Jabba11
Hockey Lobby
Best defenceman: Orlov or Gudbranson. Gudbranson has been playing extremely well for Canada..both ends of the ice.
He's been Canada's best guy in the defensive zone, clearly. His prospect as an NHLer is probably even better at the NHL level because his skating will continue to evolve but he's got that size and wing span. You don't see too man 6'6 235 pounders at 19 move like he can. He's not the one being victimized by speed.
Hes also playing against boys and not men either for speed. Like I said unless he improves his lateral movement big time hell get torn apart by top players in the NHL.
I would think the highest scoring defenceman in world junior history deserves this honor, at least until somebody else steps up in the knockout round to make some big plays for his team. Looking good in a whitewash of Norway or Slovakia doesn't earn you much in my books, these guys need to perform against the top teams with elimination on the line to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Homer pick (since he plays junior for my hometown team), but Gudbranson's looked really good for Canada so far. He's been physical, has been positionally sound in his own end, and is even contributing a surprising number of points offensively (3 goals, 5 points for a "shutdown defenseman").
One flaw I've noticed, and maybe it's on instruction from the coaching staff, is he's backing up a bit too much. It was especially noticeable against the fast Swedish forwards. I'd have liked him to close the gap a little and not give them until the top of the faceoff circle to take shots (ie. that weak goal Roy let in to tie the 5-5 game).
But overall, he's been, arguably, Canada's most dependable blueliner in the defensive zone, IMO.