2023-12-24 21:00:11
So here we are at the dawn of the WJC 2024, always a great time of the year for hockey fans!
With its numerous choices during the first three rounds in recent years, CH will once once more be well represented in this competition with four hopefuls, and not the least.
At least three of them will occupy important roles for their respective nations, and the fourth might cause some commotion if he is ever given the pole in the net…
To all honor, let’s begin our analysis with the man who ranked 2nd in our latest list of the organization’s most important prospects: Lane Huston.
Since the start of the NCAA campaign, Hutson continues to terrorize opposing defenses with his extraordinary creativity. Showing unwavering confidence in possession of the puck, the Americans’ assistant captain regularly makes plays worthy of Houdini that only a handful of NHL defensemen might dream of making, and you know which…
Seen from here, Hutson is literally one of the true forward-thinkers at his position. Expectations are for him to make the tournament’s first all-star team.
However, it is a little less easy defensively this season at BU on the first pair while, unlike last year on a second pair, he plays more often than not once morest the best opposing elements. Thus, following his impressive differential of +25 in 39 games in 2022-2023, Hutson finds himself for the moment slightly in the negative at -3. It will therefore be interesting to see how he does once morest the big trios of other countries, he who should be the most used defender of his team.
Defensively, will he be able to show us that his backward skating is no longer a problem? Will he be able to compensate for his modest size with good positioning and exemplary use of his stick? Despite a good performance overall, that wasn’t always the case at the last senior world championship last spring…
But let’s not forget that for every little mistake Hutson makes, he makes 7-8 excellent plays, like this one in the preseason game once morest Sweden. Imagine Slafkovsky in place of Cutter Gauthier in the right circle…
#GoHabsGo prospect Lane Hutson’s assist vs. Sweden: pic.twitter.com/h5XldCfAjy
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 21, 2023
Without drawing any major conclusions, for the Habs, a dazzling competition and a big end to the season for its late 2nd round pick in 2022 will only reinforce the desire to see it end up in Montreal before the end of the season. season. And who knows where the CH will end up in the rankings at this point… Otherwise, Hutson should still come to Montreal, but that might have a certain impact on the amount that will end up on his entry contract…
Since we are with the Americans, let’s continue with another very good prospect from the Flannel, goalkeeper Jacob Fowler, 12th in our list.
Fowler is simply dominant in his first NCAA season and already receiving praise from his coach, impressed by his exceptional mental strength. Fowler and Trey Augustine are both expected to see action early in the tournament and a decision will eventually have to be made as to who will have the net for the medal round. With the Americans seen as the big favorites to win everything, the pressure will be on…
The most fans of this winter classic will also remember the excellent performances of Cayden Primeau, a goalkeeper who greatly contributed to the Americans winning the silver medal in 2019. However, as we saw with Primeau and several other young goalies over the years, a sparkling performance at the WJC does not guarantee an exceptional career among the pros, much less an early start to their career in the NHL.
In short, even if Fowler seems “strong”, impresses everyone with his talent and his general attitude, and we can certainly realistically hope that he will be the future starting goalie for the Habs in his mid-twenties, we must always keep a little discomfort regarding the value of the goalkeepers’ performances at the WJC. In the same way, we would also have to take this with a grain of salt if it was Augustine, a “veteran” of the 2023 edition, who was to obtain the pole for the USA and that Fowler saw almost no difference. ‘action.
That said, it should be noted that due to his age – Fowler is a late born on November 24 – the CH hopeful will not be able to return to the tournament next year since he will already be 20 years old.
In terms of individual skills, Filip Mesar is a good, if not excellent, hockey player. He is just not very advanced in terms of his physical maturity and still needs to progress at the tactical level in a style more suited to North American surfaces. To understand Mesar’s development, think of Arturri Lehkonen or Jesse Ylonen at the same age, who didn’t reach the NHL until they were 22.
After doing very well in the Maritimes last year during the 2023 edition, it will therefore be interesting to see what Mesar will look like when it returns to European supermarkets in Sweden, where its natural qualities might stand out even more. Slovakia will feature a talented and experienced lineup and Mesar might look very good.
Excellent skater with flexible hands, a lively and powerful shot and a very good vision of the game, he should normally form one of the best “duos” of the tournament in the company of the right Dalibor Dvorsky. This St. Louis Blues prospect, snubbed up to 10th place in the last NHL draft, is dominating this season in Sudbury alongside Quentin Musty (chosen 26th by the Sharks) and David Goyette (2022, 62nd, Seattle).
Mesar, 14th in our last count, does not have a guaranteed future with the Habs and no one believes that he is ahead for his age, starting with Jean-François Houle in Laval… This competition does not assure us of anything , but to complement his solid performances in Kitchener, the Slovak has every interest in having a good tournament in order to remain relevant in the minds of the leaders and consolidate, or even improve, his place in the Montreal hierarchy.
Because if there is a world where Mesar would be part of the Canadian’s alignment, say, somewhere around 2025-2026, there are also a few galaxies where it would already not have been on the radar for some time…
It’s up to him.
We can never exclude Canada from the favorite clubs at this tournament, and 2024 will be no exception. But we will have to work hard to downgrade the Americans. The Hockey News places the Americans as a 2-to-1 favorite and ranks Canada second at 4-to-1.
The country of the maple leaf will present a fairly young formation and, in this regard, Owen Beck, 19 years old, the only “veteran” of the victorious edition of 2023, might be of great use. Note that at the time of writing, we had still not identified the players who will act as captain and assistant captains of the team.
The Ontarian, anticipated as the center of the 4th trio, will not necessarily be one of the spearheads of the Canadian offensive, but he will probably be in all perilous and tense situations, whether to regularly face the best opposing elements, to win a crucial faceoff, protecting a lead, playing shorthanded, etc. We can already see him rather dominant in the preparatory match with his two goals once morest Switzerland.
Here is his first where he finds free space in the opposing zone:
Owen Beck pots home Canada’s 3rd goal of the game, giving them back the lead once morest Switzerland.
— Marco D’Amico (@mndamico) December 22, 2023
And his second, at the end of a superb shorthanded sequence:
Owen Beck pots home Canada’s 3rd goal of the game, giving them back the lead once morest Switzerland.
— Marco D’Amico (@mndamico) December 22, 2023
Beck’s contribution, ranked 5th in our in-house count of Montreal prospects, might somewhat resemble that of Kyle Chipchura in 2006, who also played in a fairly young and more or less talented group. Chipchura was the captain of his team and Canada, which was not the favorite that year, still managed to win gold in Vancouver.
We shouldn’t rely too much on Beck’s negative record (-2) in Peterborough this season either. After a participation in the Memorial Cup – impossible without the transaction made to get their hands on Beck – the Petes no longer have the same club at all this season, having lost a good number of veterans, several of whom were drafted by clubs in the NHL. One wonders if Beck will not once once more be traded to the OHL in the coming weeks, lhe Petes barely playing for .500…
An even closer look for Hutson and Beck
If there is no rush for Mesar and Fowler, the leaders of the CH will observe more carefully the performances of Huston and Beck, who are already knocking on the door of the NHL.
The prowess of Mike Matheson and the low probability that he will be traded soon will allow an offensive defenseman like Hutson to gradually bring himself to the Habs blue line. But the American’s play during this competition and for the rest of his season at BU might help accelerate or consolidate the decisions that Hughes and Gorton will have to make regarding their defensive brigade in the coming months.
On Beck’s side, with Monahan, Evans and Dvorak all having less than 2 years left on their respective contracts – we’re talking regarding a few months for Monahan – a tournament that lived up to expectations, where he would clearly appear as one of the attackers the most intelligent and complete of the competition, would provide him with some arguments for next fall. That and another successful end to the season in the OHL…
Have a good tournament everyone!
We’ll see you once more following the CMJ to take stock of the performances of these same hopefuls and to say a few words regarding the other youngsters who amazed us along the way!
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