2016 World Junior Championship

[Ginger Vitis]

At this point I believe the Sabres would be picking 6th if you went strictly by the standings.. So

USA

Auston Matthews 6'2 200 LW/C
- slam dunk consensus No.1 pick next year... He would have went 3rd overall last year and isn't quite on Jack Eichels level but he is close... What if the Sabres absolutely **** the bed the rest of the way and get lucky and get the No.1overall pick.. They dont need anymore centres you say? Matthews can play LW if need be

Matthew Tkachuk LW 6'1 188.. About 70% of the mocks have him going 3rd overall and 30% of them have him going No.2 overall.. Plays for the London Knights and is averaging about 2PPG great puck skills and very smart... If the Sabres end up picking 3rd overall I think Tkachuk is the easy choice. And The Sabres do need wingers

CANADA

Julien Gauthier RW 6'4 220 .. Gauthier is the only draft eligible player on caandas roster and he has come out of nowhere to put himself in TOp 8 status.. Big winger with a trmenedous shot he has scored a ****lod of goals so far averaging almost a goal a game.. I don't expect him to get much playing time or have much of a impact given his youth he is someone who could be a Sabre if the Sabres stay in the Top 8


FINLAND

Jesse Puljujarvi RW 6'3 220...Speed and size and goal scoring ability Jesse has been considered a top 4 pick in 2016 for awhile.. if Puljujarvi is the 4th best player there is a dropoff after him I feel like I am repeating myself the Sabres need wingers and Jesse is the easy pick at 4 if tkachuk and Chychrun are gone

Patrick Laine RW 6'4 210.. Laine is projected to go anywhere between and 5 and 9. Skill wise he is every bit as skilled as Tkachuk or Puljujarvi but the knock on him is he is inconsistent... Keep reading he has red flags he probably isnt GMTM type of player

Olli Juolevi D 6'2 185.. There is a bit of a dropoff defensively after Jakob chychrun it is not a good defensive prospects draft.. Juolevi may be the 2nd best defensive prospect and should go between 8 and 12... The Sabres do need to get more defensemen in their pipeline Juolevi is considered a Ollie Maata clone

[Ginger Vitis]

Canada plays the USA Boxing Day 1:00pm EST

[coastal]

Laine needs Eichel.

Eichel needs Laine.

[Ginger Vitis]

USA beats Canada 4-2... Auston Matthews with 2 points..Matthews and Tkachuk played on the same line and that line was by far the best line in the whole game.. Mathews got better and more dominant as the game went on... Dylan Strome was by far the best Canadian forward.. Mitch Marner disapointed me he did nothing for the 1st 2 periods.. Lawson Crouse was a slug going back to last year he does very little in these games I find him to be overrated... And Jake Virtanen was invisible as well very disapointing .Considering he is 19 years old he should be more dominant than he is.. Matthew Barzal stunk too and I thought he should have gone Top 10 in 2015.

Julien Gauthier the RW who is projected to go between 6 and 10 next year had a strong game iMO and was given more ice time than I thought he would...

[Ginger Vitis]

****ty day for Maple Leafs prospects.. Marner with a piss poor game and Willie Nylander gets smoked in the head with a elbow and has to leave the game and does not return..

Jesse Pulijujarvi with 3 points and Patrick Laine with 1 point. Finland beats Belarus 6-0

[ckg927]

Let's not forget, too, that the US' Alex DeBrincat may very well have played his way out of the WJC with that spear against Canada's Travis Konecky; he got a major penalty and game misconduct. And whatever penalty he gets will be honored by the OHL(he's with the Erie Otters, and that will take away one of their top scores for quite a while).

And there were at least 3 other ejections on Day 1 of the tourney.

[Ginger Vitis]

I overestimated how much Debrincat would suffer production wise not playing with McDavid this year but still dont think he is a Top 10 pick... 12 to 16 is about right

[mightysimi]

I love European officiating. In North America that spear is a double minor and that penalty that the US scored the 2nd goal on is either embellishment or not called at all considering it had no effect on the play. Canada didn't play poorly but they didn't shoot at all. Many slot passes to no one or someone who is covered. That will get cleaned up I think. The American tender looked pretty good. He was square most of the day.

[Ginger Vitis]

An unnamed NHl exec whose team did not pick in the top 5 ranked these 4 players
1. Connor Mcdavid
2.Auston Mathews
3. Jesse Puljujarvi
4.Jack Eichel

The hype train regarding Matthews is starting to pick up steam.. His game agasint Canada was more dominant than any of Eichels games last year.. Lots of debate now that Matthews is every bit as good as Eichel if not better

[ckg927]

I overestimated how much Debrincat would suffer production wise not playing with McDavid this year but still dont think he is a Top 10 pick... 12 to 16 is about right

Looking at the NHL mock draft sites, here's where they're pegging DeBrincat as of now:

MyNHLDraft.com: #18 to Nashville
Draft Site: #15 to Boston
The Hockey Writers: Not listed

(BTW, as for Buffalo's #1 pick....My NHL Draft has Val d'Or RW Julien Gauthier(6' 4")at #6, Draft Site has Windsor D Mikhail Sergachev at #7, and The Hockey Writers went with Calgary Hitmen D Jake Bean(who's not even 6' but he's #2 in scoring for the Hitmen, as of now).

[Ginger Vitis]

Looking at the NHL mock draft sites, here's where they're pegging DeBrincat as of now:

MyNHLDraft.com: #18 to Nashville
Draft Site: #15 to Boston
The Hockey Writers: Not listed

(BTW, as for Buffalo's #1 pick....My NHL Draft has Val d'Or RW Julien Gauthier(6' 4")at #6, Draft Site has Windsor D Mikhail Sergachev at #7, and The Hockey Writers went with Calgary Hitmen D Jake Bean(who's not even 6' but he's #2 in scoring for the Hitmen, as of now).

Sergachev and Bean are meh @6 or 7.. I like Gauthier the best out of those 3 it means something when a Canadian makes the Canadian junior team his draft year although Lawson Crouse did it last year and I think his overrated

[JATMtheJATM]

An unnamed NHl exec whose team did not pick in the top 5 ranked these 4 players
1. Connor Mcdavid
2.Auston Mathews
3. Jesse Puljujarvi
4.Jack Eichel

The hype train regarding Matthews is starting to pick up steam.. His game agasint Canada was more dominant than any of Eichels games last year.. Lots of debate now that Matthews is every bit as good as Eichel if not better

That settles it.

Tank!

But for real, I'm pretty happy with having eichel and reinhart going forward. Buffalo is going to add a HUGE piece for the future.

[Night Train]

I'm happy the US beat Canada early to piss off the home fans.

[Ginger Vitis]

Puljujarvi and Laine each had 3 points in Finlands 6-4 win over Russia.. Tkachuk was kinda meh against Sweden.. So was Mathews somewhat... If Sabres keep at somewhat at a .500 clip they wont be in any position to be in the Pulijujarvi or Laine running

[Ginger Vitis]

This is the least impressive Canada team Ive seen in awhile.. Spiked tried to convince everyone every forward projected to go in the 1st round in 2015 was better than Sam Reinhart but other than Dylan Strome the rest of the 2015 1st round forwards on the team haven't generated close to amount of offense and opportunities that Reinhart did last year.. Mitchell Marner and Mathew Barzal/Travis Konecny/Lawson Crouse have been good in spurts but nothing compared to the Domi/Reinhart/Duclair line of last year

Jake Virtanen who went 6th pverall in 2014 has had one great period and the rest of the time...Meh

[JATMtheJATM]

This is the least impressive Canada team Ive seen in awhile.. Spiked tried to convince everyone every forward projected to go in the 1st round in 2015 was better than Sam Reinhart but other than Dylan Strome the rest of the 2015 1st round forwards on the team haven't generated close to amount of offense and opportunities that Reinhart did last year.. Mitchell Marner and Mathew Barzal/Travis Konecny/Lawson Crouse have been good in spurts but nothing compared to the Domi/Reinhart/Duclair line of last year

Jake Virtanen who went 6th pverall in 2014 has had one great period and the rest of the time...Meh

I don't think anyone should listen to the guy.

Regardless, yeah, Canada looks weak this year

[Ginger Vitis]

I don't think anyone should listen to the guy.




I always knew he was full of crap lol I could buy Strome and Marner being comparable with Reinhart and of course McDavid and Eichel are better prospects.. Reinhart goes no lower than 5th in 2015 IMO.. Sure 3 games is one heck of a small sample size but kinda seeing why the Coyotes took Strome instead of Marner

[JATMtheJATM]

I think watching reinhart speaks for itself. 15 points in 36 games. At first glance, that's pretty "meh" but you can see the skill is there, and the intelligence is as well. You give him another season, he's going to be a dandy.

[Ginger Vitis]

The " Fab 4" of the 2016 draft had a very good day albeit agaisnt weak competition... Auston Matthews with 4 points and Matt Tkachuk with 3 points as the USA defeats Switzerland 10-1.. Jesse Puljujarvi with 4 points and Patrick Laine with 3 points as Finland defeats Slovakia 8-3... Puljujarvi leads the tournament in scoring with 10 points in 3 games

[Ginger Vitis]

Fab 4 December 31

Jesse Pujujarvi 2 goal
Patrick Laine 1 goal
Auston Matthews 1 goal and 1 assist
Matt Tkachuk 1 goal and 1 assist

Olli Juolevi the finish defensemen who is projected to go between 7 and 12 in 2016 has 6 assists in 4 games and is a plus 3

Canadas struggles continue as they lose to Sweden 5-2 and Canada plays finland tomorrow at 11;00am ESt in one quarterfinal and the USa plays Czechoslavakia at 1;00pm ESt

[Ginger Vitis]

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/jrhockey-buzzing-the-net/finnish-wjc-standouts-laine--puljujarvi-call-out-canadian-juniors-043506005.html

They're not wrong but why give Canada bulletin board material.....

[Ginger Vitis]

Jesse Pulijujarvi with 3 assists and Patrick Laine with 2 goals and 1 assist as Finland defeats Canada 6-5… Laines shot is world class as good as I've seen from a 17 year old.. Both goals he scored were both howitzers that Mackenzie Blackwood could not handle.. Olli Juolevi had 2 assists his best asset is how well he skates and I think with new mock drafts that will come out he will be as high as 6th overall…. It just seemed with the finnish 3 prop sects the puck constantly follows them around..

Mitch Marner had 2 power play goals but took bad penalty at the end of the game...

[Ginger Vitis]

Auston Matthews with a hat trick..USA defeats Czechoslavakia 7-0

[coastal]

Auston Matthews is a badass.

[Ingtar33]

he's definitely a good player. no.1 pick... not a generational guy, but no slouch either.

[Ginger Vitis]

Patrick Laine just scored to tie the gold medal game agasint Russia.. Between Puljujuarvi and Laine I like them equally but if there is one skill between the 2 of them that stands out that I would consider elite it is Laines shot... if Laine were to end up a Sabre it could be a lethal combo with Eichel or Reinhart being his pivot

[Ginger Vitis]

Puljujarvi with his 2nd assist as Finland reties the game 2-2... Puljujarvi showing why his skating and passing are considered great on the 2nd assist