The Athletic Hockey Show - World Juniors roster projections

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

Ahead of the 2025 World Juniors, Corey, Max, Scott, and FloHockey’s Chris Peters deep dive into The Athletic’s projected tournament rosters and discuss the thought process behind their projections, one player each guy feels should have been included but wasn’t, and much more. Hosts: Max Bultman and Corey PronmanWith: Scott Wheeler and FloHockey’s Chris PetersExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody, Max Boltman here alongside the athletic Scott Wheeler and Corey Pranman and Flohockey's Chris Peters for another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. I call him Flow Hockies Chris Peters because he is head to toe right now in Flow hockey gear. Flow hockey hat. Flow hockey, holly. I can only assume there's some Flow hockey Long Johns going on under there. Really reping the brand here. And today, we're going to dive deep into our favorite topic, I think, on this show.

I think we could say that. The World Juniors, if not the draft, it's the World Juniors. And Flohockey's Chris Peters is going to be a heavy voice for us on Team USA. But we're going to start to the north. Because I don't know if you guys have checked your Twitter mentions yet today or not. But when our 2025 World Junior projections dropped earlier today, there was some notes from the readers, Corey. I don't check the comments typically. So I didn't see what people had to say.

But I can presume where the tension points are. It was the tension points for us and what we were trying to project out the roster. It's the tension points that what I presume will be for Team Canada and trying to put together this roster because whenever Team Canada typically is putting together a World Junior roster, it's going to be a lot of good options for them

at most of the positions, and there will be really tough decisions to make. And I think this is the most fun time of year of the World Junior season. I know everyone gets really engaged about this stuff because all the drafted players on those teams and obviously there's some high-end draft eligibles. But with Team Canada, I think there's going to be a couple of real main things to consider.

We'll start first on the blue lines. I think the blue line is going to be the most interesting decisions team Canada has to make. And that's kind of driven by a couple of things. First is the extremely strong play of Matthew Schaefer. Matthew Schaefer was, in my opinion, the best player for Canada, arguably the best player overall at the Holy Kogretzky Cup in the summer. since he's come back from Mono, he's been really impressive in the OHL, playing huge minutes,

scoring, is skating just pops on a nightly basis and how he can impact the game both ways. I think he's a guy who's in the conversation for this team. And I think what's going to be really interesting for Canada is you look at this blue line and you have probably EF attorneys, Tanner Mollandick and Oliver Bunk in the mix. And then, you know, presuming, say, Matthew Schaefer's in the mix and presuming, say, Sam Dickinson. from London is in the mix. It's like, okay, these are all really good two-way players. They all skate really well.

They all, you know, they have size or in the case of Mollendick, maybe average size, but exceptional skating ability. It's like, who's running this power play? And I think, you know, you look at Zane Perrick and Saginaw and Carter Yakk and Chuck in Calgary, and both of them are extremely skilled offensive players who may not be off to the scorching hot stars this year but are still, you know, highly regarded offensive players.

But I think there would be some mild, questions on how they would defend at the world junior level compared to some of those other options they have. And if I was a betting man, I bet Ken only takes one and I don't know which one it is. I didn't read the reader comments, but I got a bunch of text on people around hockey and around the league when we put it out. And there were some fervent people who said there's no way you can bring Parick. There are some people like, there's no way you can bring yak and Chuck. It has to be the other guy kind of thing. So there's some passionate opinions about that. There's Some who think they may not even bring either.

But I would guess they'd bring one of those guys. I don't think he'd even think Schaefer, despite his exceptional play, is a lock to make that TV. He's still a 17-year-old. I think he's going to need to go to camp and play really well. There's always a chance. An older player, like an Andrew Gibson or a Harrison Brunichie, for example, could out play that guy and work their way into the mixer,

Noah Chadwick. So the blue line, I think, seems to be a point of attention for Canada. And then ultimately up front, it's like, okay, who's the top nine forwards in particular? I think the fourth line, you know, typically Canada, and I know people always get upset about this, but Canada is going to put guys on their fourth line who are not high-end skill guys.

They're going to put guys on there who are designed to kill penalties and to be out there for D-Zone draws and to provide energy. That's what they're going to do. It is where it is. And so you're thinking of guys like Denver Bark, you're thinking of guys like Cold Boat Dwayner, Matthew Canterford, potentially maybe a 10 or how or something like that. Those are the type of players you're usually thinking about it in that role.

And then you get to the top nine, And it's like, well, there's a lot of really good options for them to pick from. I'm sure there were some Minnesota Wild fans that were upset. We didn't have Riley Hyde on the roster at all. I'm sure there were some Washington Capitals fans that are upset that Andrew Krasal was not in the top nine. I mean, we didn't even have a third overall pick on the roster. Becca Seneca, it was off to a great start to the year as a really dynamic player. We didn't have the sixth overall pick.

Tisha Ginla is having a very nice year as a very talented player. At some point you got, there's only nine top nine spots, and I don't know who comes out or who doesn't. The one name who I wasn't really comment about that we had in there, and I'm like, okay, maybe they come out is the extremely talented but extremely young player in Gavin McKenna. Why do I say that? It's like, well, he's an awesome player. But as a draft might as one player to come in on Team Canada and play a top six role, that's a major ask. you know, even when Carter McDavid was a draft minus one, he didn't play a massive role on Team Canada. He still played a notable role, but he, you know, it wasn't major ice time.

Alexei Lafranier was basically a 13th forward. It wasn't really until Carter Bedard came around that we saw that kind of precedent. So that's the one what I kind of see, you know, Chris and Scott, what's your thoughts on just where McKenna fits and just the defense questions? I think on McKenna, there are layers. A, if you were coming out of U18 Worlds not that long ago, he looked like clearly the most talented player on the team, a step above even James Higgins and some of the true stars

who popped in that tournament in their own way, that are also going to be big parts of the U18 Worlds for their respective team. But on the flip side, and we had this conversation when we were putting together our roster, I do start to wonder about the youth on this roster in Perak and Dickinson, if both of them are a part of it, or if one of them is a part of it, that's an 18-year-old defenseman. We've got Porter Martone on our roster and underager,

Gavin McKenna on our roster and underager. Canada is renowned, maybe more so than any other country in this tournament, for leaning on 19-year-olds at this event, for building their rosters that way. Now, we've also talked at length sort of off-air about, maybe this is just how this sage group looks. Maybe their premium guys in many respects are Gavin McKenna

and Porter Martone and Matthew Schaefer, and those guys should belong on this team and play important roles. But over the course of the tournament, I think there's a chance that at least one or two of those guys, if all three are on the team, do falter. And then so I think Canada will build their roster accordingly, and I think we did build our roster accordingly, including a player like Andrew Kristall is the 13th forward,

someone who could step right into the top six at left wing if a player like McKenna has a rough night or needs to face matchups a little bit differently. Canada's got options that way. The conversation on defense, I think, is trickier because I really do believe after Molendai can bunk that their best players are those, those 2024s. Obviously, Yakimchuk's an older birth year, so different birth year. And this will be Yakimchuk's last chance, and it will be in Ottawa in front of

sort of hometown fans. All of that is going to be a part of the conversation rightly or wrongly for hockey Canada. I'm of the opinion on those two. Now, Hockey Canada may not see it this way, but I'm of the opinion on Perak and Yakumchuk in particular that I think you have room on this team. If you build out the rest of your roster accordingly,

I do think you have room on this team for both of them. They could each run a power play. Perreck's coach in Chris Lazary is an assistant coach on this team. He knows him as well as anybody, obviously. This is a kid who played for all of the questions about him defensively, this is a kid who played 30 minutes a night in the Memorial Cup a couple of months ago. He placed huge minutes for them. He penalty kills for them.

I think Lazz will make the case. I know Lazz will make the case in that room that he's a better defender and that he can defend against any of these guys in this tournament. And I think Yakumchuk is going to have some fans because of the size piece. And I think that's the other element at play here is you start to look at this roster, both upfront and on defense. Mollendike's not a big kid. Perk's not a big kid.

Sawyer Minio's not a big kid. Oliver Bonk is an average-sized player. I think that's where Yakimchuk comes into the conversation, maybe stronger than we had him in terms of our debate. And then up front, same boat. The one thing I heard from today after we released our, the most consistent thing I heard today after we released our sort of projection, at least, was that Hockey Canada has been telling people,

whether it's with CHL clubs or agents, They've been telling people that they think that the core of this group is a little small. And we talked about that a little bit as well. But Berkeley Caton, Braden Yeager, Jett Lucenko, Denver Barkie, Easton Cowan, Andrew Crystal, none of those guys are particularly big players. And then even the big guys, the Matthew Woods, the Callum Richies, the Carson Raycoffs, don't really play a heavy style. So that's where I think guys like Colbo Duane, who we included, come in.

That's where Porter Martone comes in. they're going to need players like that who play a heavier style on this team. And well, maybe they don't need it in theory, but they're going to feel like they need that. And I think as a result, some of those guys, some of those high-skilled guys that everybody just expects automatically to be on the team,

I think are in jeopardy here. Even a potential checker like a Denver barkey, they may just want a different type of checker. And Denver was the final cut on last year's team. He almost made last year's team. But I don't think there are locks. for any of those guys. Even Carson Rakeoff as a returney,

like I think this is going to be a pretty open camp, both at forward and on defense. I think especially when we talk about Martone and McKenna, there are going to be fans out there of NHL teams, you know, certainly like a Ducks fan, I think, would say, okay, that's great that Porter Martone and Gavin McKenna are great top prospect, but Beckett Seneca just went third overall in the NHL draft, and he's not on this roster.

We have an underager who we think Michael First overall, the 2026 draft on this roster. How do you kind of square leaving guys like Seneca and even a Tija Ginla who, you know, he is a skill guy, but it's not like he would be out of place in an energy type role, Corey, in this roster. Not to cut Corey off, but we don't even have Bradley Nadeau who's playing pro hockey on this roster, right? So you go down the list. There are some huge names. And if those names are on, then there's guys on our list that people will be shocked or left off. you know we don't have some of those names on our projected 12 forwards for team canada like iginla like nado but i don't think these are foregone conclusions team canada keeps the competition open going into the camp process i presume some of those

names are going to be invited to the to the selection camp in december where they play yin's u sports and this is just our opinion based on just our understanding of the players but if they go to camp and say poor Martel and it's just terrible like he doesn't do anything in those games and Tija Gila scores a hat trick that could be a variable that gets a Tija Gimla onto the roster

so I think you know we see where the tension points are and we you can look at the player types and say this is where this guy probably fits based on his toolkit based on the season he's having but there's still a lot to be to turn it. All right we are back

and before we get back to the show I just wanted to tell everybody to make sure you check out all the great content we're producing across the athletic podcast network, NFL coaches and front office execs continue to lose their jobs. You can tune in to Scoop City with Diana Rossini and Chase DeAngle for all the latest rumors around that and all the carousel. You can find Scoop City on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Now let's get to Team USA. And Chris, we're going to bring you in here because you're very plugged in with USA hockey. And I wanted to get your thoughts in particular on one of the toughest decisions that we had to make on this roster.

It won't be a tough decision for Team USA because they'll know whether or not they're getting Will Smith. But we did not, and we projected him on there, and I'm curious what you thought when you saw that. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's certainly, until somebody says absolutely not, it's always a possibility. It's been my belief and also a little bit of my understanding,

somewhat educated understanding that, you know, as they're planning their roster, they're planning to not have it. And I think that that's the way they should plan at all times anyway. But I think that really this is, you know, kind of a situation where, you know, he is an option. You know, I think if San Jose decides to loan him, I think that they're kind of, I'm not entirely sure what the plan is, you know, with him in terms of what they're doing. You know, should they send him to the H.L for a bit? like all these different things that could be there. You know, and it just, it doesn't sound like he's going to be coming to the world juniors.

That's just at least how the wind is blowing now. Could things change? I think it could. USA is only a few weeks away from announcing the camp roster. I think if he's, you know, not on the camp roster, that'll be a pretty good indication. It doesn't mean for sure that he's not coming. But I would imagine if he's not going to be in camp, he was not going to be on the team. And the one thing that I'll say, too, that, you know, now you've got a situation where you've got James Hagen's who's very likely going to be your number one center.

And he has been playing more with Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perot. They did not start the season on the same line, but they've gotten more looks together. And I think that that's, you know, they're building that in. And not to say that Will Smith couldn't come in and have that same chemistry. You have those two guys before. But, you know, I think that when you look at this team, you know, you wonder who's, whose team is this? And to me, it's always looked like it's Ryan Leonard's team. And so, you know, I think if you add in a Will Smith to that, not to say that,

you know, that it couldn't work, but I'm just saying, you know, like, it kind of changes the dynamic of leadership, I think, on the team as well, and it, both offensively and off the ice. But there's a lot of factors to consider. I mean, I think that they would take Will Smith if you were available, but at the same time, I just, it's, it sounds to me that they're, they're not planning to have them. Yeah, and that was a little bit of the feedback. I got after the article we just did, projecting the teams out what up is. A couple people in the league text me wondering if he's going to be made available just based on the fact that he's playing a little bit more in the

NHL right now, since he's playing a little bit better. That being said, things can change. That could be our understanding as we record this here in late November, but Smith is still a teenager. He is playing on a team that isn't having much success right now, and he is playing more and playing a little better right now. But for all we know, in two, three weeks, he may not be playing as well. Maybe he's getting 10 minutes.

Maybe he's a healthy scratch, and maybe the decision then changes a little bit. We need to reset this guy's season for a couple of weeks. So I think that's going to be a real, I don't think that's a done deal just quite yet, even if I were a betting man, I personally would guess he's not going to be on Team USA. What does that do, Scott, Team USA at the center position if they do not have Will Smith? Because it's still a good group, right?

It's James Hagan's Oliver Moore, Danny Nelson, or the other three we had in this projection. But I think we like that group a lot better, slotted two through four, than we do one through three. I think certainly it will elevate one of Danny Nelson and Oliver Moore into a role that they maybe weren't expecting. Now, USA hockey really, really likes Danny Nelson. and I think they have a lot of respect for the effort level and the pace and the work ethic of Oliver Moore. Both of those guys are going to be, we're going to be big parts of this team, even if they were the third and fourth line centers. Carrie Terrence can also play center and could slot in as sort of, they've played Carrie mostly on the wing over the years, but Kerry Terrence has played a little bit of center for USA hockey and obviously is a natural center in terms of what he's played growing up.

So they do have other options, but they'll have to decide who's going to be that sort of second scale. Gil guy. If they've got Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perrault as their sort of presumptive first-line wingers, and then after that, you've got some combination of Cole Eiserman, Trevor Connolly, maybe Quentin Mustie, who's going to be the center that best fits with those guys, especially because of how particular a Cole Eisenman is as a player or how particular Trevor Connolly is as a player. So is that Danny Nelson? Is that Oliver Moore? That's going to have to be something that they figure out? I could imagine that Danny Nelson actually fits well with those guys. He's a pretty defensively conscious player. He's a big kid. I think that there are some

other mixes there that could work even if Will Smith isn't a part of the part of the fold. Well, that's been kind of a question with his age group going back to the program days is they didn't know whether who was that second alliance there. Sometimes it was more. Sometimes it was Nelson. Sometimes it was somebody else. So it's, I guess it's one of those two guys. But those guys have kind of been Jocelyn for, you know, for a couple of years here. Yeah, and I do think Morris Pace, I think you can see a real natural fit there, but I do agree with Scott's point about the defensive responsibility there, which is something that you would need between Eisenman and Connolly,

which kind of brings us into what I think was our toughest call of the entire process, which was, you mentioned quitting Mustie, Scott, and we ended up leaving Mustie off, in part because we felt like if you have a middle six that has Mustie, Iserman, and Connolly, there's just a lot of consistency questions in there. and Musty was the odd man out when we did this projection. But Chris, I wonder what you think looking at this one. Like, it does feel a little crazy to leave a 19-year-old quitting Mustie off of the world junior team.

It's just there were so many kind of factors in play. How do you see this one playing out? Yeah, I didn't necessarily disagree with that too much. I mean, I think that there's a lot of different questions that I think you have to ask about this top six. I mean, coming out of the summer camp, I didn't feel very confident that Cole Iserman was a lock to make this team. I thought, yes, he'll probably make it.

But I didn't feel like he played his way into being locked. He had a good start at BU. But, you know, I think that you kind of know what he is and you live with that, however you want to live with it. And you expect him to be on the power play and everything else. I think he'll be there. I just think the goal scoring element is just too much to leave home. Mustie, I think the size factor is important. And that's one of the things.

But it's, you know, also not necessarily as pacey as some of the other guys they could bring with them. and also those are kind of the questions there. The fact that he missed so much of the season while he was sitting out waiting for a trade didn't help. But, you know, there are going to be some guys that have dealt with injuries, Trevor Connolly being one of them, that could potentially be in the mix. I think the conversation around Connolly has very little to do with playing ability. It has little even to do with the off-ice concerns that dogged him in his draft here. It's what he does on the ice, and that is take. bad penalties a lot. And he's taken a lot of major penalties over the years. He's been

suspended over the years. And it's just a, he, you know, took one of the biggest penalties of his career in a really bad set of a game where, you know, basically got a major penalty and, essentially cost USA a gold medal, even though nobody wanted to throw him under the bus publicly, which is good. I mean, yeah, he's a kid, make mistakes. But, but either way, I think with Connolly, the question is, is the talent is, is pretty immense. And, you know, he would fit into this group stylistically he would be able to produce. It's a risk-reward conversation. I think with that, Quentin Mustie gives you the scoring ability with less of the

off, you know, like the concern that every time I look around, this kid might be slashing somebody, might hit somebody in the head, you know, all these different things. He did have a cross-checking major penalty recently. My thought is, you know, he missed camp in the summer because, of an injury. He's been injured a little bit now. I think you bring him to camp, but I think you think you think long and hard before you really make that decision. I think that's what USA will do. I would also not be surprised to see Mustie invited to camp, and I think that decision kind of gets kicked down to the very end of the decision process. But Mustie was only okay this summer.

Wasn't amazing. So you kind of look at guys like that and you say, all right, what are we going to do? So the middle six of this team is, especially without Smith, is very challenging to build. And so that is going to be a real question that they have going forward. And those three guys that we talked about, including Iserman, are the guys that you kind of have to put some debate behind and really consider. If you go back to this age group, you can keep bringing it back to the NTDP years for this age group. but it was really just they just played the crap out of Will Smith, Ryan Lader, Gay-Perrow

and Zee, Boyam. And yes, the Oliver Moore was an important player for the team. They basically just when they had a power play, the first power play unit played a minute 40 of that power play. And I kind of wonder if they're going to do something real similar with this group. Yeah, with Higgins in the

Smith role. Yeah. Exactly. Yes. I think you're right. Yeah. And that kind of takes us to the blue line because you know, Boolean, we expect to play a huge role for these because obviously he's going to be power play one. He's going to play a ton of minutes. But the picture around him, Scott, I think is an interesting one to try and shake up for Team USA. There's some good veterans there. You got your Paul Fischer's or Drew Fordus, Aaron Menetian, and then you got a pairing in Cole Hudson and E.J. Emery that you play together at the program

and obviously, I think very complimentary skill sets. That's what we went with for this grouping. But I don't know that we feel extremely confident about it. No, absolutely not. I think you've got Zeev Boy. William is going to be on the team. We know that they love E.J. Emery and they trust him to defend. E.J. Emery is going to be on the team. I think we expect that guys like Fortescue and Fisher, although there's two more players that haven't been fully healthy at some points this season as well, right?

So Aaron Menetian, sort of that half-returny where he was a part of the group last year, but was sort of the 25th man, didn't actually participate in the world juniors proper. Menetian was another guy that they made, like Musty, Musty played in every single game at the World Junior Summer Showcase, which was telling right from the start of the way that they viewed him. He played in that final game. I thought that final game with James Higgins and Cole Eisenman was actually Quentin Mustie's best. And similar for Aaron Menetian, they made Aaron Menetian,

despite the fact that he was kind of sort of a returnee, they made him play and earn it in the summer at the summer showcase. I think those guys, Menetian has played well enough at BC that I think he'll be on this team. He's an NTP guy who's played really well. Actually, the highlight of Menedian's career for me so far was his play at U18 Worlds in his draft year, where after lots of questions all year, he sort of really put it together and was a big gamer for them. I think those guys are going to be in the mix, but then you start to wonder, are they going to look at a Kleber who we had as our 7th deed to add a little bit more size?

Are they going to look at a call in Ralph for that similar reasons? I thought Ralph and Cleber both struggled in the summer at the World Junior Summer Showcase, but they both bring something that's very different than what the rest of this group looks like. Logan Hensler has had a pretty complicated start on a bad team at Wisconsin, but is playing an important role for them, is on their power play. He also was injured in a game two weekends ago, but he's back now. So all sorts of layers for them on the blue line. But I think push comes to shove.

We're going to see Zeeve Boyham play 30 minutes when it matters most. And the rest of the guys will kind of fall in line behind him. They will have to figure out who's playing with Zeev Boym because I think if Hudson and Emery are both on the team that that chemistry and the fact that they've played so much together will probably mean that Emery isn't with Boym. I could see Emery with Boym potentially. But if it's not those guys, it's probably one of the veteran 19-year-olds who really aren't

cash prospects. Like they really aren't the kinds of names that we were talking about. out for Team Canada in terms of pedigrees. So you're going to be asking a lot of whoever's playing with Zeve, I think, in all likelihood to really step up and be maybe playing above their weight class, so to speak. The couple of other interesting things, so, you know, the guys that you mentioned Scott with with Hensler, Kleber, Ralph, others, you know, I think one of those, you know, one of those guys are going to be on there. I think Paul Fisher, to me, is a guy that. that probably should be a lock for the team.

Even though he's not that primary guy, I think he brings a lot to the table. You look at Zach Schultz is like the same exact player, basically. So I think it's one of those two guys with Fisher having the edge with how he's played this season. But the real fascinating thing is like I really do think Cleber is one of those guys where they're begging him to be, you know, like they want that kind of player. I think same with Colin Ralph. They gave them both a lot of run in camp.

But, you know, it is difficult because you're looking at, especially with Kleber, not a lot of offense coming out of them from school. Maybe you don't need that. I mean, I think you look at the role that Sam Renzel played last year. Renzel is a more offensive player. But towards the end of that tournament, they were actually utilizing him more defensively. And comfortably, which was odd. You know, we didn't expect that because the beginning of his tournament was very shaky.

But then they started to trust him more. I think a guy like Kleber, to me, is probably the guy. And you guys had him on your list, and I think that that's the right call. You know, I think that he's going to get in there. And, you know, you do dress seven defensemen. They'll take eight to this team. So, you know, I think that you'll, he'll be one of those eight players. I think Cleber will.

But Ralph is a really interesting one. his head coach, Brett Larson, is on the bench for Team USA. So he's heading up close and personal look. There's always that kind of factor. Some coaches will win those arguments for their players if they feel comfortable enough. And he's a big, big man. But that is to me this blue line. And, you know, Bouillon is the lock.

I think Fortescue is a lock. I think they really trust him. You know, Cole Hudson is one of those guys where, you know, it just feels like he should be there. But yeah, and then you need to try to build up some of that size and a guy like a Kleber does that for you. So it'll be really interesting to watch it. I would say that Menetian might not be the lock, but I agree that he would have been on my projected roster as well. All right. Let's take a quick break right there. We'll come back and we'll do some of the European countries at the World Junior. All right, we're back. We're going to get into the field here.

And it might be disrespectful for me to call them the field, Scott, because I think when you look at Team Sweden versus Team USA, especially if we're talking about a team to say that may not have Will Smith. It was at least a case to be made that Sweden could be the second best team at this tournament, is there not? I think there's a case to be made. I still, if I were to rank them one, two, three, or even rank them one through ten, I still think Sweden would be three for me.

And that's because I think the difference makers for Team USA are going to be bigger difference makers than those for the Swedes, maybe with the exception of Axel Sandin Pelica, I think has an opportunity to be one of the, one of if not the best defenseman in this tournament or challenge some of the Canadian D and a player likes Eve Boyam. But you look at the American roster, Trey Augustine can steal a game.

Trey Augustine could win them this tournament. I'm not sure that Melker Othelan can do that, the presumptive starting goalie for the Swedes. Gabe Perrault and Ryan Leonard can be, and James Higgins can be the best line in this tournament. As good as Otto Stenberg and David Edson, and Felix Ungersoram have been over the years, and they've been aligned together for this Swedish national team for years,

as good as they've been. I don't think they're going to sort of hold a candle in terms of dominating this tournament like Gabe Perot and Ryan Leonard are capable of. And same goes for Ziv Boyam. Does this Swedish team have good depth? Absolutely. Felix Nilsson has been tremendous in the SHL this year. Anton Walberg has been excellent in Rochester in the AHA.

shell this year. Pio Lindstein was one of these stories of the tournament last year for Sweden and is an excellent foil to Axel Sandine Pelicar. Tom Wollander should play big minutes for them. This is a legitimate Swedish team. I'm just not sure that at the true, true top end of this team that they can compete with, with Canada and USA, especially in net where I do wonder about Melker against some of those power plays and some of this sort of top offensive forwards in this.

year's tournament. In a tournament format like this, though, there is always the chance that they are in that gold medal game, Corey, against USA or Canada. So if I ask you what's Sweden's path to winning that gold medal, what would your answer be? Well, this age group came an inch away from being the USA, the U18 gold medal game, and the path for them would be the fact that you look at this USA team as we previously discussed. And if they get Smith and they can move Hagan's down, there's a little bit more depth, but there isn't. There's a real chance this is a one-line USA team. So the path to being in them is you shut down that one line.

And Theo Lindstein and Tom Willander, when they were a pair together, they were an excellent shutdown tandem that gave Will Smith, Ryan and Larry Gay-Pereau a lot of problems at that tournament a year and a half ago. So the potential path to be a team USA for Sweden is, how do you lean on your premium young defensemen to try and shut down those forwards? and you hope there's some scoring that just comes from somewhere. Be it, Arnold Stenber, David Edstrom, Phyllis Unger Solem, Anton Walberg, somebody just gets you a couple of goals.

Your goalie holds on just well enough, and then maybe you need a bounce, and you can win that game. Now, Sweden may not have the depth on their team to really roll lines and pairs with a team Canada. So I think in order to be a team Canada, they're really going to need to have, you know, to really win that goalie battle, be it their goalie just plays exceptional or team Canada as a goalie has a bad game.

That would probably be more the path for them in that regard. All right. So with Finland and Czechia, I do think there is a tier drop off there from Sweden to those two teams. But they're both hockey nations that are long track records of success. Finland, I think in particular

at some of these international tournaments can always be a disruptor. And Czechia might even have the better roster this time around, Chris. So what I'm going to ask you is, who's got the better chance of knocking out a favorite in this tournament

between Finland and Czechia and why? Oh, man. Yeah, I think it's, I think it is Finland only because I think their team structure and the way that they play and then I, you know,

I think that their goaltending is good enough to give them a chance. That's where I see it. I mean, you know, we've seen, when Consta Hellenius is at his best, he can be the kind of guy

that can take over a game, but, you know, not, do it consistently enough for me to believe that that's going to be something that's possible. But I think that there's enough depth in this group to be disruptive, to play, you know, a hard, heavy enough game that they're giving teams fits. And that's what they do. And that's how they, whenever they've had success, that's what they've done. They have a few goal scorers on this team. They have some guys that can really, you know, hammer pox. You got Haltonin. You've got

Heming, you've got, you know, guys like that in addition to Hellenius, on the back end, Kibharyu, you know, he's been here before. We've seen it, you know, him being healthy and available this time around is, is good news for them. But yeah, but I mean, I still think that it's going to take quite a bit. I just don't think the checks have the depth. I'm also, you know, I was a big proponent of Michael Harabal in his, in his draft season. I thought, you know, there's a lot of upside there. He's only been okay, you know, really in, in college. And, and you look at that and you say, okay, well, you need to have a goalie that's way more than okay to have a chance. And that's where I see the difference is maybe they're not able to, you know, I don't expect them to be a high,

high scoring team. And I don't know how, you know, how dominant their defense is going to be. I do like their blue line. I think there's a lot of potential on that blue line for the checks. There's a lot there. There are some size. There's some good guys that have made play, you know, some some decent offensive players on there as well. But yeah, I think it comes down to when I look at those two teams, I just feel like Finland has a bit more depth and they have a goaltending advantage, which I maybe wouldn't have said about checks of, you know, last year I thought Harabal is really, really good. And I just, I haven't, I haven't seen him do it consistently enough to really believe that he's the kind of goalie that can steal them a game against one of the big clubs.

I do really like that that check blue line. I think that if the checks are to finish higher than the Finns in this tournament, and checks have meddled at three straight world juniors. So in the last three world juniors, the checks have outperformed the Finn at this event. I do think it'll come down to Thomas Galvis, Adam Gerich, Jakub Devorich, Dominic Bedinka has a chance to be a very good player in this tournament. Redim Murkha has a chance to sort of really establish himself as one of the top D prospects after Matthew Schaefer in this draft with a strong tournament. There's some guys there. And a little bit of everything, Galvis is extremely mobile and has been excellent over the years for the Czechs internationally. They've

got plenty of Steyes with Dvorak and Mertka. If there is an advantage for this check team over the Finns, I think that's where it lies. Yeah, I think Chris is wrong. I think the checks have a better chance to be an upset. It basically comes down to Rolble in that I know he's been but he's been inconsistent. He's been inconsistent for years. But when he has his big gains, he has the ability to steal a game. You can argue if you stole that quarterfinal

against Canada this time last year. So the question was, who can win one game, not who can win the tournament? And I think it's very possible if Harabo could have one big game and really piss off a fan base. It's not an episode of this podcast

until Chris or Corey outright say the other is wrong. So it's good that we got that in before the finish line here. just to provide a rebuttal. It is actually Corey who is wrong. All right, before we wrap up, I want to ask, because this was a collaborative effort to make these projections, Scott Corey and I.

And Chris, I want to get your thoughts here on what you think we missed. So I want one guy from everybody who you wanted to be on these rosters who you got overruled by the group or just couldn't get in for whatever reason. Scott will let you go first. I didn't necessarily get overruled

because I understand the thinking and only having one of Perak and Yakimchuk on the roster. But when I sort of built my initial roster for this tournament, I had all three of Perak, Yakimchuk and Dickinson, the big three from the 2024 draft on the roster. And I still just today, thinking about it, talking to a couple of people today, I still think there's a chance that all three end up on this team

and that all three play important roles. And I know that Canada may have questions about having Perak and Yakumchuk both on the team in terms of their defensive play and whether they're up to the task. But I think they are up to the task. I think Yakim Chuck showed enough in the NHL early on this season and in preseason play to warrant it. And I think Perak has shown enough

and that Lazary will be loud enough in that room that I still come back to them. Like if you're, and that's not to say that Matthew Schaefer doesn't belong on the team or Andrew Gibson doesn't belong on the team for his ability to penalty kill and give them a different role or that Harrison Brunachie isn't in the mix, but I think that all three of those push comes to shove. I think all of those three guys are more likely to be on the team than off.

Corey, how about you? Yeah, I think the Canada blue line was probably the most contentious part of this. And I think, although with the group, we kind of, you know, we were between Parick and Yakimchuk for one of those spots, and I was fine about bringing Parick in there. Not really surprised as a part of me of that, since we published it in that, I think that should have been Yakimshut. up there instead of Parra. I think that's going to be the way they're going to lean.

And then we go to the 13th, we made a whole shtick there about how, where we wanted to bring Andrew Kristol in there because he could replace Gavin McKenna, etc. There's a part of me that, you know, has one, I think we kind of forgot about him because he got injured at the summer camp, but Tanner or Howe has kind of been Mr. Hockey Canada here for a couple of years. And there's a part of me that wonders that he can, because he can score, he plays a lot of energy, he skates really well. And there's a part of me that I wonders if he's just going to find his way to weasel in there. It's like a kind of a 12-13 forward. Chris, what do you think we got wrong here? You can only say one. I know there's probably a few. Yeah. Yeah, no. And I honestly, I thought you

guys did a really nice job. You know, in really kind of breaking it all down here. You know, there's really only one, like, you know, I'll go with a U.S. player. And, you know, my, my projected roster looks pretty similar to yours. It hasn't come out yet. But mine, mine looks pretty similar to yours. And the one guy I'm really intrigued by, and I'm not saying that you guys are wrong for leaving him off. Just be blunt and tell us we're idiots. No, no.

I mean, I believe me, that's never been a problem for me. But what I would say to this is like basically as I look down their lineup, you look at Teddy Steag is a guy that they have a lot of familiarity with and that makes a lot of sense that he would be on that list. I will go back to the summer camp And while his season hasn't been amazing to start I do think that there is a case to be made That Brandon's Favoda should be on this team

So not not the not the sharks prospect that you think I would say But the but another one and I think it's there's a there's a couple of factors there I think stylistically He showed in that summer camp that he fits the mold of the kind of player that they want to have on this team He plays with pace he has size, he has physicality, he can score. He's only got one goal this year. It has not been an amazing, you know, he hasn't covered himself in glory at Boston University this year.

But that is one player where I look at him and I say that seems like the kind of player they would want to have in their group, especially as I look at the rest of their roster. It's like, you know, you can bring guys like Max Plan. You can bring guys like Brody Zemer, but I think you want to have some guys that have that size factor. and that's what Brandon's Favodda would be for me. We had James Reader as the 13th forward. The Denver pioneers are 12 and 0 right now. They have 120 players playing significant roles like Reader, like Jake Fisher, on their team.

David Carles, a head coach of this team. Does a Denver player make it into the top 12, you think? I think it's really possible. And I think Reader is the guy, you know, like that makes sense to me. you know, he, he's, they have, you know, Jake Fisher, who is in camp as well, but I, I think that reader between the two has a little bit more of the stylistic fit. Um, but that's why I said Stiga and not reader when I, uh, when I, when I was talking about Svoboda. So yeah, so I think it's very possible that he's there. And I mean, that's a thing, like, you look at what Denver is doing

right now with David Carl's doing. How, how do you not, you know, have a guy like that? for the for the same reasons you said spoboda uh i if if i had to pick a second guy that i would have liked to have got on one of our rosters it was anthony spilacey a j spalacey um for the same reasons and i think he's been better than svoboda since then obviously the excellent camp in chicago bring size bring speed can penalty kill can get after it on the forecheck has sort of that missing element that i agree i think our roster is missing a little bit of and push comes to shot, I do wonder whether Spellase is on the team or Spelota is on the team over a Teddy Stiga type.

Max has been grimmising through this whole conversation. That was my answer. I was getting ready. I thought Chris sniped me and that I was teed up and Scott snipe me anyway with his second answer. It's always fun reading Max's body language on our video chat because you're like, there's something there, but then it's never what I think it's going to be. My wife tells me that I have like the most readable face on earth.

Well, we appreciate it. It keeps us. The host, Max, just saying this thing. I said one player from each of you. But what's funny, Scott, is I don't know how Spellis is not on this roster. If he was both of our guy and we somehow had Teddy Seiga on there when we both would have made that switch, we could have just outvoted Corey. I think we dropped the ball on that. We did drop the ball.

I do think part of the logic there, and maybe this is silly of us, but he's playing. in the OHL. He's not a college hockey cat. He's not a USA Hockey, not a USHL, rather, I should say, guy. And then maybe that's where we talked ourselves out of it. We preempted some politics there, I guess. But I do think Spelassi fits a lot of those same things that Chris talked about with Foboda. They both had really good camps. Yeah, 100%. I think he should be in camp. No question about it. Like, you know, I think especially because you're still trying to figure out who those role players are going to be. So I think between those, two guys, yeah, it makes a lot of sense. You just wonder for the same reason that you said, familiarity, different things like that, you know, there's always factors in it. But yeah, I would say that Spellacy is not at all out of the running here for this team. Spellacy is eligible for next year too, whereas Foboda isn't. And you wonder, do they lean the 19-year-old? Do they start to build towards whole mice in Minnesota next year? Those are all going to be conversations that they're having. Well, that always fascinates me, right? Because I,

I see that with like Canada, and the track record is what it is. They do like the 19-year-olds. But I think if I was building a roster like this, I would want at least to carve out spots for four or five returners every year just to make sure that I never had a team that was too green, right, Chris? Yeah, especially when you're hosting, especially when you're hosting the next tournament. And that is going to be a factory.

I think you look at like the third goalie, probably being Nick Kemp, to make sure that he's exposed to that environment and seeing what it's like there, probably won't dress or anything, you know, but that's something that you could potentially do. And that is very important. Like I think that that is something that they will be mindful of. And last year, they won the tournament with 11 potential returnees. You know, so they had a, you know, a good mix of their team last year.

And so that's, that ends up being, you know, kind of, hey, let's just make sure we're taking the best players. But I think you at least have to consider the future when you're making these teams as well. All right, that's going to do it for us. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. You can catch more Chris over at Flow Hockey and on his podcast talking Hockey Sense. Next episode of the Athletic Hockey Show will be Monday with me, Laz, Pierre LeBrun, and Jesse Granger. We'll talk to you then.