2024 World Junior Championships Thread

[bhamill]

Finished tied for 2nd in team scoring with Brindley behind Turd Cutter Gauthier (which is what I'm calling him until he no longer has his rights held by the Flyers.)

Interesting how he keeps on outscoring his line mates despite being carried by them.

On the real, Leonard is a f***ing animal. Smith had his best game of the tournament in the GM game but was pretty ass otherwise.

I dream of the NYR acquiring Leonard’s rights from the Caps…

 

[kovazub94]

Seems every draft there’s a small(er) uber offensive players that fall on the draft day - sometimes warranted, sometimes proven wrong.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Wrong thread

 

[eco's bones]

Celebrini will be in the show. Great player who hopefully lands anywhere but Chicago.

It took Gabe a while to get going (and he definitely fell into the category of
Trying to do too much) but Smith really hurt the line for the majority of the tournament. I’ve seen more than a few yellow flags in his game this year which are starting to turn a shade of red. To his credit his game got better later (he was good in the GMG and had his best sequence of the tournament a game earlier on the shift where he scored in an otherwise weak game) but the decision making is an issue for him that doesn’t get spoken about enough.

He needs another year in college. If San Jose convinces him to go pro I think he ends up turning into Spooner. More than a few similarities in their games than anyone wants to admit and I hope for his sake that they allow him to cook for a bit. He can still be really good, but he needs a ton of work.

Smith like his line mates were first timers in the tournament and pretty much up everybody on the top two lines when the tournament began were a year older and had played on the 2023 USA team. Nazar was the exception but probably would have been there if he hadn't been injured. Going in I had the impression that US coach Carle looked at Smith, Perreault and Leonard as a support scoring line more and his 2004 born forwards on the top two lines as the guys who were going to bring most of the offense.

As the tournament went on there was less from Brindley, Snuggerud, Nazar and more from Smith's line. But they all have different strengths and also they've been playing together for three years now and have built a lot of chemistry. Could see that on the first goal against Sweden. Perreault disappearing behind the net to reappear to the side just as Smith makes a shot pass for Perreault to put pass the goalie. Sweden completely lost him. Something to think about is when each of them does turn pro (and I suspect for each it will be after the 24-25 season) they will have to form new chemistry with new players.