GDT: World Juniors 2024-25

[DatDude44]

If I had to make a bet today on which player would be better I would bet on Stenberg over Neighbours. The reason is the speed difference

Agreed, neighbours has been frustratingly ineffective this year, love his spirit, but he needs to bring more than just that. I had much higher expectations for him this season.

Can't wait to surround Thomas, Kyrou, Buchnevich, Bolduc and Holloway with Dvorsky, Snuggerud and Stenberg

 

[PocketNines]

Agreed, neighbours has been frustratingly ineffective this year, love his spirit, but he needs to bring more than just that. I had much higher expectations for him this season.

Can't wait to surround Thomas, Kyrou, Buchnevich, Bolduc and Holloway with Dvorsky, Snuggerud and Stenberg

I don't feel frustrated with Neighbours. In 2-3 years he is going to have a lot more man strength, which will catch up to his fearlessness and rugged understandings of hockey. His passing and defense get little credit around here but they exist, in fact some of his assists are perfection. I think he and Stenberg are very similar in their attitudes and willingness to battle and go right to the front of the net, into the corner, wherever winning is had, they will go there.

To explain maybe more clearly, I feel like Neighbours thought is: "the puck has to go across the line, that is what we are doing out here, that's how goals work and how wins work and how the Cup works." Whereas Kyrou is more like: "what play am I making, where should I pass it, should I shoot it? who's open? I'll rip it now," etc.

 

[PerryTurnbullfan]

Marchand might be aiming a bit high, but that would be nice. For some reason the comp that keeps jumping out to me is Ondrej Palat (perhaps because they look alike). Not a star by any means but a Swiss army knife player that can fit almost anywhere in the lineup. Has some grit, will chip in some offense but doesn't have one quality that stands out. Just a solid, hardworking player that can compliment a scoring or checking line equally well.

He is known for being a yapper on the ice.

 

[DatDude44]

I don't feel frustrated with Neighbours. In 2-3 years he is going to have a lot more man strength, which will catch up to his fearlessness and rugged understandings of hockey. His passing and defense get little credit around here but they exist, in fact some of his assists are perfection. I think he and Stenberg are very similar in their attitudes and willingness to battle and go right to the front of the net, into the corner, wherever winning is had, they will go there.

To explain maybe more clearly, I feel like Neighbours thought is: "the puck has to go across the line, that is what we are doing out here, that's how goals work and how wins work and how the Cup works." Whereas Kyrou is more like: "what play am I making, where should I pass it, should I shoot it? who's open? I'll rip it now," etc.

Considering the opportunity neighbours has had this year, his results are frustrating, i don't disagree with what your saying about his skillset, but it hasn't shown up nearly consistent enough this year.

Obvi he's still very young and that can change over time, but this year has been frustrating for him. Hope he can continue to take steps forward. Love his spirit and infectious hyper competitiveness.

 

[Reality Czech]

Agreed, neighbours has been frustratingly ineffective this year, love his spirit, but he needs to bring more than just that. I had much higher expectations for him this season.

Can't wait to surround Thomas, Kyrou, Buchnevich, Bolduc and Holloway with Dvorsky, Snuggerud and Stenberg

Jake's on pace for 20g and 20a in what many consider an "off" year for him so far. What were your expectations? He's one assist away from matching his season total from a year ago and seems to be a more well rounded player.

If his second half is a bit better than his first half I'll be satisfied, but if it's worse it would be somewhat disappointing. But I think he's doing pretty well for a 22 year old all things considered. Not sure why so many seem to discount Jake and assume Bolduc is gonna end up the better player. I'd say it's a toss up at this point.

 

[DatDude44]

Jake's on pace for 20g and 20a in what many consider an "off" year for him so far. What were your expectations? He's one assist away from matching his season total from a year ago and seems to be a more well rounded player.

If his second half is a bit better than his first half I'll be satisfied, but if it's worse it would be somewhat disappointing. But I think he's doing pretty well for a 22 year old all things considered. Not sure why so many seem to discount Jake and assume Bolduc is gonna end up the better player. I'd say it's a toss up at this point.

This image roughly sums up my frustrations this year, i love the kid, but I just wanted more out of him on a consistent basis.

Pretty funny though.

I still like the kid long term for sure, but after last years breakout and the opportunities he's had with thomas all year, I expected more, even just on the oz possession side of things.

 

[PocketNines]

LOL Jake knows where the spot is

Something tells me if it were this basic and easy as "tap ins" oh it's so easy just stand there and do "tap ins" a lot more players would make a living this way. Look at it another way, he has the most important thing on lockdown and as he builds out his strength he will improve in other areas.

 

[Reality Czech]

View attachment 957122


This image roughly sums up my frustrations this year, i love the kid, but I just wanted more out of him on a consistent basis.

Pretty funny though.

I still like the kid long term for sure, but after last years breakout and the opportunities he's had with thomas all year, I expected more, even just on the oz possession side of things.

Fair enough. I don't put as much stock in those bar charts as some people do, but 20 goals is still 20 goals assuming he gets there. Doesn't really matter where he scores them from as far as I'm concerned.

According to Dobber, he's only played about 30% of his ES minutes with Thomas though a lot of that is due to Thomas being out for a month.

 

[A Real Barn Burner]

LOL Jake knows where the spot is

Something tells me if it were this basic and easy as "tap ins" oh it's so easy just stand there and do "tap ins" a lot more players would make a living this way. Look at it another way, he has the most important thing on lockdown and as he builds out his strength he will improve in other areas.

So you’re saying he is the opposite of happy Gilmore lol?

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

He's still very raw, so hard to project where he'll end up. But he'll need to improve in many areas to reach the NHL.

Buium would have been nice but I'm sure every team drafting around that spot would feel the same way. No chance he was slipping to us.

It wasn’t about him falling to us. Minnesota traded up in front of us to take him. We should have traded up. Would have cost very little to do so.

I liked Jiriceks WJC but Buium is a far better prospect and it’s a complete failure that we let it happen. And it isn’t hindsight talking, many of us said the same at the draft.

I think we have one of the better GMs in the NHL so this isn’t calling for a firing, but damn that was a mistake. And we’ll get to see it several times a year for over a decade.

 

[BlueMed]

It wasn’t about him falling to us. Minnesota traded up in front of us to take him. We should have traded up. Would have cost very little to do so.

I liked Jiriceks WJC but Buium is a far better prospect and it’s a complete failure that we let it happen. And it isn’t hindsight talking, many of us said the same at the draft.

I think we have one of the better GMs in the NHL so this isn’t calling for a firing, but damn that was a mistake. And we’ll get to see it several times a year for over a decade.

What was the cost exactly? And what is your source?

 

[Linkens Mastery]

It wasn’t about him falling to us. Minnesota traded up in front of us to take him. We should have traded up. Would have cost very little to do so.

I liked Jiriceks WJC but Buium is a far better prospect and it’s a complete failure that we let it happen. And it isn’t hindsight talking, many of us said the same at the draft.

I think we have one of the better GMs in the NHL so this isn’t calling for a firing, but damn that was a mistake. And we’ll get to see it several times a year for over a decade.

I very highly doubt this. Why would it cost so little? Because it only cost Minnesota a 3rd? That's just completely ignoring Minnesota was only 1 spot behind Philly and Philly was still wanting to get Jett (Who would absolutely have been picked before Philly got back up to pick). If Philly makes the deal with us they are dropping 4 spots and will 100% miss out on their guy. After the top 12 or so picks there was a large drop in quality of player.

Philly very well may have felt it was better value to them to drop down one spot and get a third, and still being able to draft Jett instead of Dropping to 16, Missing Jett, and getting two 2nds.

This isn't NHL 25. NHL teams have their own Value tables they run off of. Just because the trade bar is bigger because you add more assets doesn't mean that the deal is better if you are missing out on the guy you actually want.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

It wasn’t about him falling to us. Minnesota traded up in front of us to take him. We should have traded up. Would have cost very little to do so.

I liked Jiriceks WJC but Buium is a far better prospect and it’s a complete failure that we let it happen. And it isn’t hindsight talking, many of us said the same at the draft.

I think we have one of the better GMs in the NHL so this isn’t calling for a firing, but damn that was a mistake. And we’ll get to see it several times a year for over a decade.

I don’t think we even really wanted Buium. He is smallish lhd. Look at our first 3 picks, Jiricek and 2 big lhd. You watch the video and it sure seems like they’re talking as if they weren’t gonna pick Buium even at 16.

Now, I had Buium higher than Jiricek, as did most public scouts, but it sure feels like Jiricek was our guy all along. And he clearly is talented kid, albeit much greener. Still. I think overall we have drafted excellently over last couple drafts, so I give them benefit of doubt to large extent, but Buium sure is impressive..

 

[Reality Czech]

It wasn’t about him falling to us. Minnesota traded up in front of us to take him. We should have traded up. Would have cost very little to do so.

I liked Jiriceks WJC but Buium is a far better prospect and it’s a complete failure that we let it happen. And it isn’t hindsight talking, many of us said the same at the draft.

I think we have one of the better GMs in the NHL so this isn’t calling for a firing, but damn that was a mistake. And we’ll get to see it several times a year for over a decade.

What makes you think it would have cost very little? Seems a silly assumption to make. The reason it cost Minnesota relatively little was they were only moving up one spot and Philly still got to draft the player they wanted.

The only reason Minnesota traded up was to safeguard against another team moving up instead and grabbing Buium, but obviously the more you move up, the higher the cost. Calling it a "compete failure" seems a dramatic overreaction.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

I don’t think we even really wanted Buium. He is smallish lhd. Look at our first 3 picks, Jiricek and 2 big lhd. You watch the video and it sure seems like they’re talking as if they weren’t gonna pick Buium even at 16.

Now, I had Buium higher than Jiricek, as did most public scouts, but it sure feels like Jiricek was our guy all along. And he clearly is talented kid, albeit much greener. Still. I think overall we have drafted excellently over last couple drafts, so I give them benefit of doubt to latge extent, but Buium sure is impressive..

I feel like people forget that Jiricek was a popular top-10 pick up until his injury last year. He fell to us because of those injuries, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have gotten him. It doesn’t really matter other than to say that the scouting community thought very highly of him going into last year. And I can see why!

I also see why Buium was taken, and if given the opportunity to have both I would. But in a bubble with both players perfectly healthy, I think Jiricek has the higher upside.

 

[Reality Czech]

I can wait for Zeev to play his first game at Enterprise so all of us can "Boo 'em"

I'll show myself out.

 

[lakai17]

Decent tournament by Jecho with limited minutes

 

[STL fan in MN]

I don’t think we even really wanted Buium. He is smallish lhd. Look at our first 3 picks, Jiricek and 2 big lhd. You watch the video and it sure seems like they’re talking as if they weren’t gonna pick Buium even at 16.

Now, I had Buium higher than Jiricek, as did most public scouts, but it sure feels like Jiricek was our guy all along. And he clearly is talented kid, albeit much greener. Still. I think overall we have drafted excellently over last couple drafts, so I give them benefit of doubt to large extent, but Buium sure is impressive..

Completely agree.

All we really have to go on is the behind the scenes draft video the Blues released, which is likely edited to be very pro-Jiricek as that’s who they ended up with, but my sense is that if the Blues had moved up to 12, they still wouldn’t have picked Buium. My guess is they were concerned Jiricek wouldn’t last to 16 so the call with Briere was to possibly move up to take Jiricek.

I personally preferred Buium, by a lot, and would’ve been pretty livid if they’d moved up just to take Jiricek, but I’ll also say that the Blues scouts have shown they know what they’re doing. They’re not perfect. Nobody can be when we’re talking evaluating 17/18 yr olds but they tend to do a good job. And regardless, Jiricek is our guy now so I’m going to root for him. He had a solid WJC. And came away uninjured!

 

[Reality Czech]

Completely agree.

All we really have to go on is the behind the scenes draft video the Blues released, which is likely edited to be very pro-Jiricek as that’s who they ended up with, but my sense is that if the Blues had moved up to 12, they still wouldn’t have picked Buium. My guess is they were concerned Jiricek wouldn’t last to 16 so the call with Briere was to possibly move up to take Jiricek.

I personally preferred Buium, by a lot, and would’ve been pretty livid if they’d moved up just to take Jiricek, but I’ll also say that the Blues scouts have shown they know what they’re doing. They’re not perfect. Nobody can be when we’re talking evaluating 17/18 yr olds but they tend to do a good job. And regardless, Jiricek is our guy now so I’m going to root for him. He had a solid WJC. And came away uninjured!

I dunno about that. I think they would have taken Buium but who knows. I think we were gonna take the highest D on our draft board unless a forward we didn't expect to be available fell to us.

 

[LogosBlue]

I'll just leave this here:

 

[bleedblue1223]

Even before the draft, can't remember if it was Daily Faceoff or Fourth Period, but they made it seem like it was common knowledge among the teams and insiders that we were taking Jiricek. I don't know if that was just making an assumption that we would take defense and he would be the only one available when we were picking or if it was just known that we had him higher on our lists compared to other teams.

I do think we value the fact that he is RD. The first 3 D were all RD too, then the LD went, and then Jiricek. I think it's much easier to acquire LD later, whether draft, free agency, or trades, and on some level that factors into the decision, even if as a tie-breaker.

 

[Reality Czech]

Even before the draft, can't remember if it was Daily Faceoff or Fourth Period, but they made it seem like it was common knowledge among the teams and insiders that we were taking Jiricek. I don't know if that was just making an assumption that we would take defense and he would be the only one available when we were picking or if it was just known that we had him higher on our lists compared to other teams.

I do think we value the fact that he is RD. The first 3 D were all RD too, then the LD went, and then Jiricek. I think it's much easier to acquire LD later, whether draft, free agency, or trades, and on some level that factors into the decision, even if as a tie-breaker.

Good point. I don't think we were that close to moving up but who knows. Doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[STL fan in MN]

I dunno about that. I think they would have taken Buium but who knows. I think we were gonna take the highest D on our draft board unless a forward we didn't expect to be available fell to us.

Right. Everything the Blues have said or released has suggested to me they had Jiricek higher on their board than Buium. I don’t agree with that and really didn’t agree with that back in June but that’s my gut feeling. It could be wrong and I’ll never be able to prove it definitively unless for some reason the Blues confirm it but I doubt they ever will.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Even before the draft, can't remember if it was Daily Faceoff or Fourth Period, but they made it seem like it was common knowledge among the teams and insiders that we were taking Jiricek. I don't know if that was just making an assumption that we would take defense and he would be the only one available when we were picking or if it was just known that we had him higher on our lists compared to other teams.

I do think we value the fact that he is RD. The first 3 D were all RD too, then the LD went, and then Jiricek. I think it's much easier to acquire LD later, whether draft, free agency, or trades, and on some level that factors into the decision, even if as a tie-breaker.

There were a few that consistently connected the Blues to Jiricek with the two that come to mind being Pronman and Serevelli. So not sure they were just lucky and guessing or if the Blues weren’t so sly about it and it was common knowledge they were high on Jiricek. My guess is it’s the later.

Serevelli was doing a mock draft video the day before the draft. I forgot who the other guy on his show was but that other guy started talking about other players to the Blues at 16 and Serevelli stopped him and point blank said the Blues are taking Jiricek. That was the end of the discussion and they moved on.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I also think Philly was only willing to move back 1 anyway. They wanted Luchanko, and trading with Minny was 0 risk for them still getting their guy. I think he still would have been there at 16, but if I was Philly, I probably would've done the same thing. They got a free 3rd while still getting their guy.