointment tonight to lose an overtime after coming so far. But I think I'm as impressed with them now as I was ever, to fight back against Sweden, to fight back and even get this game to overtime. A team that Chechia should be incredibly proud of. Yes, I mean, this was their first gold medal game in 20 years, and it was a really impressive

group effort, I thought. Yes, they had the star play. players that did very well. David Yerchek, in my opinion, was the best defensemen at this tournament. You had the other two defensemen on the other pairing, Stanislovs, Svoseil, and David Spachik, who played very well. That top line of Matthias Safavile, in between Yerik Kulj and Versaulay, were excellent. Kulaj in particular, I was been just so impressed by his development over the last two years. That second line, which maybe not had as much high-in NHL talent, but Yaroslav Shmolash, Jakob Brabarnik and Gabriel Sturz, I think, also played very well in this tournament. The goaltender, Thomas DeKonnik, played very well.

So it was a group effort, and I think that you will see NHL players come out of this group. And in particular, Yerichick, you look at what he's done in the American League this year, a point-per-game defenseman right away after the draft, and then he comes here and puts on this kind of performance where he looks like a really impactful two-way defenseman with skill and physicality and scoring ability. I think if you're a Columbus fan, you have to be really happy by what you're seeing right now. Another one of the Czech guys who I think probably put themselves on the radar

for a lot of people at this event, David Spachek, the Wild Prospect. I did not know a ton about him coming into this tournament, and obviously very productive, but I think just had a really good overall event. Yeah, I probably underrated his skating a little bit. His skating looked pretty strong. He was making plays.

he was competing well. The size might be a little bit of an issue with him for the NHL. But, yeah, I would agree. I mean, I've upgraded him as an NHL prospect. I think he's got a chance to be an NHL player, even at that size for a defense bid. That pair with him in Sposil, who also is having a very good season

between both junior and now at this tournament was highly impressive. And I thought it was interesting that the Czech coaches, when they had a chance to nominate their players for who they thought the best three players were for them in the tournament. They didn't pick your check. they picked Spachuk.

That is interesting. Ultimately, with a team this good, someone was always going to get snubbed. Eurichek does get the best defenseman of the tournament award from the director, and so he gets his award. Maybe they're just spreading it around to make sure Spachic gets love. But this goes back what we talked about last time. I mean, we haven't even really talked too much about Svazil there,

who was excellent as well. So it was a really good all-around check blue line and a really good tournament for them. I'm sure some heartbreak, but ultimately a huge accomplishment. All right, Corey, let's go now to the U.S. and a U.S. team that was probably built to win the exact kind of game that they won in the bronze medal game, eight to seven over Sweden. It was pure firewagon hockey.

Never felt like it was over until the very end. And ultimately, you know, I'm curious how you think this team, USA team will be kind of remembered because, you know, they finish with the bronze. That's a good outcome by any measure. But what's kind of your takeaway overall on this United States team? I thought they were an excellent team, and I thought in that semi-final against Canada, there were long stretches where they looked like they could play with them, and where they look like they could have won that game.

Ultimately, they lost the goaltending battle there, and I don't want to fault Trey Augustine too much. He's a 17-year-old goaltender. That's a very tall task to ask of a 17-year-old to stop a team Canada with all their weapons, including Connor Bedard. But it was just a matter of the fact that Canada got the saves and Thomas Millich in that game and USA could not get the stops with Trey Augustine in net.

But otherwise, I thought the team competed hard. I thought they were creating offense. I thought their top line was doing all the things that make them successful. I didn't think Luke Hughes was amazing in that game, but I thought he was good. He had the nine shots on goal. He had the one that went off the post.

He was doing the things that usually made. make him successful outside maybe one or two shifts that he would like to have back. And the bronze medal game, again, you know, all that offense. You got to even see that second line with Lucius on there scoring a hat trick where he didn't have a big tournament up until that point. It was great to see him get the hat trick there. And I think, I didn't think that they were a gold medal favorite coming to this season. I think next year is USA's year potentially win another gold medal.

You're going to have those 0-4s, you know, snug, and Red, McRourty, Gochier, Frank Nayser, maybe of Logan Cooley, if he's available. To add on to Will Smith and Ryan Leonard, all of her more, Charlie Stramwell, Gavin Brinley, maybe even a Hagen's or an Eisenman onto this team. I think next year will be their year to be the favorite. Arizona did Team Canada solid in this tournament by loaning Dylan Genther and maybe they do the same for the U.S. next year with Logan Cooley. But let's key in on Luke Hughes for a second.

You talked about it. I think Luke Hughes kind of took a little bit of online heat over the course of the last couple days. And you kind of mentioned it. I didn't personally feel like he had a bad event. I mean, obviously, he's as impactful offensively as I think you hope Luke Hughes is. But what's your overall read on his tournament? Yeah, I don't think he had a bad event either. And the U.S. team didn't feel that way as well. Out of all the great players they had to pick from, they nominated him as one of their best players in the tournament ahead of, say, a Cutter Goce or, or some of the other talented players on their team.

And Luke, I think, by the way he plays, inspires a little bit of division. Because, you know, he stands out because his skating is so special, especially for a guy that I size, and he has the skill and the creativity. But he plays on the edge. Like, he tries to dance guys at the Blue Line, where he's the last man back, and he's one-on-one. And you saw it several times at that tournament. He makes that play, and it doesn't work, but his skating is so good, he can get back and recover, but when it doesn't work,

and he, you know, he can't compensate for some of his aggressiveness or maybe him getting a little too overaggressive or a little too lack ofadaisical with how he kind of floats around there, it looks really bad from a visual perspective. But I think if you look at the body of work of all the entries, the exits, the passes, the scoring chances he's creating, I think in an aggregate from all the games I watched here, he was one of the best defensemen here,

even if, you know, I think, with Luke Hughes, and I think Quinn Hughes was the same way, to be quite honest, is you ride the wave a little bit with him. I think when you have that kind of offensive defenseman who wants to have the puck on a stick at all times,

you know, maybe like Dougie Hamilton could be like this a lot, for example, that you know, you just, you got to live with the downs of those waves because you know there's going to be a lot more ups too. Yeah, it won't be the first or last time we've kind of had a conversation along those lines with Luke Hughes, but I do

kind of wonder if it also, you know, the way Team USA was built made it kind of inevitable that it would come up in this tournament. They did not have that classic shutdown pair, really. No, their blue line was like really unimpressive outside of Luke. Like, you know, there's, they had just a bunch of small, immobile, puck-moving defensemen, like, like Barron's a nice player. And, you know, Hudson's been really good in college this year. But like, like between those guys and Middlestad, Pyrt, Uffko, like so many of those guys that look really similar, there was no guy there who was a really rock defensively.

And I think you saw that against Canada. I thought those two outside of the Luke Barron's pair, that being the Hudson-Mittlestad pair and the Uffko-Piered pair, I thought they really struggled in that game because I still think they had the depth in the blue line to match up against all those threats that Canada had. So we knew coming in at the top line for the UFK. was going to have to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

And I think they accomplished that in large part. I mean, Logan Cooley obviously makes the all-tournament team. He had a great tournament. Sure. I think you referenced, you referenced, you know, if not for Conor McArre, he might be the story of this tournament. But Jimmy Snuggarood was also every bit as good as he's been at Minnesota this year, I'd say. Yeah, and I think saying how good and talented Logan Cooley is has gotten a little bit old.

Everybody knows he's a dynamic skater. all the skill. He's, you know, he buzzes around the ice. We've seen it for years. It's almost like Jimmy Snuggaroot's almost like the new kid in town. You're like, oh, hey, you're really good too. Like, look how good you've been in college this year. And now one of the best players here. That's, that's really interesting. And it is. I mean, he went in the 20s in the draft in the 2022 NHL draft. He wouldn't go in the 20s if he redid that draft right now. His skating still isn't great. But, man, he's got skill. He competes like a bastard. He's got scoring ability. I mean, he's just,

he's an awesome hockey player and obviously Cooley was really good there too and even though I don't think Goce was as good as those two he was still very good on that top line as well but I mean Cooley to me he's just he's so dynamic like you can go if you have a chance

in the second half you need to watch that Minnesota Gopher's team with him and Snuggarood and Nyes talking to you Max but also to generally our listeners too because that line is just so fun to watch right now I believe it. I mean, the way that Snuggaroon pulled that puck off the wall and gets it in front to Cooley, you can just see that he's going to be a multi-dimensional player in the NHL, and I think St. Louis is going to be really glad to have him. Anyone else on the American team that you wanted to kind of highlight here,

whether it was Rucker McGority or Gavin Brindley who had his moments at this tournament? I think both Brinley and Charlie Stramel on that fourth line helped themselves a lot, particularly Shremel whose season looked like it was going really in the other direction right doesn't have much points

in Wisconsin they're not winning many games you watch him he doesn't have to puck much when you watch those games and here I thought he got to see be more like the Charlie Stramel we were used to seeing

a big physically imposing fast centerman with some puck skills and an offense is not going to be his calling card but there's enough there with all those physical tools and the work ethic that I think he is an exciting pro prospect. I've talked to scouts here

who think he could be a top 15 pick in the draft, and it wouldn't surprise me that's ultimately where he ended up. And then last, I guess, of what we kind of want to talk about today is Sweden. They come up just short in the bronze game. Like I said, it was a thriller. And two guys who no surprise were involved in it were probably their two best forwards for the event, Philip B. Stepp and Leo Carlson. Yeah, I mean, I think if you're a San Jose Sharks fans, you have to really like what you've seen from B-Stat at this tournament. And it wasn't just this tournament. I think you want to make sure you don't fall victim to the world junior hype machine a little bit.

He's looked really good in the SHL this season. He's had multiple U-20 tournaments with Sweden at the August and November, where I thought he played really well, also in conjunction with Carlson, at those events. And I see a big center who can skate. He has good offense in his game. You know, there's a lot of tools there to get really excited about. Like this is a guy that I, you know, when he was drafted, you saw the tools, we've talked about the tool, talked about the upside. But now I think you're seeing a guy who I'm thinking, hey, he can be a top six forward, maybe even a top six centerman in the NHL.

And with Leo Carlson, who actually was sick at one point in the middle of the tournament, but still bounced back and had some of his best games after he was sick. You know, really impressive, shows why he's won the top draft eligibles in the upcoming NHL draft. a unique combination of size, skill, offensive hockey sense. And I thought he played with a lot of courage and power in this game. He was probably the only Swedish forward among those high picks that I thought consistently got to the inside and created around the net. And that's partly due to his frame, but it's also partly due to the will in his game.

And he doesn't mind taking a hit to make a play. Between those two, they were consistently impressive for Sweden. Okay, I think we can say confidently coming out of this tournament that any debate around number one probably is going to be a lot quieter, but I wonder, is there now, do we have a little bit of drama here for two between Adam Fantilli and Leo Carlson? I actually didn't think Fantilli was as bad at the event as early in the event, at least, as some people I think felt.

But I thought toward the end he looked, he turned it on, but Carlson was really good. Yeah, and Fantili was really good in the middle round. Not really good, but better in the middle round. He actually got a lot of shifts in the overtime, which was interesting. But in the overtime against Chequia. Yeah, I think that Carl Sadeau played Fantilli here, but Fantilli is more talented than Carlson.

He is a better skater. There is a little bit more of a dynamic element there with turns of the size, skating, skill combination. But I do think it's close. I think there are people around the league you can talk to that would prefer Carlson because of how competitive, how skilled he is, what he's doing against men.

So I think that's interesting debate. And it was also interesting because I remember I was talking to somebody a few days ago. So you're going back to the 2013 World Junior. I'm not sure if you recall that, Max, but that was the World Junior where Jonathan, Drouin and Nathan McKinn were on the same Canadian team.

And as the tournament went on, Drew Ann's responsibility kept going up and up and up. He ended up on the top line, and McKinn barely played. He was a 12th, 13th forward. And obviously, I don't think these two situations, are analogous, even though there's like a little bit more like Drew and was a skill guy and McKinn was the physical tools guy, you know, that the gap is much larger from this one than it was from that one. But, you know, whether it's Bedard or Carlson Fantilli or anybody else, we've still got a half a season left. Olock's pulp probably going to change when it comes to the draft. There might even be a name we're not talking about that could emerge. I mean, Mitch Kov is now going to get consistent playing time in the KHL. What does he do with that? All kinds of things could change over the next six months. You know, I've, you know, I mean, hell, David Reimbocker was really good in spurts here.

You know, I wouldn't surprise me if his name starts to buzz really, really high in the draft. You know, things always change. But in terms of number one, yes, it's fair to say at right now the gap is quite, quite significant. If we had to do the draft right now, nobody, it's hard to make an argument that anybody is close to Bedard after, not just what he's done here, but just this trackbook over the last few years. His dominant U-18s when he was a 15-year-old. this great overall junior career. What he did at the world juniors as a 16-year-old, and now this MVP performance is a 17-year-old.

He's the guy. I don't think, when I say that, I don't think it takes anything away from Fin Tilly. I think it just tells you, like we have this really exciting class this year, and I think Carlson showed that by being one of the better, I mean, one of the very best forwards on a Sweden team that had a ton of talent,

although some of that talent maybe left you wanting more as the tournament went on, other than Bist and Carlson. Right, I'll touch on that, but on the one last thing on Fantilia, I agree. You know how much I love your eyes, Slavkowski. Our listeners know that,

you know, Fantili is a better prospect than Slavkoski is, and I would argue by a significant margin. Like, you know, I think the world of Fantili, but there's just, there's that gap there at one. On Sweden, you're right. Now, it's interesting talking about that after what happened in the bronze medal game,

where they had that offensive outburst. And if that team had showed up a little bit more consistently, we might be talking about a different team Sweden right now. Maybe one that was in the gold medal game. Maybe one, we're talking about how all these first rounders had really strong tournaments. But that wasn't the case. Jonathan Lekkeramaki, the Vancouver First Round Pick, got benched in the medal round. Noah Oseland, who was very good today in the bronze medal game, was named player of the game.

It generally was just okay, got taken off the power plate for Sweden. His other year-yard linemate, other than Lekromackie, Liam Ogren, didn't do a ton offensively either. Fabian Liesel got relegated to the 13th forward in the bronze medal. mental game had zero points in the tournament leading up to that and then takes a match penalty in the first couple of minutes. A very forgettable tournament for him. In general, again,

there was a lot of young players on this team, Sweden. I think next year they're going to be in a much better situation to potentially contend in the tournament. I think you're going to have that. It's basically going to be the age group that won the U18 Worlds and you're going to add, I think, a very impactful Leo Carlson into

that mix. I think they'll be better situated in that type of tournament. They were young here, but given how much talent they had up front, I was expecting a little bit more offense. If I had told you coming into this tournament that Philip Bistet was going to be their clear offensive leader, that probably would have concerned you a little bit. Unless I was an employee of the San Jose Sharks, yes.

Correct. And I like Beestead. I'm not trying to discredit at Bistead. No, no doubt. But like when you looked at this age group historically, even like that 04s, when, you know, Ossland, like Ramaki, Ogren, you know, Beastet wasn't the clear, leader of that group, at least offensively.

Even when you go out to that U18 world, he was a second power play guy, not the top power play guy among that group. But kind of harkering back to a previous discussion, we just had a few minutes ago. As time moves on, things change. Yep. Absolutely. I think we could probably have, we could probably fit Finland in here as we talk about this too. I mean, I'll be real quick on that one.

They sucked. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it just wasn't a good tournament for them. And we talked in the preview episode, Finland always shows up for these events and they just didn't have it at this one. They have like the ups and downs. They've had those two years in the last decade

where they went to the relegation round. Now the relegation round used to include more teams, not just the bottom two teams, so that made things a little bit different. And then they've had, you know, several gold medals. So they've had these weird fluctuations with their talent pool. I don't mean to say that they were massively underperformed.

I think you looked at the roster and you didn't expect a hole locked out of them. But it's, still finelin, so there's an back to your mind. You're like, oh, somebody's going to emerge. There's some, there's some good player here that I'm, you know, not giving enough credit to. That's going to pop and help them win some games. And it didn't happen.

It really didn't. You know, there was nobody, like Yolkham Kamel, the Nashville first round pick was good. You know, he was somewhat consistent. But there really wasn't, like, a guy or two on this team that was going to, like, consistently create offense to them and help them win hockey games. All right. One more guy I want to touch on before we wrap up here is the Slovak goalie, Adam Guyon.

A player who I think is going to catch a lot of people, have caught a lot of people by surprise over the last two weeks, but he's eligible for this coming draft, Corey, and I want to know what did he do to improve his stock at this event. Well, I will answer that question, but as we are talking, Chris Peters is walking by me right now. Hello. Hello, Chris.

This doesn't count. We're not paying you for this one. They wanted to let you know that this doesn't account. You're not being paid for that. Hello. Max wants to know what you thought of Adam Guy on. Oh, I mean, that was an out-of-nowhere performance that I thought was incredible on a number of levels. Nobody really knew about him.

I mean, I heard of him before was aware that he was getting his start in the USHL and everything. You were aware he was a human? Was aware that he was a guy. And then all of a sudden he shows up here and, you know, they throw him right into the fire against the U.S. He was incredible in that game, the best player on the ice, you know, and then really did give them a chance against Canada, which nobody saw coming. So for me, you know, I have no issue with him winning the Directorate Award

because I think that without him, Slovakia doesn't get as far as the year. We were debating that going in because that was my vote on the Media Award was for Guy, and my argument was he beat Team USA and he took Team Canada to the brink. And those are the two best offensive teams in the tournament. And that for me sealed the deal, even if he didn't have, the sample size, which is why I think the people lean to saccanic or limb bomb or millage. Right, right. And I think that's, that, in the end, became the deciding factor for me as well.

But I'm glad that he got something out of this because he absolutely deserves to be remembered for the tournament. And he is, at least in my, the clear best pro prospect goal at this tournament, right? I would agree, yeah. I mean, you know, and I think all of a sudden you're, you're starting to talk about, hey, this is a guy we need to get up our boards immediately. Yeah, does, is there any rhyme between him and what we saw from Peter Kocchikov when he was a draft eligible for Russia. He was named best goalie at the tournament. Kind of coming out of nowhere as a 19 year old.

All of a sudden now, he's the goalie for Carolina. Yeah, yeah, I think that's the guy that definitely comes to mind because of how he came out of nowhere. I mean, a lot of people were making that Dennis Godla comparison, but he wasn't a pro- prospect. But you look at between him and Coachikov, similar size, similar athleticism, right? Yeah, I would say so. I think the thing that always stood out to me about Kochikov was his ability to, his competitive drive and the ability to fight through traffic and make these saves that you wouldn't expect him to make.

Guyon did that throughout this entire tournament. His best performance for me was the game against Canada, which he ultimately loses. And it took a masterpiece from Connor Bidard to win that game. And he frustrated Baderd a couple of times in that game. Big time. Big time. And I, I'm a big, I love those kind of moments. I think this tournament provides those kind of moments. But for me, this is just a start. This is not the, this is not just a flash in the pan. I mean, we, we, he was starting to get there already. So I would say that this, is the beginning of something pretty special for that young man. And he'll be back here next year.

Oh, yeah. I mean, probably the number one right away instead of after the fact. Well, yeah, he was like a number, our listeners may not know the whole story. He wasn't on the initial roster. I don't think he was really on Slovakia's radar, really, to be quite honest. And all of the sudden, they kind of just brought him in after he had a couple of good games in the USHL. They bring him into their practice. And all of a sudden, they're like, oh, wait, holy hell, he's the guy.

Yeah, I mean, he really did come out of nowhere. And, you know, he told me that he got a text message the night of his first USHL shut out and they said, we got a spot for you. And he was there, you know, on a plane the next day. And this is a guy that has never played in a major international competition for Slovakia. He did play within their program, their development program, but never got the tournament games, never got the chance. He actually grew up with Philip Mayshar and Philip was saying, I knew how good he was,

but I didn't necessarily, like, you know, he wasn't getting the opportunity. He gets the opportunity. and then he runs with it. Got to be the best and all performance you've seen at the World Juniors in a long time. Yes. Yeah, I would say so.

It has to go back to when the NTP was in the NAA, right? Yes, yeah, I would say so. Anyways, Chris, thank you for the cameo. Yep, no problem. Tell him, since he gave all that analysis, now I will pay him. They said the checks in the mail

for the guy in analysis. Oh, wow. All right, I'll take it. Thanks, guys. Have fun. I can't wait to be back the States. We'll see you next time. Awesome. All right. Well, a great story there, certainly, and a great tournament. We're going to let Corey get on with his evening there now. But thanks,

everybody, for listening to this episode of The Athletic Hockey Show. You can follow us on YouTube at YouTube.com slash at The Athletic Hockey Show. You can also catch more of Chris. We'll give you much more than he gives in a two-minute, impromptu segment over at Flow Hockey and his podcast, Talking Hockey Sense. And right now, you can get a one-year subscription to the athletic for $2 a month when you visit Theathletic.com slash hockey show. We will talk to you soon.