WJC: 2025 Team Canada Roster Talk

[Playmaker09]

I actually agree with Button about trying Martone on the Catton line. Just to add some size without sacrificing talent, Pinelli has been good though. I thought that Ritchie was Canada's best player in the third game, McKenna was up there though. Most of the issues with the defence will probably get sorted out by time and instruction, but the coaching staff needs to ensure that this team doesn't become a two line team. Probably shouldn't expect much from Luchanko's line, though when pressing at the end Beaudoin and Gauthier started to look good, but Yager's line needs to be a threat.

Cameron is on tv right now, likes the Catton line and especially McKenna getting into the blue ice. No word on Howe's tracking back tonight, though he liked Canada getting pucks in deep in the third.

They ensured that with their roster selections.

We're going to live and die by McKenna, Catton, Ritchie and Cowan, and it may just be enough, but it certainly didn't need to be such a nail biter.

 

[ORRFForever]

Not thrilled with Canada's play. Czechia big bodies, long sticks and strong goaltending made things difficult but Canada did not help themselves. First 2 periods were sloppy.

 

[JackSlater]

They ensured that with their roster selections.

We're going to live and die by McKenna, Catton, Ritchie and Cowan, and it may just be enough, but it certainly didn't need to be such a nail biter.

We all know that Canada left significant offence at home but realistically a line of Yager and Martone plus a grunt (or Rehkopf) should easily be a threat at this level. It isn't close to that right now, and that is an issue.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Please never have Dave Cameron as the coach again. Canada keeps building teams to try and win 3-2. This team should be built to win 7-3

 

[ORRFForever]

Please never have Dave Cameron as the coach again. Canada keeps building teams to try and win 3-2. This team should be built to win 7-3

No one knows why they keep bringing him back.

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Canada has a tough game against Finland and then 2 warm up games before NYE with the U.S. LOTS of time to gel and grow as a team.

 

[Mathieukferland]

Few thoughts from the game


Dickinson: he really struggled with the puck. He got picked off a lot especially on zone exits, his decision making was weak

George: made some good saves but the two goals were soft, especially the second with such a poorly placed rebound from a relatively banal initial chance

McKenna: actually thought he played better against Sweden but the production can’t be argued with, he won them that game


Bottom 6: at this point it’s clear that Gauthier and Beaudoin are play killers. If I’m Cameron, I consolidate all of the talent (Rehkopf, yager, martone) in the top 9 and ride them heavily


Schaefer: Canada’s best player last night. He’s special and made several unbelievable plays defensively and set up the first goal



Difficult win, Czech look good this year. Good for the tournament with other nations excluded that they look to have gotten better the last few years. Canada is going to ride or die on the performance of their top 6 forwards and Schaefer, the depth simply was not brought this year

 

[JackSlater]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6010046/2024/12/24/world-juniors-predictions-canada-usa-2025/

The Athletic staff (23 staffers) voted to project the WJC. Majority had Canada winning, with 56.5%, viewing it as Canada's depth against USA's elite core but relative lack of depth. Sweden got some votes as they viewed it mainly as a three team tournament.

 

[FLAMESFAN]

Let's just enjoy the tourny, what ever happens.
Next year we'll have a heck of a team.

 

[jj cale]

We are supposed to have a heck of a team this year.

 

[TheDoldrums]

I do worry about the depth scoring. Bottom 6 really didn’t create much in any of the games. It’s only the top line and McKenna that looked dangerous.

 

[ORRFForever]

We are supposed to have a heck of a team this year.

We do.

Based on the NYT / Athletic article, you'd think we had NO star power at all.

 

[Dominance]

If depth scoring fails us after deliberately leaving Misa, Sennecke, Cristall, Hage, Wood and Greentree at home, heads MUST roll. There has to be some kind of accountability, and to be brutally honest if another embarrassing loss this year means an end to the galaxy-brained f***ery for good, I’m taking that option every single day. It’s self-inflicted and frankly sickening to watch 2 out of 4 lines be so ineffective against a team we should beat. With the tournament not yet formally underway, is it really too late to just send the underperformers home?

Cowan-Ritchie-Nadeau
McKenna-Catton-Martone
Cristall-Misa-Sennecke
Wood-Hage-Greentree

 

[ORRFForever]

Help me understand...

According to Sports Interaction, we are slight favourites :

Sports Interaction

sports.on.sportsinteraction.com

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But on these sites, we are large favourites - despite what the Dec 9th title says...

Team USA is the Pick to Win the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship

We look at the betting odds, picks, and predictions for the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championship, which takes place in Canada this year

www.mytopsportsbooks.com

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On Bet 99 we are slight underdogs...

https://bet99.com/en/sports/ice_hockey/international/world-juniors/512843

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It seems the U.S. were the initial favourites but the early money is on Canada and shifted the odds. It will be interesting to see what happens once the big(?) money starts flowing in.

Canada is now favoured on all 3 sites.

 

[FourQuarters]

If depth scoring fails us after deliberately leaving Misa, Sennecke, Cristall, Hage, Wood and Greentree at home, heads MUST roll. There has to be some kind of accountability, and to be brutally honest if another embarrassing loss this year means an end to the galaxy-brained f***ery for good, I’m taking that option every single day. It’s self-inflicted and frankly sickening to watch 2 out of 4 lines be so ineffective against a team we should beat. With the tournament not yet formally underway, is it really too late to just send the underperformers home?

Cowan-Ritchie-Nadeau
McKenna-Catton-Martone
Cristall-Misa-Sennecke
Wood-Hage-Greentree

I actually think the ideal situation would be to take one of them as a 13/14F, which is what the IIHF changes to the roster rules mean. If you find the team struggling offensively, you can still count on these players to save you, rather than when a top player is injured and has to fill his position with a "role" player.

 

[ORRFForever]

If depth scoring fails us after deliberately leaving Misa, Sennecke, Cristall, Hage, Wood and Greentree at home, heads MUST roll. There has to be some kind of accountability, and to be brutally honest if another embarrassing loss this year means an end to the galaxy-brained f***ery for good, I’m taking that option every single day. It’s self-inflicted and frankly sickening to watch 2 out of 4 lines be so ineffective against a team we should beat. With the tournament not yet formally underway, is it really too late to just send the underperformers home?

Cowan-Ritchie-Nadeau
McKenna-Catton-Martone
Cristall-Misa-Sennecke
Wood-Hage-Greentree

Cristall yes, but you know HC prefers 19 year olds and as far as Wood, as I mentioned before, people have been complaining about his skating for years.

This team needs time to gel - in the last 2 games, we were very good in the 3rd period.

 

[Statsy]

I’m not as down on the offense as everybody else seems to be. We are still generating around 40 shots and a bunch of scoring chances, even if we haven’t finished them off as well as we should have. We’ve also played a couple of really good teams here and won both games. I honestly like where our team is at right now.

 

[jj cale]

We do.

Based on the NYT / Athletic article, you'd think we had NO star power at all.

There's a lot of passengers on this team so far.

 

[ORRFForever]

There's a lot of passengers on this team so far.

True but the article seems to imply we have no star power at all - they only talk about star power on other teams (mostly the U.S.) and our depth.

I’m not as down on the offense as everybody else seems to be. We are still generating around 40 shots and a bunch of scoring chances, even if we haven’t finished them off as well as we should have. We’ve also played a couple of really good teams here and won both games. I honestly like where our team is at right now.

Me, too. In both games we outshot the other team by almost 2 to 1. We also got better as the games went on.

In both games, I was surprised we were the smaller team and, while we were definitely sloppy, that should improve as the tournament goes on.

Against Sweden, in the 3rd period, we smoked them - and I don't mean the scoring. They couldn't skate with us.

 

[ORRFForever]

In the NYT's article, they imply Augustine needs to stand on his head for the U.S. to win Gold - and they say that is definitely a possibility. Still, I'd prefer to be Canada over a U.S. team that has no depth.

 

[jj cale]

In the NYT's article, they imply Augustine needs to stand on his head for the U.S. to win Gold - and they say that is definitely a possibility. Still, I'd prefer to be Canada over a U.S. team that has no depth.

He won't need to stand on his head, who wrote that piece anyway, bubbles?

 

[JackSlater]

If depth scoring fails us after deliberately leaving Misa, Sennecke, Cristall, Hage, Wood and Greentree at home, heads MUST roll. There has to be some kind of accountability, and to be brutally honest if another embarrassing loss this year means an end to the galaxy-brained f***ery for good, I’m taking that option every single day. It’s self-inflicted and frankly sickening to watch 2 out of 4 lines be so ineffective against a team we should beat. With the tournament not yet formally underway, is it really too late to just send the underperformers home?

Cowan-Ritchie-Nadeau
McKenna-Catton-Martone
Cristall-Misa-Sennecke
Wood-Hage-Greentree

It's true that Canada could have built a team to win a shootout against everyone else, mostly with these players. I don't think that it is the optimal strategy, but I don't think that the way this team was picked was optimal either. It would have been interesting to see Canada basically make a 2009 type team and just try to score 5+ goals a game. That they entrusted Anholt, who has won nothing in junior hockey and presided over an embarrassing finish last year, to make this team again is an issue and probably the main concern from the whole process. I am glad that they learned their lesson and are using the full number of roster slots now though.

I still think Canada probably wins but it isn't the best team they could have sent.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

He won't need to stand on his head, who wrote that piece anyway, bubbles?

The poster you're responding to has no clue about the NCAA, so any comments on depth or lack thereof is laughable. As for Canada, if the "depth" can't score, what's the point? Hockey Canada left a lot of talent on the table to go with role players in the bottom six. That may work out fine. We'll see. Regardless, Canada is one of the favorites.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Think we could maybe wait until the team hypothetically loses to write the post mortum and fire people? Like support the team as it is for now and if they don’t get it done? We have a whole year to figure out and talk about the why.

 

[jj cale]

The poster you're responding to has no clue about the NCAA, so any comments on depth or lack thereof is laughable. As for Canada, if the "depth" can't score, what's the point? Hockey Canada left a lot of talent on the table to go with role players in the bottom six. That may work out fine. We'll see. Regardless, Canada is one of the favorites.

Hey, easy on OF!! He's one of the club. lol

We're one of the faves of course, but as you said..............the role players better be able to be a credible offensive threat.

So far no dice.

 

[NordiquesForeva]

It's true that Canada could have built a team to win a shootout against everyone else, mostly with these players. I don't think that it is the optimal strategy, but I don't think that the way this team was picked was optimal either. It would have been interesting to see Canada basically make a 2009 type team and just try to score 5+ goals a game. That they entrusted Anholt, who has won nothing in junior hockey and presided over an embarrassing finish last year, to make this team again is an issue and probably the main concern from the whole process. I am glad that they learned their lesson and are using the full number of roster slots now though.

I still think Canada probably wins but it isn't the best team they could have sent.

Yeah the problem with the team construction, so far at least, is that Anholt/Cameron picked a number of players who are similar/redundant and would be expected to play similar roles. Howe, Gautheir, Luchanko, Cataford, Pinelli are all pretty similar players that bring similar elements and Beaudoin, while bigger/stronger than the others, is nothing more than a depth checker at this level.

What they should have done, in my view, is taken, say 3 of those guys for the necessary depth roles (based on play so far, that would be Pinelli, Howe and Gauthier), left the rest at home, and used those 3 open forward spots on Sennecke, Misa, and, say, Greentree. I mean, the comments around the 2-way play of each of those players is likely not too far from the truth, but Luchanko and Cataford (for example) have been really bad defensively so far and have added absolutely nothing offensively. I'd be willing to look past any defensive shortcomings and roll the dice with Sennecke and Misa (especially), and Greentree, even if 1 or 2 of them don't dress or play much.

The added size and strength on the wings from Greentree and Sennecke would ultimately be beneficial to the team in terms of their ability to get to the middle of the ice for prime scoring opportunities. That seems to be what's lacking so far; the bottom-6 haven't displayed the skill/strength to get off the boards and into the middle of the ice. I find it troubling that Martone and Rehkopf (two of our bigger/stronger wingers) haven't had much success doing so either. It would be unfortunate if Canada evolves into a 2-line team without any secondary scoring depth but that's the way its looking so far.