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U18: Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup 2017

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NTDP said:
Other countries send good teams, I'm not to keen on the best of the best Swedish and Finnish prospects, they'll have just a couple that are playing at the U20 level at the Summer Showcase the rest of the week (Dahlin). But yeah Canada usually sends its best available to this one. This is a great tournament.

As far as the U.S. we don't send our NTDP although there are two players on this years group that was with the U17 team last year. I'll say this though, our "B" team can compete in this event now, we have done well over the past couple of years and made the final last year getting Silver. It speaks to the overall development and it's good to see, we need to get to the level where we can send this group and we can hold our own, just like Canada could as well. We'll see how it pans out, but every year I still have Canada as the overall favorites entering the tournament.
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Who would you say are the ones to keep an eye on with this year's USA team in the Hlinka? Usually there's some obvious CHL names but I'm really drawing a blank this year.
 
Some unfortunate omissions for Finland. I'll be paying special attention to Kokkonen and Kakko as well.
 
tigervixxxen said:
Who would you say are the ones to keep an eye on with this year's USA team in the Hlinka? Usually there's some obvious CHL names but I'm really drawing a blank this year.
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Gavin Hain, he'll be joining the U18 NTDP team this upcoming season. Would have been the favorite to the win the Minnesota Mr. Hockey award that Mittelstadt and Tufte won the past few seasons if he would have returned for his senior year.
 
Looks like Sweden added 01-born Albin Grewe to their roster, at least he's playing in the last exhibition game.
 
Dajcar and Kropacek out, Seeman and Strondala in. Lauko is also injured, but stays with the team. Some other players with minor injuries. What a great friendly against Canada.
 
Wooren said:
Dajcar and Kropacek out, Seeman and Strondala in. Lauko is also injured, but stays with the team. Some other players with minor injuries. What a great friendly against Canada.
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Haha, true. 3rd period for sure did not look like friendly game. Pretty intense game. Some dirty slashes on both sides, and "fights" after whistle. A 'good fight' occured between Klejna & Merkley when not even refs could stop them. :laugh:

It was pretty even game, but in the end Canada was the better team. A sloppy game on both sides. Canada did not show their real strength, imo, while Czechs battled hard as a team. Czech's PPs were pretty bad, could not do much even 5on3.

Top line for Canada was Groulx-Veleno-Burzan, it was visible when this line was on the ice, although Veleno did not stand out as you would expect from him as a returnee and elite prospect. The one who really stood out from Team Canada was R. Merkley, he was damn good, always on the right place, and very dangerous offensively. From the forwards I liked the most Akil Thomas, scored first goal on terrific shot and always draw an attention. Dmen Smith, Woo were also noticeably good.

Forward lines for Team Canada were as follow (positions could be wrong...):

Groulx-Veleno-Burzan
Foote-Hayton-Thomas
Fortier-Dudas-Shepard
MacDonald-McBain-Noel
Dellandrea

From the Czech team, I liked the most dmen Zabransky, Malik and forwards Gajarsky, Jenik, Cajka, they were all very active, dangerous and could skate with Canadians. This Czech team does not have the names as last year's team, but could work well as a team. We need to skate faster and be better and more accurate in transition. Too bad that Lauko is injured... should have been our best forward.
 
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tcat84 said:
Hey Tade how did you watch the game?
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Hi, I was in attendence, that's how. I am sure there is no other way how to watch/follow games other than being in person at the arena or for example watching online live score (flashscore.com/hockey).

Some years ago there used to be broadcast for some games, but I don't think that they are doing it this year.
 
Haha I suspected that after I noticed your location. Well awesome, hope you enjoy and I hope they broadcast some games somewhere
 
Anti said:
All matches from BÃ…™eclav will be watched live on http://www.hokej.cz/hokejka/tv, matches from Bratislava on Youtube.
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Oh, great then. Didn't know about this.

tcat84 said:
Haha I suspected that after I noticed your location. Well awesome, hope you enjoy and I hope they broadcast some games somewhere
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:) yeah, thanks, I am thrilled to have opportunity to watch each year in our country some of the best U18 players in the world for almost nothing. It's terrific.



I am very likely going to attend USA vs SWE tomorrow. Please, can anyone tell me which players (from both teams) should be the best and most intriguing to look for?

From Sweden I suspect it could be... A. Boqvist, Ginning, Sandin, Lilja, Wernblom ... ? And I guess I have no idea about USA. Thank you for tips.
 
tigervixxxen said:
Who would you say are the ones to keep an eye on with this year's USA team in the Hlinka? Usually there's some obvious CHL names but I'm really drawing a blank this year.
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Sorry for the late response, all my attention was on the World Junior Summer Showcase. Someone mentioned Gavin Hain and I agree he's a fun player to watch. On D I'd keep an eye on Cristian Krygier who plays for Lincoln in the USHL. Really quick defender that moves the puck up ice. Will Mackinnon who plays with the NTDP and Jacob Semik from Dubuque in the USHL are others that will be really fun to watch. On forward I'm looking for improvement from Blade Jenkins who played last year with the NTDP U17's and will be heading to Saginaw in the OHL this year. He was hyped up a little and didn't show a whole lot in the multiple times I watched him. I just think he could assert himself more. Philippe Lapointe is another one that I think will be a good player. Played for Shattuck last year and has blazing speed down the wing and has a very quick release on his shot. Jack Jensen can be good too, he was a good player with Eden Prarie last year but obviously was overshadowed by Middlestadt who was one of the best to ever come out of Minn High School Hockey.
 
tade said:
Oh, great then. Didn't know about this.



:) yeah, thanks, I am thrilled to have opportunity to watch each year in our country some of the best U18 players in the world for almost nothing. It's terrific.



I am very likely going to attend USA vs SWE tomorrow. Please, can anyone tell me which players (from both teams) should be the best and most intriguing to look for?

From Sweden I suspect it could be... A. Boqvist, Ginning, Sandin, Lilja, Wernblom ... ? And I guess I have no idea about USA. Thank you for tips.
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From Sweden I'd say Boqvist for sure, he's hard to miss. Then there's a trio of D's I like, Ginning, Andersson and Johansson. The forward group is deep and even but lacks a real high end offensive talent, I'd keep an eye on Berggren (small, speedy and skilled) Olofsson (2nd best NHL prospect on this team after Boqvist IMO) and Fagemo (sniper) but there are plenty of other candidates for best forward.
 
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