WJC: Your predictions for the best/worst players/teams in the WJC

[member 30781]

Merry Christmas everyone! And for those who don't celebrate holidays (like myself), Happy Boxing Day and WJC Eve! Here is my annual WJC Predictions for 2013. Couple shockers if I do say so myself.

http://thehockeywriters.com/2013-world-junior-championship-predictions/

Who are yours? And why?

Biggest Underdog (can be player or team):
Best Goalie:
Biggest Impact Player:
Best Defenseman:
Tournament MVP:
Biggest Upset (can be player or team):
2013 IIHF World Junior Champions:
Final Rankings:

GO!

Click to read more...

 

[The Saw Is the Law]

Biggest Underdog (can be player or team): Czech
Best Goalie: Eetu Laurikainen
Biggest Impact Player: Eetu Laurikainen
Best Defenseman: Olli Määttä
Tournament MVP: Olli Määttä
Biggest Upset (can be player or team): USA and Russia
2013 IIHF World Junior Champions: Finland
Final Rankings: Finland, Canada, Sweden, Czech, Russia, USA, Switzerland, Latvia, Slovakia, Germany

 

[Loffer]

Biggest Underdog (can be player or team): Ville Jarvelainen
Best Goalie: Andrei Vasilevski
Biggest Impact Player: Rasmus Ristolainen
Best Defenseman: Dougie Hamilton
Tournament MVP: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Biggest Upset (can be player or team): Alex Galchenyuk (hope not)
2013 IIHF World Junior Champions: Canada
Final Rankings: Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Usa, Czech, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Germany

 

[OttawaRoughRiderFan*]

The final standings...

G - Canada
S - Finland
B - Russia
4th - USA

 

[Mr B]

Biggest Underdog: Czech
Best Goalie: Vasilevski
Biggest Impact Player: Elias Lindholm
Best Defenseman: Ristolainen
Tournament MVP: Yakupov
Biggest Upset: Huberdeau
2013 IIHF World Junior Champions: Finland
Final Rankings: Finland, Russia, Sweden, Czech, Canada, USA, Switzerland, Germany, Slovakia, Latvia

 

[joe89]

Jurco is Slovakian FYI.

 

[member 30781]

Jurco is Slovakian FYI.

Woops. My mistake. Should've known that since I went to see Slovakia play Germany in the World Juniors in Buffalo and got a few pics of him. Will make the needed corrections now. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[tmlms13]

Biggest Underdog (can be player or team): Finland is 11/2 in Vegas (5th), does them winning Silver/Gold count?
Best Goalie:Andrei Vasilevski
Biggest Impact Player: Nail Yakupov, he can take over games himself when he is on his game.
Best Defenseman: Dougie Hamilton
Tournament MVP: Ryan Nugent Hopkins (ya i know)
Biggest Upset (can be player or team): Switzerland beats Sweden in group play (prob not just putting it out there for the lulz if they do
2013 IIHF World Junior Champions: Canada
Final Rankings: Canada, Finland, Russia, Sweden, USA, Czechs, Swiss, Latvia, Slovakia, Germany

 

[Xokkeu]

Merry Christmas everyone! And for those who don't celebrate holidays (like myself), Happy Boxing Day and WJC Eve! Here is my annual WJC Predictions for 2013. Couple shockers if I do say so myself.

http://thehockeywriters.com/2013-world-junior-championship-predictions/

Who are yours? And why?

Biggest Underdog (can be player or team):
Best Goalie:
Biggest Impact Player:
Best Defenseman:
Tournament MVP:
Biggest Upset (can be player or team):
2013 IIHF World Junior Champions:
Final Rankings:

GO!

I never know how to pick an underdog. Most people rightly recognize that Finland have a gold medal contending team, so I can't really call them an underdog. I think people are actually overrating the Czechs a bit and writing off the Swedes too easily. I guess I have to pick the Swedes as my "underdog" only because the general consensus I'm seeing from a lot of people is that they aren't a top team. The US could be in this category but most people seem to see that this is a talented team that could win gold or go nowhere.

Best goalie is either Vasilevski or Gibson

Best defenseman is probably either Dougie Hamilton, with an honorable mention to Morgan Reilly, Seth Jones and Olli Maatta.

I have no idea who will be the tournament MVP but the two best players are probably Yakupov and Nugent-Hopkins. SO pick either one.

It's a one game knockout round so anybody can win, but Canada have the best collection of talent. Doesn't mean they will win though. USA, Russia, Sweden and Finland all have legitimate chances.

With the pools I have no idea how the final rankings will look but these would be my rankings going into the tournament.

Canada
Russia
Finland
USA
Sweden
Czechs
Slovakia
Switzerland
Latvia
Germany