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Draft Eligible Canadians at the U18's |
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As many people know the U18 WJC’s finished up a while ago with Canada taking home the Gold by beating the always difficult USA ending the Americans Gold medal streak at 4 years. Finland took home the Bronze over the home squad Russia.
The U18’s are usually the last chance before the combine for draft eligible players that aren’t playing on stacked teams that go deep in the CHL playoffs to perform and make a name for themselves on the international scene. It’s helped a lot of players increase their draft status and more importantly gives players with later birthdays a chance to shine in scouts eyes who usually are more focused on the older and more developed players.
In this blog I want to go through some of the draft eligible players and make an assessment of their play and whether it helped their status going forward, or hindered it. I’ll be doing it nation by nation, though I’ll clump some of the smaller ones with less prominent players to maintain some brevity.
Before all that though I just wanted to give 16 year old Connor McDavid major props and congratulations on winning the MVP of the tournament with a dominating performance. His 14 points and 8 goals led the tournament and put him in really good company for 16 year olds dominating this tournament (Ovechkin 14 goals 18 points and Phil Kessel 7 goals 10 points). He very well could be the “next one.”
Canada
Nicholas Baptiste – This tourney really helped his draft stock, he’s likely going to go around the 2nd – 3rd round due to his inconsistent year offensively for the Wolves. He looked great riding shotgun with McDavid and provided a lot of room for the youngster. I liked his skating and size. He had some good physicality. His 3 goals and 8 points were second on the team and I think this kind of performance will help show some intriguing scoring upside that being on a low scoring Wolves team hid. He’s likely going to be a 3rd line grinder that can pop in a goal or two going forward. Also he’s a very late birthday so his development curve understandably weaker than some of the older guys.
Morgan Klimchuk – The Regina Pats star also had a big tourney with 3 goals and 8 points, he’s a bit undersized but he never quits on the play. He was crucial on the PK including being out there in the dire seconds with the game on the line. Speed and smarts and determination make up his game, to go along with that great wrister. He got to play on the other wing of McDavid and was always first on the backcheck. I really like his play and I think with his great season added to this performance will help him rise to around the first few picks in the second.
Josh Morrissey – Every year the WHL produces some serious talent on defense and this is no exception. Morrisey was the best defenseman in the tournament in my eyes (Even if shutdown defender Steve Santini won the actual award). He’s an explosive player that can change momentum with a big nasty hit or a big goal. He’s got some defensive issues to work through, but he was out there on the PK in the final minute. He was pretty darn good at 5 aside hockey and pretty good on the PP. He’s already pegged to go around 10-25.
Laurent Dauphin – Dauphin is one of the lesser known players in the wave of strong QMJHL forwards that will litter the first and second rounds this draft. He’s an emotional player that seems to play better when things get rough. I remember seeing the Top Prospects game and he got leveled by Ryan Hartman, two shifts later Dauphin was dominating. He plays a physical brand of hockey and is very good on the cycle. He isn’t too big but from what I’ve seen is very good at face-offs. He scored 4 goals and added 2 assists. He’s got some interesting upside and will probably go in the 3rd round, he needs to bulk up badly he’s stick thin.
Philippe Desrosiers – If McDavid wasn’t scoring all over the place, Desrosiers wins the MVP. He was insane…which is great because one thing Canada has been missing the past few years is reliable goaltending. He’s on the small side for the “new age” goalie at 5’11, but he’s extremely quick and has great athleticism. He had a miniscule .80GAA and a .970sv% though it was his excellent play in the final game against the USA that clinched it for me. While Fucale is the top goalie prospect in this draft, Desrosier is one week from being in the 2014 draft and he has a lot of development ahead of him and has excellent upside.
Frédérik Gauthier – Eh…he’s really big? Not getting the major bonaires associated with Gauthier outside of him being 6’5. I guess he’s not too slow with that size so that’s a plus, I just don’t see the offensive upside to justify some people calling him “Joe Thornton” as his NHL comparable. He was fine if not a tad disappointing in the tournament. He wasn’t really physical which pissed me off since he was about 5 feet taller than everybody else. I will say this, Gauthier is really hard to take off the puck when he starts cycling down low and he won almost every face-off I saw him take. My worries are this is a 3rd liner at best being trumped up because he’s big as hell. I can’t see drafting him in the 10-15 range I see him on many lists unless that’s a team need.
Samuel Morin – Ok now he’s really freaking big. 6’7 and 201lbs with a very late birthday has all the earmarks of massive upside and low risk. He was used a lot in the tourney as a shutdown guy and I think he performed pretty well in that role. He landed a few really big hits and was generally a pain in the ass to play against (was kind of funny seeing him match against 5’6 Anthony Louis of the USA). He was an absolute beast for Rimouski in the playoffs and I think of all the risers in the draft he’s the fastest. Would not surprise me if he cracks the first round with all this upside.
Jason Dickinson – Once again I just don’t get it. I’ve seen some lists have him in the top-20…well that’s just prime. He’s got the size and the hard work to be an NHLer sure, but he was pretty useless out there. All work and no brains…and no finish. I was kind of hoping he’d show something against players his own age but meh. I think he’ll fall out of the first if not the second round.
Honourable mentions to PP Specialist and Danger Zone in the D Shea Theodore and Chris Bigras.
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