THE PIPELINE SHOW: December 20, 2018
The annual World Junior Preview Special takes over the holiday episode of The Pipeline Show fully packed with great guests to get you ready for one of the highlight events on the hockey calendar. This week we will have a focus on the five countries that most would consider to be realistic gold medal contenders.
2019 WJC Preview: United States
First up is Team USA and my guest to preview the American squad is a good friend of the show, Julie Robenhymer of EP Rinkside. Julie has been in Everett, WA for the USA camp and, despite the lack of numbers and name bars on the sweaters, can offer a solid break down of the talent wearing red, white and blue.
Team USA has three goaltenders in camp and there is a possibility that they will keep the trio for the tournament. Julie shared her thoughts on Spencer Knight, Cayden Primeau and Kyle Keyser – three goalies playing in three different leagues but that may have more similarities than differences. Is there a clear-cut favourite to be the starter?
Vancouver Canucks fans will have their eyes locked on Quinn Hughes as he should lead the American defensive corps but there are several recognizable names in camp trying to make the team. Mikey Anderson and Dylan Samberg, both from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, are returning from last year’s team. College freshmen K’Andre Miller, Jack St. Ivany and Mattias Samuelsson could play big, physical roles as well.
Of course everyone will be watching Jack Hughes to see if he can dominate the tournament as an underage player the same way Patrik Laine, Auston Matthews, Jesse Puljujarvi and Alexander Nylander did in 2016.
There is no shortage of offensive firepower available although some of the expected point producers for USA have had unimpressive debuts to their NCAA seasons. 1st round NHL picks Oliver Wahlstrom, Jay O’Brien and Joel Farabee are starting to produce for the respective college programs after slow starts. Meanwhile, Ty Madden and Jack Drury have been strong out the gate and don’t sleep on Wisconsin sophomore Jack Dhooghe who, should he make the team, could be one to watch.
Since she’s been in Everett, Julie also had the opportunity to take in a Western Hockey League game for the first time. She talked about the tilt between the Silvertips and the Seattle Thunder-birds and what impression the game left on her of the WHL.
Lastly, as someone who has covered college hockey for such a long time, I wanted Julie’s thoughts on the Philadelphia Flyers firing of head coach Dave Hakstol.
2019 WJC Preview: Canada
Next up is the host nation and perennial favourite; Canada.
This year’s edition of the Maple Leaf is short on tournament experience but that’s not to suggest that the Canadians will ice a weaker entry. Like with the other contending nations, Canada is blessed with depth from which to draw their 22-man roster.
Steve Ewen of The Province in Vancouver shares his thoughts on the team after taking in much of the training camp including the exhibition games against the older USport squad.
We started with the blueline and who Steve thinks will make up the top two pairings and specifically the roles that Ty Smith, Ian Mitchell, Evan Bouchard and Josh Brook will play.
At the time of our conversation, there was some uncertainty as to the availability of forwards as Gabe Vilardi and Brett Leason who missed practices and Jaret Anderson-Dolan who is healing from wrist surgery. We talked about the scenarios that could play out but soon after this interview, it was decided that Vilardi would miss the tournament and that 2020 eligible Alexis Lafreniere would remain with the team.
Finally, there’s the goaltending situation and who will be declared as the starter. In the summer it was unanimous that Michael DiPietro would be ‘the man’ but with the stellar season from Ian Scott, Canada has two solid options to pick from.
Steve also spoke on the subject of ticket sales as whether he felt that attendance would be much stronger than it has been the last few years in Toronto, Montreal and Buffalo.
2019 WJC Preview: Sweden
Sweden enters the tournament this year looking to erase memories of 2018 that include silver medals tucked into pockets or thrown into crowds. The 2019 team doesn’t have the same fire-power as last year’s club but that doesn’t mean anyone should overlook the Swedes this time around.
Uffe Bodin from Elite Prospects and EP Rinkside provides the insight for the segment and suggests that, although Sweden will be competitive once again, it might be too much to expect them to go undefeated in the round robin once again. First we spoke about EP-Rinkside and what readers can expect to find from the new venture.
In net for Sweden, the starter’s job may still be up for grabs and we could conceivably see all three goaltenders getting into action. Part of that is because of a 2-game suspension Olle Eriksson Ek will serve for pocketing his silver medal last year. Samuel Ersson and Adam Ahman are the other two netminders with the team.
Sweden’s blueline could still be a strength of the team with the likes of Erik Brannstrom, Adam Boqvist and Filip Westerlund leading the way. 17-year-old Philip Broberg has been added to the mix and would provide fans of the NHL Draft with something extra to watch for.
Expect Isac Lundestrom to be a leader up front with his NHL and AHL play added to his 2018 WJC experience. We spoke about several individual Swedish players including a motivated Samuel Fagemo plus the two OHL based forwards, Hugo Leufvenius and Rickard Hugg.
2019 WJC Preview: Russia
Team Russia, the perennial gold medal contenders who can dominate or be their own downfall, are one of the favorites heading into the World Junior Championship.
My annual go-to guest to preview the Russian squad is Slava Malamud of ‘Sovsport’ as he rarely sugar coats anything so can be counted on for a fair perspective.
Malamud suggests that there is no clear starting netminder this year. Although Daniil Tarasov is a 3rd round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Amir Miftakhov has more international experience and could get the nod from coach Valeri Bragin.
Good news for fans in North America, three defencemen with CHL experience stand a good chance of making the final roster. Alexander Alexeyev (Red Deer), Dmitri Samorukov (Guelph) and Mark Rubinchik, formerly Saskatoon Blades.
The forwards on Team Russia have to be considered the strength of the club. Vitaly Kravtsov, Grigori Denisenko, Alexander Khovanov, Kirill Marchenko, Ivan Chekhovich… the list seems to go on and on. And then there is Klim Kostin joining the team from the American Hockey League bringing another layer of experience along with him.
As Malamud described, the highly skilled Russians toughest task will be to come together and play like a cohesive team. If they can do that, they stand a good chance of standing atop the po-dium once again.
2019 WJC Preview: Finland
The WJC Preview special wouldn’t be complete without Finland. Full disclosure; I have a bit of a soft spot for the Finns after being fortunate enough to attend the 2016 WJC in Helsinki where the hosts won gold in overtime against Russia. A truly amazing game and I loved the experience of being in the European city and seeing it from their perspective. It was fantastic.
That said, Finland has been terrible at the WJC since then. Really, really bad. So bad that a coaching staff was fired in the middle of a tournament – that bad. Can they get back to contending status this year?
I asked Jouni Nieminen Finnish born, Edmonton based writer for NordicBet Sumoi to come back on the show, as he does every year, to preview the new U20 squad.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (BUF) appears to be the starter and playing in the OHL with the Sudbury Wolves means he has some small ice experience that could be an advantage for him.
Finland’s defence received a great Christmas present from the Chicago Blackhawks this week with Henri Jokiharju. Along with talented 17-year-old Mikko Kokkonen, Oskari Laaksonen, 2019 draft eligible Antonni Honka and Lassi Thomson, the Finns will be solid on the back end.
Up front, everyone will be watching for Kaapo Kakko who Nieminen thinks could overtake Jake Hughes as the top ranked prospect for the 2019 NHL Draft. According to Nieminen, Kakko is ahead of where Mikko Rantanen and Patrik Laine were as juniors at the same age.
Hours after this interview it was announced that Eeli Tolvanen would be joining the team as well but the exciting forward doesn’t come up in our conversation for that reason.
The rest of the forward group might be led by former Swift Current Bronco Aleksi Heponiemi who continues to produce big numbers back in Finland. Rasmus Kupari, Anton Lundell and Aarne Talvitie also get mentions from Nieminen.
History tells us that Finland usually struggles as a team while playing in the smaller rinks of North America and Nieminen offered a theory as to why that might be and if this year may be different.
You can hear this episode of The Pipeline Show in its entirety HERE or you can download it and listen later by using THIS LINK. All the segments can be played or downloaded individually from the main website or at SoundCloud.
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Guy Flaming is the host of The Pipeline Show, a year-round, 100% prospect orientated pod-cast now in its 14thseason. Since 2006, the mandate of the program has been to expose the audience to the future of the NHL and that is accomplished every week by speaking with the top players, coaches, general managers, scouts and media that junior and college hockey have to offer. It is free to subscribe to The Pipeline Show and is available via iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Spreaker, the Podcast App and www.thepipelineshow.com