Toggle sidebar

Best 18 years old in the history

  • Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
Crosby, arguably, is the best 18-year-old skater ever to play in a WHC. But he wasn't U18 eligible in that year anymore. (I'm not saying you shouldn't count him because of that, if you do, you do.)

Of players who could have played in the U18 tournament on said season, Laine already has no equal. And he still has a chance to take over Crosby in points.


What comes to goalies, the best is Vladislav Tretiak, hands down. He played not in one, but two consecutive World Championship tournaments not only as an 18-year-old, but as U18 eligible. His stats are extremely impressive, in his first outing he played in six games with a 1.12GAA. (Of course, you can't say how much it helped that the Soviet team was not known to borrow the puck...)

There's been only one other 18-year-old goalie in the history of the tournament, Dominik Hasek in 1983. He dressed for two games with a 91.4%SVS and 2.50GAA.
 
FiLe said:
Crosby, arguably, is the best 18-year-old skater ever to play in a WHC. But he wasn't U18 eligible in that year anymore. (I'm not saying you shouldn't count him because of that, if you do, you do.)

Of players who could have played in the U18 tournament on said season, Laine already has no equal. And he still has a chance to take over Crosby in points.


What comes to goalies, the best is Vladislav Tretiak, hands down. He played not in one, but two consecutive World Championship tournaments not only as an 18-year-old, but as U18 eligible. His stats are extremely impressive, in his first outing he played in six games with a 1.12GAA. (Of course, you can't say how much it helped that the Soviet team was not known to borrow the puck...)

There's been only one other 18-year-old goalie in the history of the tournament, Dominik Hasek in 1983. He dressed for two games with a 91.4%SVS and 2.50GAA.
Click to expand...

Kari Lehtonen was Finland's third goalie 2002.
 
alko said:
Patrik Laine rules this year WCH. But now im curious, how it was in the past?
Who is the best 18 years old scorer? Most points? best goalie?
Click to expand...

Most points by a U18 eligible player in WHC is Laine. He passed Jagr, who had I believe 4 or 5 points. Laine has now 10, impressive.
 
Here's a compiled table from Eliteprospects with players eliminated that had turned 19 and pre WWII players left out. I limited the list of players to 11 so that Matthews would be included. Kariya and Eichel were the only draft eligible players on top of Laine and Matthews.

[table="css=transp;head;width=350"]Player|GP|G|A|P|PPG
Sidney Crosby, CAN ('06)|9|8|8|16|1,78
Robert Reichel, CZE ('90)|10|5|6|11|1,10
Patrik Laine, FIN ('16)|6|6|4|10|1,67
Anze Kopitar, SLO ('06)|6|3|6|9|1,50
Paul Kariya, CAN ('93)|8|2|7| 9|1,13
*Slava Kozlov, URS ('91)|9|3|4|7|0,78
Jack Eichel, USA ('15)|10|2|5|7|0,70
Ed Olczyk, USA ('85)|6|1|6|7|1,17
Peter Forsberg, SWE ('92)|8|4|2|6|0,75
Olli Jokinen, FIN ('97)|8|4|2|6|0,75
Auston Matthews, USA ('16)|6|3|3|6|1,00
[/table]

Teppo Numminen (in 1987) seems to be the top scoring defenseman with 5 goals and no assists in 10 games.

*Slava Kozlov managed to score 7 points in 9 games before turning 19 years old ahead of the final game against Sweden where he went pointless in a 2-1 loss.
 
Statistically speaking there's really no competition. Laine is the best player to play at the worlds if you only consider players who turned 18 that same year, although from what i hear Jagr was really good against big countries. It would be interesting to know what type minutes Jagr played throughout the tournament.

That doesn't mean Laine is better than Jagr was though.. Jagr dominated the Czech league and had more points in the WJC's. 2 years later he had PPG in the NHL..

Besides, Laine given the opportunity to play at this young age with a legit #1 NHL centreman is very rare. If a guy like Crosby played for Canada in his draft year, i doubt he would've got a lot of minutes since they always have such a deep team.

Also late-born players are in a disadvantage, as they were still months away from turning 18 when this tournament happened. Big countries just don't pick 17 yr old guys to play in their top 6.
 
Skill Bill said:
Here's a compiled table from Eliteprospects with players eliminated that had turned 19 and pre WWII players left out. I limited the list of players to 11 so that Matthews would be included. Kariya and Eichel were the only draft eligible players on top of Laine and Matthews.

[table="css=transp;head;width=350"]Player|GP|G|A|P|PPG
Sidney Crosby, CAN ('06)|9|8|8|16|1,78
Robert Reichel, CZE ('90)|10|5|6|11|1,10
Patrik Laine, FIN ('16)|6|6|4|10|1,67
Anze Kopitar, SLO ('06)|6|3|6|9|1,50
Paul Kariya, CAN ('93)|8|2|7| 9|1,13
*Slava Kozlov, URS ('91)|9|3|4|7|0,78
Jack Eichel, USA ('15)|10|2|5|7|0,70
Ed Olczyk, USA ('85)|6|1|6|7|1,17
Peter Forsberg, SWE ('92)|8|4|2|6|0,75
Olli Jokinen, FIN ('97)|8|4|2|6|0,75
Auston Matthews, USA ('16)|6|3|3|6|1,00
[/table]

Teppo Numminen (in 1987) seems to be the top scoring defenseman with 5 goals and no assists in 10 games.

*Slava Kozlov managed to score 7 points in 9 games before turning 19 years old ahead of the final game against Sweden where he went pointless in a 2-1 loss.
Click to expand...

With that list, I'd have to say Kopitar is the best 18yo year...in 2006 Slovenia scored a total of 14 goals, so an 18yo Kopitar had a point in 65% of Slovenia's goals
 
Good #'s by Crosby there. Also LAine is playing lights out. Some team's going to get a heck of a consolation prize in the draft
 
Also find out, that Marian Hossa played in one season in WCH U20, ECH U18 and WCH (1996/1997).

Any other examples? And to go further, is there any guy, who won gold on U18, U20 and A tournament in one year? Or at least some medal?
 
alko said:
And to go further, is there any guy, who won gold on U18, U20 and A tournament in one year?
Click to expand...

Not even a single team has won u-18,u-20 and WHC in the same year. This year Finland has the chance to do this for the first time.
 
I don't think you can't really compare players like Jagr to the ones playing in the modern version of the tournament.

When Jagr played in the WCH there were only 8 teams in the tournament.

However, what Laine is doing right now is pretty amazing.
 
got to be Reichel / 1990

ROBERT REICHEL.

Why?

Because in 1990 he played against much stronger competition than Crosby in 2006. And he made the first All star team.

The Canadian, Swedish and Soviet teams were stacked big time - here are few names from their rosters:

Yzerman
Gilmour
Fetisov
MacInnis
Coffey
Kamensky
Loob etc.

Reichel had 11 pts in 10 games and finished 4th in overall scoring. He helped the team Czechoslovakia team to win the bronze.
 
IDeyChopNaira said:
ROBERT REICHEL.

Why?

Because in 1990 he played against much stronger competition than Crosby in 2006. And he made the first All star team.

The Canadian, Swedish and Soviet teams were stacked big time - here are few names from their rosters:

Yzerman
Gilmour
Fetisov
MacInnis
Coffey
Kamensky
Loob etc.

Reichel had 11 pts in 10 games and finished 4th in overall scoring. He helped the team Czechoslovakia team to win the bronze.
Click to expand...

I understand your reasoning but it's still Crosby for me. He was consistent throughout the tournament and showed up on the scoreboard against all the top countries Canada faced. He led the tournament in scoring and was selected as the best forward. I agree Reichel faced tougher competition but there's not much more you can ask from a player than Crosby did in 2016. It's a team sport and when your goalie lets in 5 goals on 11 shots in the semis that's pretty much it... Canada decided then not to show up in the bronze medal game.

alko said:
Ok, then we lower the expectations - any medal in all 3 tournaments?
Click to expand...

There are many occasions where a country has medalled in all three competitions, most recently Canada a year ago with gold in both U20 and WHC and bronze in U18. Last time same country managed to win both junior tournaments the same year, was in 2010. In an Olympic year USA came close to a jackpot in Vancouver but their team at the WHC just barely avoided relegation.

U18 World Champs has only been around since 1999. We've had four Winter Olympics since and twice already has a country managed to medal in all four competitions (Russia 2002 and Finland 2006).
 
alko said:
Ok, then we lower the expectations - any medal in all 3 tournaments?
Click to expand...

But Laine didn't play in the U18 this year. He was still in the Liiga playoffs with Tappara. Puljujärvi went to the U18 when Tappara eliminated Karpät, but didn't make the WC team...

When digging into past editions, we will probably face the same issue : clubs would release their 18/19 year old for the WJC but not for the U18 one if they're key players, as the playoffs are under way then. And if they're not key players, they're not going to the WC.

Another 3 medal combo is possible though : OG, WC and WJC.

I just checked for Saku Koivu, but he fell short as a 19 year old in 1994 : silver at WC (best Finnish scorer), bronze at OG (2nd best Finnish scorer), but 4th at WJC (best Finnish scorer).
 
Skill Bill said:
I understand your reasoning but it's still Crosby for me. He was consistent throughout the tournament and showed up on the scoreboard against all the top countries Canada faced. He led the tournament in scoring and was selected as the best forward. I agree Reichel faced tougher competition but there's not much more you can ask from a player than Crosby did in 2016. It's a team sport and when your goalie lets in 5 goals on 11 shots in the semis that's pretty much it... Canada decided then not to show up in the bronze medal game.



There are many occasions where a country has medalled in all three competitions, most recently Canada a year ago with gold in both U20 and WHC and bronze in U18. Last time same country managed to win both junior tournaments the same year, was in 2010. In an Olympic year USA came close to a jackpot in Vancouver but their team at the WHC just barely avoided relegation.

U18 World Champs has only been around since 1999. We've had four Winter Olympics since and twice already has a country managed to medal in all four competitions (Russia 2002 and Finland 2006).
Click to expand...


But Crosby also racked up tons of points against teams like Latvia (I think it was a 11-0 blowout). And eventually he finished without a medal.


Reichel played against the superstars and managed to win bronze.
 
Competition was much stronger until 1990 with only 8 teams. And it were amost all the best Soviets, Swedes and Czechs in the squads, Canada had very good players too. Finland, USA and Germany were okay too. Only one team was cannonfodder back in the day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom