It's the most wonderful time of the year! Here's a very good summary of the World Jr. Team Canada this year and it might be a dominant one. Because of Covid and the NHL not starting in October as usual, there are some players available that wouldn't be on the team in a normal year. More for Canada than the other squads. This team will have 20 first round picks! That's staggering! Only 2 guys on the team were not chosen in the first round!
Here's a written summary of the team from which I will borrow a lot of my insight. I will leave out a few guys, like Suzuki (who almost lost sight in one eye and although his bro is an NHLer, he might not get to play much) and the goalies, who are the only question mark for team Canada. Any of them should be good enough to backstop this team to gold though. But it doesn't look like there's a star amongst them.
We'll start with my predictions for forward lines. You saw the line combinations projected in the above video. I'll give you the ones I hope for. They're a bit diff. Line one is the same.
McMichael Cozens Dach
I like McMike and Cozens on LW and C respectively cuz they both did well last year and have earned top line status. Put them with the probable point-leader in the tournament on their right wing (Dach) and you're solid.
Krebs Byfield Quinn
This is different. The vid thinks Tomasino should be on the right wing, but I favour the mighty Quinn.
Holloway Newhook Mercer
Why not keep the Holloway/Newhook chemistry and add ANOTHER Newfy? Has Canada ever had a pair of Newfies on a line before?
Perfetti Tomasino Zary/Pelletier
Perfetti shouldn't be a fourth liner, but that's how good this team is gonna be! He got 111 pts. and is the top scorer on the squad! But he is 18. Tomasino looks NHL-ready, particularly his skating, and although Zary and Pelletier may not score the way they do on their WHL and QMJHL clubs respectively, let's see...
But we'll start the individual player descriptions with the D.
Justin Barron. 25th (Colorado) - RH shot. That's valuable on the blue line for one-timers. Missed time last season with blood clots so he should have been chosen higher in the draft than 25th. He showed that in Canada's 4 scrimmages during which he scored 3 times. He's the captain of the Halifax Mooseheads and known for leadership and strong defense, but I'm not so sure that's his best role on this team.
Bowen Byram. 4th (Colorado) - Colorado didn't win the cup last year even though I thought they would. With the addition of Barron and Byram to Makar and Girard, they should have a better chance in the upcoming season. Byram only got 2 assists in 7 games in last year's World Jr. Tournament, but he was young and the older guys got the #1 positions. This year he and Drysdale will be a legendary blueline pairing! Assistant captain for his leadership too.
Jamie Drysdale. 6th (Anaheim) - Same story as Byram. He was young and not played nearly as much as I thought he should have been last year. He got 2 points. Another righty on the blueline, he'll complement Byram's left hand shot hopefully blasting one-timers on the power play on their reverse sides. I bet he'll score a point per game if he gets the power play time I'm expecting. There were times last year when he was the best defenseman on the whole team. This year, he'll get lots of ice and I predict he'll be just as good or better than Byram.
Kaiden Guhle. 16th (Habs) - A big, burly, PHYSICAL D-man. Possibly paired with Barron, but although I'm expecting some bone-crunching hits from this dude, I am not so sure they will be the "shut-down" pairing, or that they'll need to be.
Thomas Harley. 18th (Dallas) - Did't make the team last year. Should be in the 2nd D pairing, but that could change if Guhle/Barron start scoring. He played 11 minutes in the playoffs in 2020 for the Stars.
Braiden Schneider. 19th (NYR) - Big RH shot. Canada has THREE righties on the blueline this year. What a luxury! Some nice hits from this dude hopefully. Probably paired with Harley, who can also hit.
Jordan Spence. 95th (LAK) One of two non-first rounders. I don't think he'll play a lot, but he's interesting. Born in Australia and raised in Japan, so he probably speaks both of those other languages (ar ar) he has dual Japanese/Canadian citizenship.
And now for the best looking team in recent memory and their strongest area: the forwards.
Quinton Byfield. 2nd (LAK) He will probably be the 2nd line center, but if things work out the way I think/hope they will, he could be battling Kirby Dach for the scoring lead all tournament long. He was not played the way he should have been played last year, partly, in my opinion, to get Lafreniere more hype than he deserved, and partly (not just my opinion) because he was only 18. No facemask and no limit to his ice time this year. He'll be lighting it up, especially if he gets the linemates I think he should. This will surprise some people who are saying he was a disappointment in last years tourney. But when you get almost no minutes and a lot of it is garbage time, on a team where you are just as good as the guys getting all the good ice time, you don't play to your capacity. Nobody does! But he showed patience and this year I hope it is rewarded. 6'4, 224 and still growing, he'll rival Dach in looking like a man amongst boys. I hope.
Dylan Cozens. 7th (Buffalo) Generally expected to be playing with Dach and McMichael, two centers on his wings. He SHOULD score a lot, but sometimes when you get these lines with centers playing wings, they don't perform as well as when they're playing their natural positions. This is a common problem for Team Canada. I hope it doesn't happen this year. He got 9 points last year, which tied him for 7th in tournament scoring, so he earned the top line center position even though Byfield might be better. He's NHL-ready and if he does what is expected, he'll be shuffling off to Buffalo after claiming the gold in the Edmonton bubble.
Kirby Dach. 3rd (Chi) - Didn't play in the World Jrs. last year cuz he was in the NHL. This'll be his NHL training camp! He's probably ahead of every player who will be out there as far as his career development and I think that will show. He already showed it in inter-squad games in the Canadian World Jr. camp during which he scored 7 pts. in 4 games. That's against the toughest opposition he's likely to face. Captain Canada this year and is likely to be their (and the tourney's) leading scorer. NO INJURIES PLEASE! I have a habit of jinxing guys like this.
Dylan Holloway. 14th (Oilers) - Will be playing on his future home rink. Showing a great deal of offensive chemistry with Alex Newhook, but may be resigned to a checking role.
Peyton Krebs. 17th (Vegas) - Has looked awesome so far! Would have gone higher than 17th but had an Achilles tendon injury at draft time. Score for Vegas! He's a highly skilled scorer, 60 pts. in 38 games in WHL. He will be playing alongside Byfield and if they can replace Tomasino with Quinn, they have a shot at stealing the top line thunder from McMike/Cousins/Dach. Either could put up Mogilney/Fedorov/Bure stats I think. Or hope.
Jack Quinn. 8th (Buffalo) - A combination of the Hughes brothers in name, he doesn't play like them at all. He's not a center. He's not a playmaker. He's a pure goal scorer. Canada has a problem of overloading its squads with centers because they are the highest point getters and they ignore goal scorers like Quinn that EVERY great center NEEDS. This is why I think with Quinn on line two, they could outscore the first line, which is composed of three centers. He got, are you ready for this?, 52 goals in 62 games in the OHL in '19/'20. That's a goal scorer. That's Hull/Bure/Ovechkin type scoring and he'll be a fan and team favourite if he doesn't end up riding the pine. Insanely, that is a possibility! But since he's a right hander who plays the right wing, I'm gonna predict right now that he replaces Tomasino or Pelletier at some point during the tournament. I bet he'd be deadly on the left side on the powerplay. Much like Ovechkin/Bure/Hull. Hope the coach doesn't waste this guy.
Connor McMichael. 25th - (Caps) Marchand-esque peskiness and scoring ability. Should be on the top line. 3rd in OHL scoring last season. Had 5 goals and 7 points in last year's gold medal performance for Canada. A worthy top liner.
Dawson Mercer. 18th (NJD) - Newfy jack of all trades. He gives 100% every shift and when you combine that with the personality and humour of Eastern Canada, teammates and fans just love this guy.
Alex Newhook. 16th (Colorado) - Missed the cut with the team last year (most likely because he's small). Another Newfy. I'd love to see a Holloway/Newhook/Mercer line, but we'll see...
Jakob Pelletier. 26th (Calg) - Another small guy, but he is a scoring machine in the QMJHL. I have noticed that the QMJHL is a higher scoring league and guys who outscore OHL and WHL players in the QMJHL are not always better. I guess we'll see if he's overrated or not.
Cole Perfetti. 10th (Winterpeg) - Great stick handler! Only 18 so he may get the Byfield treatment on this older than usual squad. But he's the highest scoring player on Team Canada (111 pts. in the OHL) so I can't see him being wasted like Byfield was last year. Let's hope he can bust into a spot on a good line.
Philip Tomasino. 24th (Nash) - May be Canada's fastest skater. 18G, 43pts in 26GP in the Ontario Hockey League. Says he's NHL-ready. We may see...
Connor Zary. Member of the top scoring line in the Wester Hockey League. Will he have linemates as good?
SOOOO there is a lot of interest in Team Canada this year! I'm even more excited than usual! The pre-tournament games are set to begin in a couple of days, although some have already be cancelled and more might be, due to Covid. I just hope this whole tournament can be played. Friggin' Corona 19 has shut down the QMJHL, OHL and WHL and it's postponed the NHL already. Let's hope this year's World Jrs. can be played without any complications!
It should be a beauty for Canada eh?
GO CANADA!
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