Prospect Info: Sharks at the 2025 World Juniors (Dickinson, Svoboda, Halttunen, Kirsch?)

[The Nemesis]

It's almost World Junior time so with most teams having their rosters nailed down I figured I might as well make a thread for the tourney. This will serve as both a general discussion thread and the GDT for various games

Sharks in the tournament
As of right now there are 3 Sharks prospects named to the tournament:

Sam Dickinson (Canada/RD, 18 years old, picked 11th overall in 2024) - In spite of being one of the leading scorers in the OHL he is currently likely to play a depth/support role and not star for the team, to the point of not even getting a start in their first pre-tournament tune-up game.

Kaspar Halttunen (Finland/RW, 19 years old, picked 36th overall in 2023) - Returned to the OHL to re-team with Dickinson after a brief run with the Barracuda, Halttunen will likely be counted on to be a scoring fixture for the Finnish squad

Brandon Svoboda (USA/C, 19 years old, picked 71st overall in 2023) - A seeming favorite of the Team USA braintrust, Svoboda is considered a reliable checking and defensive forward, out to provide energy and steady, safe play without much offensive upside. He will likely play on the Americans' 4th line.

The Swiss have yet to name their roster, but it seems likely that goaltender Christian Kirsch will get a spot on the team. I'll adjust this if he is named.

The big misses for the Sharks are that neither Leo Sahlin Wallenius nor Axel Landen were even considered for Team Sweden, nor was Quentin Musty for Team USA. And without Russia in the tournament there were no opportunities for Chernyshov (even though he's hurt) nor Rimashevsky. Also, of course, the Sharks did not release Celebrini or Will Smith for their respective countries, not that it was ever going to be a serious possibility.

Other players of note

Though the Sharks have only the 3 (or 4 if I don't feel like updating this thread in a few days?) players from their system heading to the tournament, there are a few more names to take note of for upcoming drafts:

Spoiler

Viktor Eklund (Sweden/RW) - The younger brother of William, Eklund is a highly skilled offensive winger with great skating ability. He's a little undersized but that is often less of a problem in the WJCs and a strong touranment could vault him up the 2025 draft board

Matthew Schaefer (Canada/LD) - The presumptive first d-man off the board in the 2025 draft, Schaefer has had a dynamite OHL season and is looking to use the tournament to not only secure his place at the top of the upcoming draft, but to potentially steal the #1 spot away from the forwards who have had a stranglehold on it for the last couple years.

Porter Martone (Canada/RW) - Sitting at around 2 PPG in the OHL, Martone has found himself in the conversation for the #1 pick in the 2025 draft for much of the last year, where his size, physical tools, and offensive craft have made him a serious threat to be the first player chosen next summer.

James Hagens (USA/C) - Hagens has been one of the most consistently named players when it comes to the top pick in the 2025 draft. Whether the fact that Schaefer, Martone, or the not-named-to-the-tournament Michael Misa have closed the gap entirely because of their own play or because Hagens is the victim of prospect fatigue remains to be seen, but a strong tournament could put him back in the driver's seat for the next 6 months or so. Hagens is a little undersized, but is considered a high end skater and creative offenisve player who can drive play as the successor to Will Smith at Boston College.

Gavin McKenna (Canada/LW) - A rare 16-year-old on Team Canada, McKenna is currently the odds-on favorite for the top pick in the 2026 draft. Will the Sharks still be in concention for such a pick in a year's time? Who knows. But until then it's worth keeping an eye on the offensive dynamo, who is the CHL's leading scorer as a 16 year old at the holiday break and challenging the Canadian norm of minimizing the roles of pre-draft players at the tournament by theoretically being the best offensive player on the roster.

The Teams
10 teams are at the tournament, 5 in each group. Teams are sorted alphabetically in the table below (in case you get any ideas about why they're in the order they are)

POOL A	POOL B
Canada (Dickinson)	Czechia
Finland (Halttunen)	Kazakhstan
Germany	Slovakia
Latvia	Sweden
USA (Svoboda)	Switzerland (Kirsch?)

The Schedule

The tournament is set to be held in Ottawa at the Canadian Tire Centre (home of the Senators) for Group A and TD Place (home of the Ottawa 67s) for Group B. The Relegation games, Semi-Finals, and Medal games will all be at the Canadian Tire Centre. But this means that the games will all be on Eastern time and so no middle-of-the-night watching

Candian Tire Centre | Hosts Pool A​	TD Place | Hosts Pool B​

December 26

Start Time	Teams
9am Pacific / Noon Eastern	Pool B - Slovakia vs Sweden
11:30am Pacific / 2:30pm Eastern	Pool A - USA vs Germany
2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern	Pool B - Czechia vs Switzerland
4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern	Pool A - Finland vs Canada

Spoiler: Click for the rest of the schedule

December 27

Start Time	Teams
9am Pacific / Noon Eastern	Pool B - Switzerland vs Slovakia
11:30am Pacific / 2:30pm Eastern	Pool A - Germany vs Finland
2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern	Pool B - Sweden vs Kazakhstan
4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern	Pool A - Lavtia vs Canada

December 28

Start Time	Teams
10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern	Pool B - Kazakhstan vs Czechia
12:30pm Pacific / 3:30pm Eastern	Pool A - Latvia vs USA

December 29

Start Time	Teams
9am Pacific / Noon Eastern	Pool B - Switzerland vs Sweden
11:30am Pacific / 2:30pm Eastern	Pool A - USA vs Finland
2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern	Pool B - Czechia vs Slovakia
4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern	Pool A - Canada vs Germany

December 30

Start Time	Teams
10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern	Pool B - Slovakia vs Kazakhstan
12:30pm Pacific / 3:30pm Eastern	Pool A - Germany vs Latvia

December 31

Start Time	Teams
9am Pacific / Noon Eastern	Pool B - Kazakhstan vs Switzerland
11:30am Pacific / 2:30pm Eastern	Pool A - Finland vs Latvia
2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern	Pool B - Sweden vs Czechia
4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern	Pool A - Canada vs USA

January 2

Start Time	Teams
8am Pacific / 11am Eastern	Relegation Game
9am Pacific / Noon Eastern	Quarterfinal #1
11:30am Pacific / 2:30pm Eastern	Quarterfinal #2
2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern	Quarterfinal #3
4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern	Quarterfinal #4

January 4

Start Time	Teams
12:30pm Pacific / 3:30pm Eastern	Semifinal #1
4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern	Semifinal #2

January 5

Start Time	Teams
12:30pm Pacific / 3:30pm Eastern	Bronze Medal Game
4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern	Gold Medal Game

Click to read more...

 

[tiburon12]

Is getting scratched in a pre-tournament game a big deal? or is it like a vet sitting out an NHL preseason game? any historical examples of this?

 

[Juxtaposer]

Is getting scratched in a pre-tournament game a big deal? or is it like a vet sitting out an NHL preseason game? any historical examples of this?

It's not like a vet getting scratch and doesn't bode well for Dickinson's role in the tourney.

 

[The Nemesis]

Is getting scratched in a pre-tournament game a big deal? or is it like a vet sitting out an NHL preseason game? any historical examples of this?

I said this in the prospect thread: The glass-half-full possibility is that they wanted to look at the other D options and Dickinson's spot isn't really in question.

But the glass-half-empty and, knowing Hockey Canada's puzzling decision making, more likely answer is that team management tends to favor 3 things: 1) 19 year olds, 2) building a "proper" team with checking lines and grindy 3rd D pairs to play shutdown roles, and 3) only ignoring 1 and/or 2 if you're a 18-or-under if you have transcendental talent. Schaefer gets a pass because he's a theoretical top-3 pick in next draft. McKenna's fine because he's an absolute offensive dynamo even if he is 16. Dickinson is great but he's not them, so he's going to be more likely to get the shaft.

Everything I've read suggests that he's currently slated to play a "limited" role with the team which may or may not involve regular ice time. His only real way forward is to get into a game and just absolutely break it open on his own. those early games against Germany and Latvia are going to be his reckoning because they're likely the only real chances he's going to get to prove himself before New Year's Eve against the US and the elimination rounds.

 

[Shark Finn]

I'm going to try and watch as many Finland's games as possible. 27th is going to be a tough one - FIN-CAN at 2:30 at night, some 8 hours of travel during the day, GER-FIN at 22:30 in the evening. I'm tired already.