GDT: Which players are impressing you the most at the 2024 World Junior Championships?

[Steve Kournianos]

Jesse Pulkkinen. A big defender with very complete skills.

Very mature and skilled but he takes a lot of risks I rarely see from any defenseman. His 1-on-1 is textbook. Looking forward to his second half with JyP.

 

[Nevins]

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

Didn't see as much as I'd have liked given the time difference but some guys stood out;

Kulich really caught me off guard. Admittedly I didn't know much about him but this guy looks like a good top 6 forward. Really impressed.

As a Canucks fan I was really impressed with Willander. He was a role player but did it well. Used his speed effectively, closed on guys with physicality, scored a nice goal & flashed puck skills. I just love his upside. Only 18 so a limited role but very encouraging.

Lekkerimaki was the big star. He had a tough year last season with injuries so it was awesome to see him star in this tournament on top of how he's been playing in the SHL.

Lindstein was a guy I really liked. Just a really solid all around Dman & the heightened pace of play doesnt seem to bother him at all. STL made a great pick there in the late 1st imo.

Ostlund was more creative at getting to the inside than I thought he was around the draft. Really interested to see how his career unfolds, he was fantastic.

For USA there's so many guys but Jimmy Snuggerud's shot was eye popping, this guy can really wire it. Cutter Gauthier looks like he'll be a really difficult guy to play against in Philly's top 6. Lane Hutson has obvious talent (he makes things look easy at BU) but I thought he showed a ton of heart + compete in this tourney. Augustine was great when they needed him. And Issac Howard really jumped off the page. He's able to make things happen when it's needed, TB has another guy legit player coming with him.

Helenius showed his high IQ, Celebrini was one of the best players in the tournament, Matt Savoie looked really good, Maverick Lamerouix was more in control of the game than I was expecting.

Could go on and on. Lots of great players in this year's tournament.

 

[Cake Eater]

Still going over data from 12/31 but I finished USA vs CZE

Hutson had 20 positive plays and eight bad plays to lead the U.S. Chesley with 16-2, Moore with 11-2. And if we just stick with clean passes and any other good decision, Finley was near the top again, while Nazar was in the middle.

Gauthier was the worst of any U.S. skater in the Czech game but all almost entirely from bad passes that killed possessions. I also docked him a few times for poor shot selection on the PP. I know all about the Gretzky quote, but shots that miss the net by a foot and are cleared out or lead to an opposing counter is a negative play IMO.

Again, this is just for my own purposes because watching the same game twice is more than enough for me to deduce the good and bad from a full 18-skater lineup. Those /60 charts are useless to me personally, but I watch every game and don’t need them to tell me anything.

How does a +12 lead a +14?

 

[User13452]

Unger-Sorum kids got a bright future typical Carolina pick in the second round

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Dionicio is the big one. Ducks unearthed another steal.

 

[TLEH]

Didn't see as much as I'd have liked given the time difference but some guys stood out;

Kulich really caught me off guard. Admittedly I didn't know much about him but this guy looks like a good top 6 forward. Really impressed.

As a Canucks fan I was really impressed with Willander. He was a role player but did it well. Used his speed effectively, closed on guys with physicality, scored a nice goal & flashed puck skills. I just love his upside. Only 18 so a limited role but very encouraging.

Lekkerimaki was the big star. He had a tough year last season with injuries so it was awesome to see him star in this tournament on top of how he's been playing in the SHL.

Lindstein was a guy I really liked. Just a really solid all around Dman & the heightened pace of play doesnt seem to bother him at all. STL made a great pick there in the late 1st imo.

Ostlund was more creative at getting to the inside than I thought he was around the draft. Really interested to see how his career unfolds, he was fantastic.

For USA there's so many guys but Jimmy Snuggerud's shot was eye popping, this guy can really wire it. Cutter Gauthier looks like he'll be a really difficult guy to play against in Philly's top 6. Lane Hutson has obvious talent (he makes things look easy at BU) but I thought he showed a ton of heart + compete in this tourney. Augustine was great when they needed him. And Issac Howard really jumped off the page. He's able to make things happen when it's needed, TB has another guy legit player coming with him.

Helenius showed his high IQ, Celebrini was one of the best players in the tournament, Matt Savoie looked really good, Maverick Lamerouix was more in control of the game than I was expecting.

Could go on and on. Lots of great players in this year's tournament.

I thought Ostlund was better than Lekkerimaki, and Lindstein was impressive for a guy who wasn't even going to play. Willander I've seen a lot live and am glad people got to see how good of a defender he will be.

I thought Savoie was easy to spot with his speed, but was generally surprised at how wasteful he was. Terrible decision making with the puck. Celebrini was the clear best player on Canada.

USA I was mostly impressed with Nazar, Brindley, Howard. Nazar a bit wasteful with his chances at times but they were the most consistent line for the Americans. Makes sense with their age though. Defense was more of a revolving door of guys having good games and bad games. Buium was impressive for an 18 year old.

 

[Antiillafire]

Slovakia: Mesar, Petrovsky, Radivojevic, Gajan, Pekarcik.

 

[Czechboy]

A lot of them actually.lol

Galvas and Prcik were a godsend (both subs and weren't on original roster)

Kulich with back to back All Star nominations, a silver and bronze and led the tourney in scoring. Thank you Jiri, now get your ass to the NHL!

Our undrafted CHLers really did a great job.. phenomenal to be honest, they all went undrafted and all stepped up... how no one thought they weren't worth a 7th round pick is beyond me: Cibulka, Becher, Rymon, Sapousek and Melovsky (top 3 in scoring)

Hamara looked so promising, got drafted and totally went to shit.. then he got traded and started picking it up.. he was amazing for us.

Alscher played heavy D minutes. Not much offence but the kid can defend and is not fun to play against.

Sapo played very heavy minutes.. over 20 a night and is a total pain in the ass. Big net front presence, great on draws and annoying. Wish he got more points but his game is beautiful.

Cech was near 25 minutes in the Bronze game.. very basic game but it works well.

Stancl started the tourney with the fewest minutes per game for forwards and just got better and better. You could see his confidence growing with each game.

 

[LeProspector]

Rodwin Dionicio.

 

[EK47]

For Sweden probably Östlund despite all the missed in the gmg. He’s just different.

 

[Goldenhands]

Zeev Buium hands down.