GDT: 2020 World Junior Championships

[Peter James Bond II]

Alright. Time to pillage Vancouver for Hoglander!

I had: Bjornfot, Tomasino, McMichael and Hoglander on my #22 overall wish list....but not Kaliyev, as I thought he would be gone. Would have been nice to get Hoglander. Nucks have Hoglander and Podkolzin. Podkolzin doesn't even look as good as Denisenko or Romanov though.
Post from May 21. Month before draft. On the pick #22 thread.
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It's got to come down to BPA at 22. There is going to be several very good prospects at 22. A mix of: Tomasino,, Heinola, Seider, Bjornfot, Suzuki, Brink, Afanasayev, Hoglander, McMichael there...and Albin Grewe. I'd rather have most anyone of them over Knight. If the Kings get either Campbell or Petersen under a longterm deal, either of them can go 5 years or more. The Kings have a ton of goalie prospects in the pipeline now, and Ranford will polish a few of them: Hrenak, Vilallta, Kehler, Ingham...this aint the Lombardi era, where there was like one in the pipeline, JF Berube years. There's 4 or more now...not even counting Cal.

Last edited: May 21, 2019

 

[ru4reals]

So any update on Kupari? Haven't heard anything hope he's not out for a long period of time.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

What a huge showing from Fagemo.

 

[kilowatt]

Fagemo highest scorer, Thomas with the golden goal, heck of a tournament for two of the "lesser" Kings prospects!

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Was Romanov drafted? If not, where is he projected to go, he looked really good in that tourney,

 

[KingsOfCali25]

Was Romanov drafted? If not, where is he projected to go, he looked really good in that tourney,

He's a Montreal prospect

 

[Choralone]

Corey Pronman has a new article on the Athletic: Pronman: Standouts, surprises, and disappointments from the 2020 World Juniors One King appears in the "standout" category, and one in the "disappointment." Neither is a surprise, although both are presented as part of a package of players.

Standout

Sweden’s top line: Samuel Fagemo, RW, Los Angeles; David Gustafsson, C, Winnipeg; Nils Hoglander, LW, Vancouver
Sweden’s top line was arguably the best line in the tournament. All three players provided different elements. Hoglander dazzled with his elite skill and offensive creativity. He competes very well and has some push back – it’s a trait I like, but that penalty in the semifinal was not his best moment – and his skating has shown some improvement even though it is still not great. Fagemo played a quick, competitive game and was Sweden’s sniper when it needed a goal. Gustafsson was a great two-way center who played a heavy game and made enough plays to keep up with the wingers, even if skill and speed aren’t his most appealing attributes. All three were second-round draft picks, but all three looked like future NHL players in this event.

Disappointment

Alex Turcotte, C, Los Angeles and Cole Caufield, RW, Montreal (United States)
Turcotte, the fifth-overall pick in 2019, and Caufield, one of the best junior scorers in USA history and the 15th-overall pick in 2019, did not have good tournaments. Turcotte had his moments where his skill and speed stood out, and generally had energy, but a lot of his shifts didn’t result in scoring chances. Caufield struggled to create for himself or others, losing battles and not being in on much offense. For a typically high-end shot generator, Caufield had nine in five games. Some will argue they should have played more; reasonable minds could disagree. But over the course of the tournament they didn’t show enough consistency to warrant more ice time. Zegras played his way into a higher role, which showed a coaching staff willing to adjust. I still think both are great prospects, but they had bad weeks.

 

[Choralone]

Scott Wheeler also has an article on prospects from the 2020 World Juniors: Wheeler: World Juniors observations, notes and quotes

His first section is entitled "In defense of my All-Star and MVP ballot" and he begins with forwards. First player listed is Fagemo.

Samuel Fagemo (Los Angeles Kings/Sweden)
Fagemo is one of those players who just had to be good, or his team didn’t stand a chance. Sweden was loaded on defence, with the best group of seven in the tournament (by a wide margin), but its lack of depth up front, at least on paper, was striking at the start of the tournament. Fagemo had to put the puck in the net. It was that simple. Because if it wasn’t him, it was going to have to be Alexander Holtz, and you never want to rely too heavily on non-Alexis Lafreniere-level draft-eligible players in a tournament that tends to skew towards 19-year-olds. His ability to pick his spot in the net and cleanly beat a goalie is borderline elite. He can dust the puck off, cradle it, give the goalie time to get set and still rip it past them with his wrister. Or he can just tee up a one-timer. And while there have been concerns that he’s a little one-dimensional, I was really impressed by his ability to get into his own spots (often without the help of Nils Hoglander) with a quick dash to create his own shot. The result, a tournament-high 41 shots on goal, speaks for itself.

Later in the article, he offers "Quotes worth sharing" on a variety of players. He includes one on Bjornfot (with Broberg) here.

Philip Broberg (Edmonton Oilers) and Tobias Björnfot (Los Angeles Kings)
What happens when you take a lot of offensive defencemen who are used to getting touches and opportunities, and you put them on the same team? The simple answer? Some guys have to play different roles. That’s what happened with Broberg and Bjornfot on Sweden.

[Swedish coach Tomas] Monten thought they handled it well.

“They play different roles than they play usually. They play more defensively. We have them as a shutdown pair and we start them off for D-zone faceoffs and we play them a lot against the top line on the other team and they know they’re asked to shut them down and just be happy with that,” he said. “They can both play with the puck and skate and play the power play, but now it’s more of a shutdown role and the PK and they both accept it.”

 

[Choralone]

Lisa Dillman also just published an article on the Athletic Kings top scout takes stock of team's North American World Juniors prospects. Again, I'd like to quote whole thing but can't. So I'll quote Yanetti's takes on three of the players - Rasmus Kupari, Alex Turcotte, and Tobias Bjornfot - who maybe didn't have the tournament some thought they would have.

Rasmus Kupari and Tobias Bjornfot:

“It’s a very hard tournament,” Yannetti said. “The younger you are, the harder it is to distinguish yourself. The only caveat I would give you (is) you’ve got a guy like Bjornfot and a guy like Kupari playing in the American League, half a year, almost. Now you judge them in relation to the older guys.

“Fair or unfair, if you’ve played up to this point, a half-season the AHL, you now get moved to that higher level of judging, or that higher standard.”

At the tournament, Yannetti said, Bjornfot was just “ultra-rock solid.” Yannetti thought Kupari’s game had been trending upward in the lead-up to the Czech Republic.

“It’s too bad,” he said. “I watched his first game and I had seen him play recently, in the (AHL), and it looked like things were just starting to come together for him. His play had picked up, more involved in the play. He was playing more intelligently. He was much less a passenger at times.

“In the first game here, up until the time he got hurt, I thought he looked good. Too bad it wasn’t a very long sample size.”

Dillman also noted that Kupari "is back in Southern California and Kings general manager Rob Blake said Monday that the Kings should know more about the injury timetable this week."

Alex Turcotte:

Turcotte is asked to play a different role. You run the game back and you watch some of these situations with Turcotte. You see little things that don’t get noticed. You see him channel a guy the right way, close off a lane. There’s a couple times each game that a play doesn’t get made because of the way he positions himself, the way he orients himself. The play goes on and the casual observers says, ‘He didn’t do anything.’ Well he’s impacted the play in a lot of positive ways.

He gets on the puck, he pressures it well. The pace he brings. I’ve liked his game. You’d like to see that next part (the offense) come. But the same thing … at this age there’s so much pressure to score and put points on the board that it comes with sacrificing other areas of the game. And the real good thing is he hasn’t scarified the other areas of the game.

 

[Sybil227]

He's a Montreal prospect

So, he should come cheap, considering they owe us for giving them the super-star Kovalchuk.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

I know it's only one tournament, but man, we really cannot afford Turcotte becoming anything less than a 50-60pt top six center.

 

[damacles1156]

I know it's only one tournament, but man, we really cannot afford Turcotte becoming anything less than a 50-60pt top six center.

That's the nature of the Draft though, you never know if a Kid's talent is going to translate to the NHL.

 

[kilowatt]

Turcotte was receiving Kyle Clifford levels of time on ice. 10-13 minutes per game.

 

[ru4reals]

I know it's only one tournament, but man, we really cannot afford Turcotte becoming anything less than a 50-60pt top six center.

Too funny I was thinking the same thing. You just never know but if he does I'd be very disappointed to be honest.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

So is this one of things where Turcotte goes back to Wisconsin, gets back to leading freshman in scoring (he's tied with everyone's darling Zegras btw), and we hold the WJC against him until he does something at the NHL level? Because I'm not sure I can watch that narrative. It's a hell of an overreaction.

 

[King'sPawn]

So is this one of things where Turcotte goes back to Wisconsin, gets back to leading freshman in scoring (he's tied with everyone's darling Zegras btw), and we hold the WJC against him until he does something at the NHL level? Because I'm not sure I can watch that narrative. It's a hell of an overreaction.

I'm surprised they haven't latched onto the fact he's on a six game (three week prior to the tourney) scoring drought.

 

[KINGS17]

So is this one of things where Turcotte goes back to Wisconsin, gets back to leading freshman in scoring (he's tied with everyone's darling Zegras btw), and we hold the WJC against him until he does something at the NHL level? Because I'm not sure I can watch that narrative. It's a hell of an overreaction.

I don't think these tournaments are indicative of how a player's skill set will translate to the NHL. The WJC was played on an Olympic size rink, and in North America the space is much tighter which I think will be more beneficial to Turcotte's game. As I have said before, I wouldn't object to Turcotte staying at Wisconsin another season after this one. I see no reason to rush him into the current mess.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

So is this one of things where Turcotte goes back to Wisconsin, gets back to leading freshman in scoring (he's tied with everyone's darling Zegras btw), and we hold the WJC against him until he does something at the NHL level? Because I'm not sure I can watch that narrative. It's a hell of an overreaction.

No one is calling him a bust. People are just saying he had a bad tournament. Moreover, people are going to naturally feel some anxiety regarding the development of such a critical prospect.

Rebuilding teams just cannot afford to miss on top five bluechip picks like Turcotte.

 

[Mats26]

I know it's only one tournament, but man, we really cannot afford Turcotte becoming anything less than a 50-60pt top six center.

Guys, let's not overreact and be positive.
Iafallo is trending towards a 40 pt winger. Turcotte is miles ahead in talent. He'll also be in the lineup with much better talent, he'll get more than 10 pts above Iafallo .

 

[King'sPawn]

No one is calling him a bust. People are just saying he had a bad tournament. Moreover, people are going to naturally feel some anxiety regarding the development of such a critical prospect.

Rebuilding teams just cannot afford to miss on top five bluechip picks like Turcotte.

Like when the Kings missed on Hickey?

 

[KINGS17]

Like when the Kings missed on Hickey?

Sometimes your GM swings at a pitch in the dirt (Hickey), sometimes the opposing pitcher hangs a curve ball (Doughty).

 

[King'sPawn]

Sometimes your GM swings at a pitch in the dirt (Hickey), sometimes the opposing pitcher hangs a curve ball (Doughty).

I'm just saying that, even in the event a top pick doesn't pan out, it's not catastrophic.

Other very good players came out of the 2007 draft, and good players came out of future drafts.

Only difference is Turcotte went where he was expected to go: Top-5

 

[KINGS17]

I'm just saying that, even in the event a top pick doesn't pan out, it's not catastrophic.

Other very good players came out of the 2007 draft, and good players came out of future drafts.

Only difference is Turcotte went where he was expected to go: Top-5

The NHL draft is in many ways like the MLB draft. Scouts don't have the benefit of seeing a kid play in college for 2 or 3 seasons. It is very difficult to judge how an 18-year old will develop and what type of player he will be in the future.

The best thing to do is just stockpile as many high picks as possible. One thing we do know is that top-5 picks generally become NHL players.

 

[kilowatt]

One thing we do know is that top-5 picks generally become NHL players.

The only players drafted top five but haven't really broken into the NHL yet are:

2019, 4th overall, Bowen Byram
2019, 5th overall, Alex Turcotte

2018, 5th overall, Barrett Hayton

2016, 5th overall, Olli Juolevi

2014, 5th overall, Michael Dal Colle

2012, 4th overall, Griffin Reinhart

No need to discuss Byram, Turcotte, or Hayton. The jury is still out on Juolevi and Dal Colle. The only real top five bust - in that they aren't even an NHL player - is Griffin Reinhart.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Like when the Kings missed on Hickey?

I knew someone would bring up Hickey.

Despite his draft position, Hickey was not a bluechip prospect. Lombardi went way, way off the board drafting him where he did. Hickey's draft ranking at the time was in the later first round/high second round (CSB had him at #26 for NA skaters).

Turcotte is in a whole other stratosphere of prospects.