WJC: 2022 IIHF WM U20 D2A/D2B
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Eye of Ra
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Bruno Idzan, Karlo Marinkovic, Roko Gorsic, Lorian Berzuk. I hope this guys makes it.
Niko Cavlovic, Luka Derek, Roko Mandic, Ante Bebak, Lovro Hanzek, Vito Izdan, Antonio Joureau, Nikola Kramarić where all on the 2020 team. They are probaly in.
Is leonardo zanoff still active?
Alex Dimitrijević, Lovro Kumanović, Hrvoje Zovko and Fran Zverski should make it.
Niksa Juric and Filip Matijević?
Probaly Croatia and Serbia will battle for 1st place.
Niko Cavlovic, Luka Derek, Roko Mandic, Ante Bebak, Lovro Hanzek, Vito Izdan, Antonio Joureau, Nikola Kramarić where all on the 2020 team. They are probaly in.
Is leonardo zanoff still active?
Alex Dimitrijević, Lovro Kumanović, Hrvoje Zovko and Fran Zverski should make it.
Niksa Juric and Filip Matijević?
Probaly Croatia and Serbia will battle for 1st place.
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Eye of Ra
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filip85
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Younger Idžan should make the team based on his stats and the fact that he already played for senior team as 15-yr old (and foreginer). AFAIK Zanoff is not active anymore. Don't think Zovko will make U20, but he should be lock for U18. If any player(s) from U18 that plays in ICEJL will make the team it will be Završki Fran and Šimunković, with Ljubičić having an outside chance.
Others you mentioned should be in, some because they belong and some of them because we don't have any better
. Not sure about Serbia's chances, they had strong '99 and '00 birth years when they beat us easily, but this time we should have an upper hand on them.
Uncharacteristically for me, but I am optimistic about this team chances to challenge Netherlands for promotion.
Eye of Ra
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Ignas Bakus, eimantas noreika, marijus dumcius and artur seniutis seems to be decent players.
If its enough to challenge Italy and UK we will see. But Lituhania should be better than Korea, Romania and Spain.
martynas grinius and faustas nauseda would be a nice players for them, too bad both is born 2001.
If its enough to challenge Italy and UK we will see. But Lituhania should be better than Korea, Romania and Spain.
martynas grinius and faustas nauseda would be a nice players for them, too bad both is born 2001.
SoundAndFury
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Seens like a bunch of random names to me, honestly. Noreika, Laimutis and Janusonis are expected to be the leaders of this team.
After a long period of riding solid goaltending at the U20 level goalie position is a bit of a concern.
filip85
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Eye of Ra
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Well, Bakus produces well in top Austrian junior league. Dumcius put up many points in the best finnish u18 league. Senuit plays in the same league, and even got called up to u20.
SoundAndFury
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Vashco was scoring ~PPG in Austria when he was 16. Bakus is way behind him when it comes to the production curve in Austria meaning he isn't really anything special even by our standards and as an underager it's unlikely he will be more than a complementary player.
Dumcius is one of the best talents of his generation. He is also, however, 17 and unable to score at the U20 level in Finland yet unlike someone like Grinius back in the day.
Seniut, once again, he is 17. Just the fact alone that he plays in Finland doesn't do anything. Estonia has half of the roster playing in Finland nowadays. Some of those kids are good, most aren't. I have no doubt he will be a real force at this level in 2 years. At this time, however, likely a 2nd pairing option at best.
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Eye of Ra
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SoundAndFury
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Our team is not particularly good while, on the other hand, GB and especially Italy ice some of their best rosters I can remember so I'd consider 3rd place to be a realistic goal and anything above that a major success. I think Italy will just crush the tournament with 5/5 GB will crush us in head-to-head
They just outclass us this year.Eh, Sport is actually a pretty big Finnish club and Seniut got a couple whiffs of the U20 league so he'll have some idea of what to expect.
SoundAndFury
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Considering there are players from Finland on more or less every junior team of ours (Cizas, Grinius and now Dumcius and Seniut representing Sport alone) I think we have a pretty good idea of what to expect from them as well. Again, the argument wasn't about how good or bad of a prospect he is, the point was he won't be moving the needle much either way at age 17.
Someone like Janusonis, whom I do expect to be the leader on defense for this team, has been awarded the best defenseman of Lithuanian championship last year and is hanging in the Latvian men's league this year but naturally playing for "a pretty big Finnish club" carries 10 times more creditability than anything he has done looking in from the outside. Similar to how Alisauskas was just some guy playing in Latvia (aka whatever) before leaving for Kazakhstan.
Alisauskas wasn't playing in the Latvian league prior to moving to Kazakhstan, he was playing in the Belorussian league, which is significantly more competitive. You won't get any fight from Latvian fans about that.
And it's weird to say someone is "hanging in" the Latvian men's league. That's not really a league that juniors have struggled to fit into in the past. Of course many Latvian junior team members play some games in that league. But it's not just that some bigger hockey country players can do it, even Mark Kaleinikovas dominated that league for years as a junior. Obviously the club makes a difference, like how most Latvian juniors get much higher PPG in the Latvian league than in the MHL because HK Riga sucks, and Janusonis seems to be at a small club. So it might be hard for you to describe to me how positive his Latvian league experience is just from the statistics I can see.
But in that case, just say "I've seen them and he's better..."
SoundAndFury
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I think that is what I have strongly implied. Having said that, it was not recent so I can't just go all out.
The comparison was more about reputation/profile rather than their actual strength, I'm not suggesting Janusonis is the same caliber of the prospect as Alisauskas once was. And even then I think Alisauskas turned out better than anyone would have guessed.
Regarding the Latvian league part, that's not exactly true. For a prospect from Lithuania, playing in the Latvian league at the age of 18 is a big achievement. Someone like Paulius Rumsevicius, who is definitely a member of our senior NT long term, only really managed to get a firm hold of the roster spot there at the age 20. Noreika has started the season in Latvia2 despite being 19 and arguably the best forward on this team. Laimutis is still splitting his time between Latvia and Latvia2 while arguably 2nd best forward on this team. And of course, Liepaja is a more competitive team than Dinaburgs, that's partially why but still. Kaleinikovas, whom you have given as an example, was a once-in-5-years kind of prospect for us. Not to mention comparing our juniors with Latvian ones. For a Lithuanian player having a roster spot in the Latvian league at the age of 18 is a very good achievement. And he is hanging in there because most are not.
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filip85
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Croatian preliminary roster
GK's:
Mikulić Ivan – KHL Medveščak mladi
Janjatović-Lončar Teo – KHL Mladost
Krasić Jurica – KHL Mladost
Bujanić Karlo – KHL Zagreb
Kurtagić Roko – KHL Zagreb
D's:
Čavić Patrik – KHL Medveščak mladi
Filipović Borna – KHL Medveščak mladi
Đerek Luka – KHL Mladost
Varga Andrej – KHL Mladost
Alić Tin – KHL Zagreb
Digula Maksim Artur – KHL Zagreb
Čavlović Niko – Boras HC
Slovinac Lovro – Augsburger EV
Vukadin Marko – HDK Maribor
FW's:
Dimitrijević Alex – KHL Medveščak mladi
Joureau Antonio – KHL Medveščak mladi
Završki Fran – KHL Medveščak mladi
Grgurić Luka – KHL Mladost
Hanžek Lovro – KHL Mladost
Ikanović Šilhan Jan – KHL Mladost
Janjatović Jan – KHL Mladost
Kramarić Nikola – KHL Mladost
Šimunković Martin – KHL Mladost
Ljubičić Niko – KHL Zagreb
Zovko Hrvoje – KHL Zagreb
Bebek Ante – Nassjo HC
Bodiroga Luka – HDK Maribor
Idžan Vito – HK Hradec Kralove
Kumanović Lovro – HD Jesenice mladi
Marinković Karlo – Stromsbro IF
Pavetić Matko – HC Innsbruck
Good things- a lot of underagers and our forwards (especially Idžan - Kumanović duo) should dominate this group. Bad thing - not entirely sure in our goaltenders.
GK's:
Mikulić Ivan – KHL Medveščak mladi
Janjatović-Lončar Teo – KHL Mladost
Krasić Jurica – KHL Mladost
Bujanić Karlo – KHL Zagreb
Kurtagić Roko – KHL Zagreb
D's:
Čavić Patrik – KHL Medveščak mladi
Filipović Borna – KHL Medveščak mladi
Đerek Luka – KHL Mladost
Varga Andrej – KHL Mladost
Alić Tin – KHL Zagreb
Digula Maksim Artur – KHL Zagreb
Čavlović Niko – Boras HC
Slovinac Lovro – Augsburger EV
Vukadin Marko – HDK Maribor
FW's:
Dimitrijević Alex – KHL Medveščak mladi
Joureau Antonio – KHL Medveščak mladi
Završki Fran – KHL Medveščak mladi
Grgurić Luka – KHL Mladost
Hanžek Lovro – KHL Mladost
Ikanović Šilhan Jan – KHL Mladost
Janjatović Jan – KHL Mladost
Kramarić Nikola – KHL Mladost
Šimunković Martin – KHL Mladost
Ljubičić Niko – KHL Zagreb
Zovko Hrvoje – KHL Zagreb
Bebek Ante – Nassjo HC
Bodiroga Luka – HDK Maribor
Idžan Vito – HK Hradec Kralove
Kumanović Lovro – HD Jesenice mladi
Marinković Karlo – Stromsbro IF
Pavetić Matko – HC Innsbruck
Good things- a lot of underagers and our forwards (especially Idžan - Kumanović duo) should dominate this group. Bad thing - not entirely sure in our goaltenders.
SoundAndFury
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filip85
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If goalie(s) decides not to crap the bed against the Netherlands, I would say chances are 50-50 against Ned.
SoundAndFury
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Wouldn't you say Serbia is actually the more dangerous team? The Netherlands roster frankly seems pretty harmless as far as game-breaking talent of any sort.
Did not make the team. Probably has a nagging injury or something though, hard to imagine another scenario.
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filip85
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What bugs me about them is that Crvena Zvezda doesn't play in the Slovenian league U19 as they used to play in the previous seasons, which basically served them as preparation ground for U20 NT. Among players from abroad, only Dinić and Mateja Popović (debuted in HockeyEttan) stands out. Savović is another star player for them but can't find any info on where he is playing this season.
Eye of Ra
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Bezuk not invited is very strange decision, he would be like 4th or 5th best forward on this roster. Goršić is too young to make an immediate impact, and since our federation is not too wealthy, they are probably "saving" his airplane ticket for spring and U18. I assume same is with Idžan younger (and Gmaz).
SoundAndFury
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And in another friendly. Lithuania - Korea 4-0. So again, everything as expected. D2A has to be the most uneven division with Italy and GB being easily D1B strength (I think Italy would have a decent chance to fight for promotion there this year, medals for sure) while Korea and Spain would probably have a hard task winning D2B.
