GDT: 2017 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships

[Cousin Eddie]

After watching these two games I'm much more excited for Tyson jost than I thought I'd be.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Gauthier is a bit of an enigma to me but man he's got a great frame and shot. Interesting that Jost is playing with two 6'-4" Carolina Hurricane prospects. Roy is an underrated prospect as well. That could be 2/3 of a quite an interesting line some day in Raleigh.

The fact that Roy went in the 4th should tell you how underscouted the Q still is. I've only seen a bit of the games and I really like the look of that line. Now we need to get our Roy and Gauthier.

Jost is more dynamic then I think he was getting credit for when we picked him. I think the two way part was way too much the focus. And of course it's nice having something to cheer for.

 

[AvsCOL]

Didn't mind the pick when it happened, was sort of indifferent to picking him, but man, Jost is a heck of a hockey player. Playing with some incredibly talented guys on team Canada, and as far as I'm concerned, he's been the best of the bunch so far.


Been a glimmer of hope in the midst of an otherwise depressing Avalanche season. Really, really excited to see more of him.

 

[Don Corleone]

Jost has looked fantastic so far. Seeing him control the pp was great.

I am shocked at how Dubois looks. No wonder is below PPG in the Q as he has was just meh and horrible for someone who was picked 3rd overall.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Guys like Jost, Greer, Meloche, Beaudin, Bigras, Compher and Martin give me hope. Jost just looks like he does everything well.

 

[El Travo]

It's so satisfying watching Jost succeed as much as he is after all the hyping I've been doing.

I find it incredible how under the radar he is on HFboards.

 

[S E P H]

I know people don't care about the lower divisions, but nevertheless I will still post about them.

In D1 Group A Belarus just nicked past Germany to get promoted back to the main division for 2018 WJC. Though with that said, this German team was one of the more weaker birth years for the country. Sounds like either next years or 2019's team looks very strong for promotion. France got a solid 3rd place finished, but had inconsistent results throughout the team. One player though besides Texier who might be drafted is 6'6" right-winger Justin Addamo. Hearing teams have been heavily scouting him before he joined France for this tournament (plays in the NAHL). He's committed to Robert Morris University next year. Kazakhstan and Austria finish off the next two places with Norway being relegated. Austria had some injury problems or they would have been in contention with Germany and Belarus for promotion, while Norway had a dip in their team's talent this year. I also hear that they will have some very strong teams next time with Emilio-Pettersen leading them.

In D1 Group B it came down again to Poland vs Hungary, with again Hungary getting the better of the two once again. It seems that these two countries are starting to develop a little bit of a rivalry. They've been matched the last three seasons or so in almost every group where when it came down to promotion, Hungary won the games. Lyszczarczyk lead the tournament in points, now if he can be traded off the freakin' Sudbury Wolves to a team with some actual talent so he can get drafted. Slovenia finished third and seems that this should be their spot since the country doesn't have a very big population to support them consistently rising in the rankings. Italy which is one of the country's which has a mess of a hockey federation finished fourth, Ukraine finished fifth, and sadly Great Britain were relegated.

In D2 Group A Lithuania actually surprised Japan and won promotion. Remember last year that Japan withdrew from the tournament since they feared the terrorist attacks in France a couple months before. IIHF punished them by relegating them and they should have been favourites for promotion here. On the other hand, a bright spot so far has been Lithuania, they're actually starting to take hockey seriously and are getting better and better annually at all levels of hockey. For someone who pays attention to hockey at a global level, I am starting to see many more players from Lithuania in Finnish's junior leagues, Russia, MHL, VHL, and some of the other ex-Soviet Union countries. Romania got bronze, Estonia got fourth, Netherlands got fifth, and Croatia got sixth. The two countries from these teams I want to talk about are Netherlands and Croatia. Croatia in particular had one of THE worst birth year teams I have ever seen, they got smoked like 11-0 and 13-0 in two of the games, just a disaster. But what is even worst is Netherlands, if Hungary is a bright spot for hockey to catch on and gain a strong cult following, Netherlands is the complete opposite. Not only do they have a pathetic men's league (which recently joined with Belgium), but every single team from the Men's National team to the U18 club is just a disaster. They have had to be relegated at least three times in the last two years in all age groups. Furthermore, for a country which hockey can just become extinct, sadly I think Netherlands is the top of that list. It's frustrating to see because it is a country where the rivers freeze and it's a country which is so dominant in another winter skating sport (speed skating), while being so so so bad at hockey.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Believe it or not I think the levels of promotion are interesting, just like how Latvia got promoted up last year. What's the furthest one team has made it up levels? Has anyone jumped like 4-5?

 

[S E P H]

Believe it or not I think the levels of promotion are interesting, just like how Latvia got promoted up last year. What's the furthest one team has made it up levels? Has anyone jumped like 4-5?

Don't really know because I don't remember if IIHF has decade rankings instead of yearly ones. I can definitely tell you that for one of the negatives, Netherlands Men's Team was relegated back to back in two years. They went from I believe division I A down to division II B.

Off the top of my head, I think South Korea is one country who rose a crap ton the last eight years or so. I did find some past rankings on Wikipedia (don't know how reliable they are), but in 2006, they were 32nd and now they're 23rd in a much competitive atmosphere. Spain was 37th in 2006 and are now at 30th place in 2016. Out of the top countries, Germany has risen the most since 2013, jumping up three rankings in IIHF's world list in 2016. Denmark has also jumped up from the late teens to early twenties (17th, 19th, 22nd) to being around the top 10 (12th, 11th, and 10th the last three years). I don't agree with everything about their list, but for the most part I really like IIHF's list because it takes into account not only Olympics or World Championship, but also the WJC as well.

Here is the wikipedia article if you want to give it a go! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IIHF_World_Ranking

 

[Perratrooper]

Oh I won't disagree with that.

Keller has elite talent. If he can't translate his game to the NHL, he will fail just because of his size IMO.

He is basically Gaudreau 2.0 or a bust IMO.
Not much middleground with him. Maybe Tyler Ennis but nobody wants to have Tyler Ennis basically.

I don't really have a problem with Josts size/height aside from the fact that I think that it prevents him from being that big, defensive C that we really need to match up in the West.
So basically either MacKinnon has to take over that responsibility or Jost will project to be a winger for us.

MacKinnon/Duchene has not really worked out down the middle for us and I fear that MacKinnon/Jost will share that faith.


Aside from that I don't really care that much about his size. He should look good on Mac or Duchenes wing and seems to possess some much needed two-way ability.


Where do you guys watch the game tonight? I mean I won't be able to access it anyways from Europe but would be nice to know for which channel I have to look for.

That's why I hope we get Nolan Patrick, don't think he's super physical, but he is 6'3" with room to fill out. I would love to have lines in the future of:
Landeskog-Patrick-Duchene
Jost-MacK-Rantanen

But chances are one of Dutchy and Landy are gone and Patrick goes else where.

 

[The Kingslayer]

It's so satisfying watching Jost succeed as much as he is after all the hyping I've been doing.

I find it incredible how under the radar he is on HFboards.

He was talked about alot and then the Avs drafted him lol. I hope he performs well at the WJC so the media is forced to talk about him.

 

[raistlin76]

After watching these two games I'm much more excited for Tyson jost than I thought I'd be.

Same for me although I started to be excited after his performance on UND. I thought they should draft Brown, but right now I love Jost and can't wait to see him in AVS uniform

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

@SEPH I'm always curious what the Polish National Teams (mens/womens) at every level are up to. I try to follow along as best I can but you do a very good job at laying out the big picture. It feels like for the past year and a bit the Polish national teams have just barely missed out on promotion. In fact the Polish women's team was close to making it to the 2018 Olympics. They would have been smoked but still would have been neat to see.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

I haven't seen Jost play at all, but everybody is talking about him. Is it certain he is going to be in NHL next season?

 

[henchman21]

Jost is more dynamic then I think he was getting credit for when we picked him. I think the two way part was way too much the focus. And of course it's nice having something to cheer for.

I completely agree with this... Jost reminds me of Stepan a lot. Probably ends up a better skater and thus a bit better player, but a lot of the same skills are there. Him doing well is a nice lift around here, even if expected.

I'm probably alone in this, but I think he gets NHL games at the end of the season.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

I completely agree with this... Jost reminds me of Stepan a lot. Probably ends up a better skater and thus a bit better player, but a lot of the same skills are there. Him doing well is a nice lift around here, even if expected.

I'm probably alone in this, but I think he gets NHL games at the end of the season.

If ND make the championship Jost's final game will be the night before the Avs final game. Is it a long shot to consider them contenders?

 

[Murzu]

I completely agree with this... Jost reminds me of Stepan a lot. Probably ends up a better skater and thus a bit better player, but a lot of the same skills are there. Him doing well is a nice lift around here, even if expected.

I'm probably alone in this, but I think he gets NHL games at the end of the season.

It is great to hear so many people praising his game at these forums. I hope we drafted a great one.

Ain't Stepan good defensively? Better skating Stepan sounds very good to me.

Actually, what I have been wondering is is that should he spend another year at NCAA or just sign the ELC. Which is would be better for his long term development?

Selfishly I would love to see him have some games at NHL level later this season. So little excitement around the Avs at this moment.

 

[henchman21]

If ND make the championship Jost's final game will be the night before the Avs final game. Is it a long shot to consider them contenders?

Yeah... ND isn't a good team. They probably won't make the NCAA tournament in general, if they do, they will be eliminated early.

It is great to hear so many people praising his game at these forums. I hope we drafted a great one.

Ain't Stepan good defensively? Better skating Stepan sounds very good to me.

Actually, what I have been wondering is is that should he spend another year at NCAA or just sign the ELC. Which is would be better for his long term development?

Selfishly I would love to see him have some games at NHL level later this season. So little excitement around the Avs at this moment.

Stepan is, and a better skating version of him is a very good NHL player.

I think he should come out after this year. He will have some strength issues, but I expect him to be able to play in the NHL next season and produce.

 

[Murzu]

Stepan is, and a better skating version of him is a very good NHL player.

I think he should come out after this year. He will have some strength issues, but I expect him to be able to play in the NHL next season and produce.

Awesome to hear, thanks. He will have a lot of time to bulk in the summer.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Yeah... ND isn't a good team. They probably won't make the NCAA tournament in general, if they do, they will be eliminated early.



Stepan is, and a better skating version of him is a very good NHL player.

I think he should come out after this year. He will have some strength issues, but I expect him to be able to play in the NHL next season and produce.

What? UND is still ranked 8th and aren't they even hosting a portion of the tourney? Don't they at least have to make it that far? I don't pretend to know everything about the NCAA but I was just reading that in an article. I know they aren't great though but they'll be in the tournament.

Assuming AHL is an option should Jost not quite be ready, he should turn pro after this year.

 

[henchman21]

What? UND is still ranked 8th and aren't they even hosting a portion of the tourney? Don't they at least have to make it that far? I don't pretend to know everything about the NCAA but I was just reading that in an article. I know they aren't great though but they'll be in the tournament.

In the NCAA a team doesn't have to be in the tournament to host.

They are ranked 8th, but I don't think it is going to last. WM and Omaha are better teams in their conference (UMD and Denver clearly are). I'm not sure if SCS is better (UND did dominate them recently), so I'm expecting UND to fight with them for 5th. I'm expecting UND to be around .500 for the rest of the season.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Logan Brown and Alex DeBrincat cut LOL

 

[landy92mack29]

Jost still needs to get a lot stronger and improve his shot power but don't think another NCAA year will help that. Sign him and play him in the AHL next year until Christmas, let him captain Canada at the wjc and then call him up for good when the Avs have 39 games left(think like with Greer you wont save a elc year but could get 1 more rfa year, could be wrong). That's what I'd do

 

[AvsGuy]

Right after we drafted Jost I watched his highlight package from the BCHL (?), and was immediately wowed. He just seems to have the smarts that so many of our players don't seem to have. I really, really hope we don't bring him onto the Avs and force him into a style of play that doesn't benefit him, because this guy looks like a future can't-miss impact player and we really need one of those.

Side note, I know it's probably not in his best interests to be jumping around between teams, but my Regina Pats (who are playing some ridiculously dominant hockey as it is, I don't know where that came from) acquired Jost's WHL rights, and I'd love to see him come into our town and tear it up.

 

[henchman21]

Brown I get coming off injury... DeBrincat, that doesn't make much sense. Good ol USA hockey strikes again.