On Saturday, Alexis Lafrenière and Sasha Mutala scored two goals apiece to power Team Canada over Team Sweden by a 6-2 score to claim the gold medal at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
The win gives Canada three consecutive gold medals at the annual summer U-18 tourney.
Kirby Dach and Josh Williams potted goals for Canada, who trailed 2-0 less than 12 minutes into the gold medal game but blitzed the Swedes in the final 48 minutes.
In the afterglow of Canada’s 2018 Hlinka Gretzky 2018 Cup, Craig Button, TSN’s Director of Scouting, made public his top five prospects in the world as international hockey organizations shift their focus to the World Junior Hockey Championships selection camps and to the 2019 NHL Draft.
Button praises power forward Vasili Podkolzin, who finished tied for the scoring lead at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup with 11 points (8G,3A).
Finnish forward Kaapo Kakko is a top five forward prospect who did not play at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
Sweden’s Philip Broberg is considered by most pundits as the best defenseman prospect in the world now that Rasmus Dahlin is a Buffalo Sabre. Broberg is a top pair left shot D who scored three goals and an assist at the Hlinka Gretzky tourney.
Team Canada power forward Dylan Cozens had himself an impressive Hlinka Gretzky tourney scoring two goals and three assists in five games played.
Jack Hughes is the prohibitive favorite player to be selected first overall at the 2019 NHL Draft, however, he didn’t participate for Team USA at the Hlinka Gretzky event. Hughes was impressive at the World Junior Summer Showcase earlier this summer.
There is a distinct possibility that the 2019 NHL Draft is projecting to be a deep conscription process that will yield between 10 and 12 difference making players. Button’s top five, can’t miss prospects are the obvious choices. However, there other stud prospects like Team Canada scoring forward Alexis Lafrenière, who tied for the scoring lead (5G,6A) at Hlinka Gretzky event. Canadian forwards Ryan Suzuki (1G,7A) and Josh Williams (5G,1A) project in the top fifteen draft eligible prospects.
On Sunday, Jim Matheson tweeted that he spoke with an NHL GM who was scouting the Hlinka Gretzky tourney. The hockey honcho said his peer group is not trading their first-round draft choices in the 2019 NHL Draft. Jack Hughes will be the first overall pick and then the rest of the first round will be a hotly contested market with so many high impact players available to teams with high first round draft selection positions.
Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill is the proud owner of not one. Not two. But THREE first round draft choices in the 2019 NHL Draft.
How was Botterill able to take possession of two additional high-value 2019 first round draft choices?
Botterill is a shrewd business man.
Along with his amateur scouting staff, Botterill, his assistant general managers Steve Greeley and Randy Sexton have been studying the Class of 2019 for the past twelve months.
Remember when Botterill didn’t cave in and trade Evander Kane for mediocre assets? Botterill forced San Jose Sharks GM Doug Wilson to make his 2019 first round draft choice a key piece to the Kane trade. After the trade was completed, Botterill said Wilson was the only GM willing to stick his neck out and make a real offer for EKane9. Other GMs were looking to take Kane off Botterill’s hands for pennies on the dollar. Botterill wanted no part of that nonsense.
Botterill too the conditional first-round pick in 2019 with the intention that Kane would re-signs with the Sharks. In June, Kane signed a 7-year, $49 million mega-contract to stay and play in San Jose. Had Kane skated away from the Sharks and signed elsewhere as a UFA , the 2019 conditional first rounder would have downgraded to a 2019 second-rounder. Botterill also grabbed San Jose’s conditional fourth-round pick in 2020 and prospect forward prospect Dan O'Regan, who played with Jack Eichel and Evan Rodrigues at Boston University.
"It was a difficult market for rentals," Botterill said the NHL trade deadline. "I think the younger players in the league certainly got a good reward, players with term certainly got a good reward.
"But it was a scenario where we had a lot of conversations out there and certainly a lot of interest, but I think you saw with the rental market for rental players it was more of a difficult market than previous years."
Botterill resisted the temptation to trade Kane for the sake of trading him. By waiting, the Sabres took ownership of a second premium first round draft choice in 2019.
There is a proviso that if the Sharks miss the playoffs in 2018-19, Wilson has the option to send a pick in 2020 instead. A situation very similar to the one the Colorado Avalanche and Ottawa Senators find themselves in after the Matt Duchene trade.
Botterill also took possession of a third first-round pick in the Ryan O’Reilly trade with the St. Louis Blues. Botterill didn’t have to trade O’Reilly. He wasn’t shopping O’Reilly. Botterill said he would listen to legitimate offers for O’Reilly. Clearly, St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong wanted to acquire ROR in a bad way as he was the only NHL GM willing to give Botterill five premium assets in exchange for O’Reilly.
O'Reilly was traded to the Blues for a stockpile of assets that included a 2019 first-round draft pick, a second-rounder in 2021, prospect forward Tage Thompson and veteran forwards Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka.
The 2019 first rounder also has some protection that could slide it forward to 2020, only if it ends up a top-10 selection. Which is very unlikely.
Botterill has nothing to worry about. The Sharks are a stacked, veteran team that is a Stanley Cup contender for 2018-19. The Sharks will make the playoffs as they have 12 out of the last 13 seasons. The Blues have made the playoffs seven times in the past ten seasons. Trading for O’Reilly and adding UFA center Tyler Bozak will go a long way to making the Blues a playoff team once again this season.
There are 30 other NHL GMs who wish their name was Jason Botterill today.
With three selections in a superbly deep 2019 NHL draft class, Botterill will likely be selecting three more difference making prospects that will add more high-end skill to an already impressive young core in Buffalo. The Sabres have said out with the old and in with the new. Winning the NHL Draft Lottery and selecting rock star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin first overall at the 2018 NHL Draft was a stroke of good fortune that has already infused more world class skill to a skilled, young group that includes Jack Eichel, Samson Reinhart, Casey Mittelstadt, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake McCabe, Linus Ullmark, Justin Bailey, Nick Baptiste, and Alex Nylander. This summer, Botterill traded for veteran scoring wingers Jeff Skinner and Conor Sheary without having to trade one of his three first round picks in 2019. Botterill also added veteran goalie Carter Hutton the free agency market.
Sabres head coach Phil Houlsey wants to deliver the 2017-18 Sabres to the Stanley Cup playoffs. His team finished dead last in the NHL standings in 2017-18.
Botterill will add three more difference making players with his three first round selections in 2019.
The near future is very bright for the Buffalo Sabres.
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