THE WORLD JUNIORS AND THE OILERS FAN
By Lowetide
7 years agoFor fans of the Edmonton Oilers, this edition of the World Juniors is going to be unusual. For many years now, the WJs boasted either fabulous Oilers draft picks (Jordan Eberle, etc) or featured teenagers who would soon be Oilers (Taylor Hall, Connor McDavid, Jesse Puljujarvi). This time, the Oilers have just two kids at the tournament, and are unlikely to be in the lottery. What can you look forward to? Lots!
THE OILER KIDS
Caleb Jones should be a feature player for TEAM USA at the tournament, and could get substantial power-play time. I spoke to Chris Peters of the United States of Hockey and Guy Flaming of The Pipeline Show—and both men felt Jones would be a major player for the American side.
Aapeli Rasanen of TEAM FINLAND should get a fairly substantial role, although it could be as a checker and penalty killer. It is sometimes difficult to get a feel for teams that have lost so much from one year to the next (Finland had an all-star cast last Christmas) so we will have to see how this rolls out.
OTHER PLAYERS
There are a few young players at the tournament that Oilers fans might want to follow. Who knows, some of these gents may be Oilers in June:
- R Martin Necas, CZECH. He is a strong draft option for 2017. What
I have read about him is that he is extremely fast and skilled. Very
small (5.11, 148) but an electric player. - L Simon Stransky, CZECH. Another skill winger, he is bigger (6.0, 180) than Necas, but still undersized for today’s game.
- G Veini Vehvilainen, Finland. He has never been drafted, but Vehvilainen has an interesting resume. This is his final season of being draft eligible, and he should be the prominent Finnish goalie (although the club did rotate a year ago.
- D Miro Heiskanen, Urho Vaakanainen, Juuso Valimaki, Finland. The Finns are producing NHL calibre prospects by the dozen these days, and many of this year’s blue are eligible. Inexperienced defense will be difficult for the Finns to overcome, but these are talented players.
- L Kristian Vesalainen, Finland. A big winger with skill, he should be noticeable at this tournament. Scouting reports have him as a player who can PK as well as post crooked numbers.
- R-L Eeli Tolvanen, Finland. There is quite a lot of buzz about Tolvanen heading into the WJs, he could spike in terms of draft number. Very skilled, he has a sixth sense in the offensive zone and is an aggressive shooter.
- L Elias Pettersson, Sweden. Great passer and creativity, he is the one player in the tournament I am most interested in seeing. Pettersson is scoring very well in a secondary Swedish league, so this will be a good chance to measure him against competition his own age. Could see a spike in his drat projection with a big performance.
- C-L Lias Andersson, Sweden. A creative driver of play, he might be a big story by the time this tournament ends. He should stand out as a good possession player according to reports.
- C Nico Hischier, Switzerland. Performing very well in the QMJHL with the Halifax Mooseheads, he is an impact offensive player and might be one of the first 10 names off the board in the 2017 draft.
- G Jake Oettinger, USA. He is a big goalie who plays angles well and is also draft eligible. Playing this season for Boston University, Oettinger boasts a .932 save percentage. Now, despite strong numbers, I don’t know how much he will play (Tyler Parsons and Joe Woll are ahead of him in terms of experience), but he is worth paying attention to if he draws into a game.
- LD Jack Ahcan, USA. Undersized, mobile and skilled defender who is 15gp, 3-10-13 for St. Cloud State in the NCAA this season. Very interesting prospect.
This is a fun group of players, I am looking forward to watching the games starting tomorrow. I know we enter this year’s WJs with a distinct lack of Oilers content, but that may change at the draft. There are a surprising number of quality draft eligible players on this year’s rosters.
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