WJC: U-18 in Germany

Chapin Landvogt

Registered User
Jul 4, 2002
19,875
5,926
Germany
Welp, no sooner is the WC at an end - and quite amazingly at that - than the eyes of the scouting community can begin to concentrate on the somewhat underrated U-18 tournament being held in Dresden and Crimmitschau, Germany in April.

I'm sure we'll hear little about the actual rosters until the tournament begins, but I'd be very curious to hear about which 2011 draft-eligible prospects are likely to play there.

I'm not sure about the exact cut-offs dates for the U-18 birthdays. Are guys who already turned 18 in 2010 eligible? If so, there could be a boatload of 2011 draft eligible guys there.

Germany, for example, should be fielding no less than Rieder and Latta, depending on their NA schedules.

In any case, any feedback would be welcome, especially with respect to guys who just played in Buffalo the past 10 days.
 
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Andy Dufresne

Registered User
Jun 17, 2009
2,616
696
I'm not sure about the exact cut-offs dates for the U-18 birthdays. Are guys who already turned 18 in 2010 eligible? If so, there could be a boatload of 2011 draft eligible guys there.


In any case, any feedback would be welcome, especially with respect to guys who just played in Buffalo the past 10 days.

The cutoff birthday is Jan 1, 1993- so none of the late 92 born 2011 draft prospects are eligible.

It's even harder to guess who might be there with so many top guys from Europe playing in the CHL now, for example Yakupov might be the best player there OR Sarnia might be in the playoffs. It's always been near impossible this soon for the Canadians. USA should be the easiest to guess because they usually just take the best of NTDP that are age eligible.

bebl: groups are here
http://www.iihf.com/channels1011/wm18/schedule.html
 

edgevolution

GO USA!
Apr 7, 2010
1,296
0
State of Hockey
The cutoff birthday is Jan 1, 1993- so none of the late 92 born 2011 draft prospects are eligible.

It's even harder to guess who might be there with so many top guys from Europe playing in the CHL now, for example Yakupov might be the best player there OR Sarnia might be in the playoffs. It's always been near impossible this soon for the Canadians. USA should be the easiest to guess because they usually just take the best of NTDP that are age eligible.

bebl: groups are here
http://www.iihf.com/channels1011/wm18/schedule.html

The only problem is that NTDP players aren't the best players in the US. Just a few of them.
 

Andy Dufresne

Registered User
Jun 17, 2009
2,616
696
The only problem is that NTDP players aren't the best players in the US. Just a few of them.

That's true but they have one huge advantage over almost every other team in that tourney in that they play high level league (USHL) hockey together as a team all year before this tournament. Most of the other teams, especially Canada, are basically 'all star' teams.

Having just looked up their stats, I notice there's a whole bunch of 94 born kids on this NTDP U-18 team, possibly they're in kind of an in between sort of year (gearing up for a big year next year?):
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/csl.php?tid=5434

Forwards: Samuellson, Kerdiles, DiPauli ; D-men: Seth Jones , Trouba
The above would all be underagers (94's) to watch for at this tournament

Top guys over-all should be forwards Grimaldi and Biggs. The 93' d-men sure don't have any rep compared to the group that came through 2-3 years ago.
 

William H Bonney

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
24,472
6,298
Colorado
That's true but they have one huge advantage over almost every other team in that tourney in that they play high level league (USHL) hockey together as a team all year before this tournament. Most of the other teams, especially Canada, are basically 'all star' teams.

Having just looked up their stats, I notice there's a whole bunch of 94 born kids on this NTDP U-18 team, possibly they're in kind of an in between sort of year (gearing up for a big year next year?):
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/csl.php?tid=5434

Forwards: Samuellson, Kerdiles, DiPauli ; D-men: Seth Jones , Trouba
The above would all be underagers (94's) to watch for at this tournament

Top guys over-all should be forwards Grimaldi and Biggs. The 93' d-men sure don't have any rep compared to the group that came through 2-3 years ago.

There's not, at least currently, any '94s playing with the U-18 team. That list includes both the U-18 and U-17 teams, although some of the '94s have played a handful of games up this year. We'll probably see a couple of those guys move up, maybe permanently, to the U-18 team soon though. It usually happens after the New Year like with Grimaldi last year and eventually Biggs.

It's probably too early to get a real good read on who might move up from the '94 forward group, but I think you target some of the likely candidates. The '94 d-man group is really deep and they have lots of choices but Trouba or Jones are the headliners at this point but guys like Skjei or Carrick could get looks as well. There's also Nick Ebert from Windsor, in which they should do whatever necessary to add him if he's available. Given the weakness of the overall '93 group of d-men for the USA and the NTDP team, coupled in with they've been missing one of their best guys there all year again in Connor Murphy, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them add 2-3 d-men for the tournament.

Typically the team doesn't go overboard outside of the NTDP teams to make their U-18 team for the tournament but this might be a year they do so. They normally (if ever?) don't just leave guys off the roster but they will demote guys to the U-17 team but it's typically been to promote someone from the U-17 team up for the tournament. It'll be interesting to see if they're willing to demote someone in favor of someone from outside the program, especially at forward, with guys like Alex Galchenyuk, Seth Ambroz, Shane McColgan, Colin Jacobs, Stefan Noesen, Vince Trocheck, Cason Hohmann, Mario Lucia, etc. all potentially available but depending on playoff scenarios of course.

For last year's tournament, they added Connor Brickley (USHL), Austin Watson (OHL) and added Tyler Biggs and Rocco Grimaldi from the U-17s.

In 2009, they added Philip Samuelsson (USHL) and Jack Campbell, Jon Merrill, Adam Clendening, Matt Nieto, Jason Zucker from the U-17s.

In 2008, they added Aaron Ness (USHS), Philip McRae (OHL), and Brandon Maxwell, Ryan Bourque, Jeremy Morin, and Kyle Palmieri from the U-17 team.

In 2007, they added Tom McCollum (OHL), Tommy Cross (USHS), Ryan McDonagh (USHS), Jimmy O'Brien (NCAA), Patrick White (USHS), and Vinny Saponari and Jordan Schroeder from the U-17 team.
 
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n1cON

bleeds blue ! ! !
Jun 1, 2010
812
0
here & there
I´m happy for the city of Crimmitschau. The people there are hockey crazy and I think it´s gonna be a fun tournament to watch and a nice one for the players too. Hope to see some of you guys there!
 

Chapin Landvogt

Registered User
Jul 4, 2002
19,875
5,926
Germany
The cutoff birthday is Jan 1, 1993- so none of the late 92 born 2011 draft prospects are eligible.

It's even harder to guess who might be there with so many top guys from Europe playing in the CHL now, for example Yakupov might be the best player there OR Sarnia might be in the playoffs. It's always been near impossible this soon for the Canadians. USA should be the easiest to guess because they usually just take the best of NTDP that are age eligible.

bebl: groups are here
http://www.iihf.com/channels1011/wm18/schedule.html

Ohhhh, that's a bit of a bummer.

I thought everyone who did not turn 19 before the tournament was completed is eligible, i.e. the Couturiers and Larssons of the world.

I believe there will nonetheless be some interesting names, including guys like Rackell and Armia, to name a few.

Then I'd have this question: anyone know who's currently at the top of the prospects list with regards to the 2012 draft???
 

PensFan101

Forever Champions.
Apr 23, 2007
2,123
411
Owen Sound
Might convince my German exchange student to come with me from Berlin to Dresden to watch this tournament, it'd be a great experience.
 

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