Vancouver Canucks top prospects of week 11: 2018 World Juniors Preview

Four Vancouver Canucks prospects will represent their respective nations at the IIHF 2018 World Junior Championship, all with a good chance of challenging for the gold.

Since when did the Vancouver Canucks come to care so much about the World Junior Championships for the sake of their own prospects? If I recall correctly, it all started out with just two a few years ago, Bo Horvat and Jake Virtanen representing Team Canada.

This year, the Canucks were this close to having six prospects compete at the U20 competition taking place in Buffalo, New York. After a strong showing at the summer showcase and the pre-tournament invitational, prospects Kole Lind and Mike DiPietro were cut by Team Canada.

Though DiPietro can play for Canada next year and prove them wrong for cutting him this year, this is the end of the road for Lind and his shot at Team Canada.

In this week’s watch of top prospects, we will be taking a look at the four prospects that are set to play in the tournament that has become a Boxing Day tradition for all of us. With the CHL and the NCAA on hiatus, for now, the focus of North American junior hockey will be solely on the World Juniors.

Meanwhile in Europe…

Meanwhile in Europe, where hockey continues despite the WJC, Jonathan Dahlen has continued to put up points. He now has 13 goals and 27 points in 22 games for Timra IK of Allsvenskan and is leading all forwards in ice time. In fact, Dahlen trails only three blueliners in ice time, logging nearly 18 minutes a night.

He is now at 1.23 points per game, which compares to Patrik Berglund‘s 1.25 ppg from ten years ago and to Pierre-Edouard Bellemare‘s 1.20 ppg from nine years ago.

There are rumours that Dahlen won’t make the much-anticipated jump to the Swedish Hockey League mid-season and continue to play for the Timra IK side as their top player. After all, Dahlen’s scoring pace ranks him at the top of the league and has helped Timra stay atop the Allsvenskan standings. It might not be a bad idea for him to learn how to utterly dominate and win a league even when the entire league is paying special defensive attention to him.

RW William Lockwood, Team USA

First on our list of World Juniors-bound players is Team USA’s right winger William Lockwood. He will be one of their key bottom-six wingers who gets lots of minutes on the penalty kill. Lockwood was on the third line with Trent Frederic (29th overall, 2016) and Hugh McGing (projected 2018) in the last game he played, but since then McGing has been cut and Frederic has been a healthy scratch.

Lockwood, the 6-foot-0, 173-pound Michigan native will be expected to use his speed and physicality to his full advantage on the forecheck. He plays much like former Canuck Jannick Hansen in that he works hard defensively as well in addition to his disruptive speed.

Lockwood has 11 points, four of them goals, in 16 contests for University of Michigan. Despite the injury he suffered against Belarus in the pre-tournament match, he is expected to be ready for the American side come Boxing Day.

Team USA opens up against Denmark on Boxing day, followed by Slovakia on the 28th. They will play an outdoor tilt against Canada on the 29th and wrap up their preliminary play against Finland on the 31st.

Others to watch on Team USA

LW Brady Tkachuk (6-foot-3, 196lbs)
The younger brother of Matthew Tkachuk and the son of Keith Tkachuk. Projected top-5/10 pick. He is his brother Matthew plus a bit more offensive talent.

D Quinn Hughes (5-foot-9, 168lbs)
The defenceman may be undersized but his playmaking ability and vision is superb. Teammate of Lockwood’s at U of Michigan, he is projected to be a top-10 pick like Tkachuk.

LW Jonah Gadjovich, Team Canada

Team Canada was determined to go with a lineup that is balanced with size and skill up front. Though that came at the expense of players like Kole Lind and Cody Glass (both from the WHL, hrmm….), as well as Nick Suzuki, it certainly benefitted Jonah Gadjovich, the embodiment of skill and size.

Gadjovich, the 6-foot-2, 201-pound forward fondly dubbed the “Man Child” by his Owen Sound Attack fans, is the third-largest player Team Canada will bring with them to this year’s competition. His special role will be to play the net-front presence on the power play, where he has had five of his 15 goals this season in the OHL.

In 21 games, Gadjovich had managed 26 points and 115 shots on net. After coming back from a month-long injury through October, he has only gone two games without registering a point. He has 17 points in 13 games in that span, including a game he had 13 shots on net.

Team Canada opens their preliminary match schedule against Finland on Boxing Day, 1PM Pacific. Slovakia is next up the next day, at 4PM Pacific. The much-anticipated outdoor showdown against Team USA is on the 29th at noon Pacific. The Danes will round out the matchup on the 30th at 5PM Pacific.

Others to watch on Team Canada

Team Canada does not have any 2018 Draft-eligible players at this year’s tournament.

D Olli Juolevi, Team Finland

Though it may not be totally fair for Olli Juolevi, I think this World Juniors tournament is probably when the most Canucks fans come to love or hate Juolevi. He took a step back and worried so many Canucks fans last year in the OHL. Those who followed his progress in Finland with the TPS saw a rejuvenated Juolevi with more offensive potential who found things in his defense to improve.

More from The Canuck Way

• Which team won the Bo Horvat trade?
• What to expect from newcomers Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Räty
• Back to the future: How the skate uniforms became a regular Canucks’ feature night
• Canucks kick off 2023 with disappointing 6-2 loss to Islanders
• 2nd period penalty trouble sinks Canucks in 4-2 loss against Winnipeg

Now he has a chance to redeem himself and his Finnish squad who were dangerously close to being relegated to the second tier last year. Juolevi was the captain of the team last year and he is a likely frontrunner for the captaincy again this year.

Juolevi has had good success in the Finnish Liiga this year, playing 20 games and averaging over 18 minutes a game. He has had five goals and 14 points, good for a 0.70 points per game pace to tie Miro Heiskanen, his national team teammate and potential defensive partner. No U20 defenceman has produced more offense than Heiskanen and Juolevi’s 0.70ppg in the past 35 years in the Liiga.

Team Finland will be in the same group as Team USA and Team Canada. Though all three teams can advance to the quarterfinals, none of them will face each other in the quarters. Should they make it, they will meet in the Semis.

Others to watch on Team Finland

C Rasmus Kupari (5-foot-11, 163lbs)
The slick centreman has top-ten draft potential and is the lone draft-eligible player for Team Finland this year.