The Next Wave: Which players disappointed at the World Juniors
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live; Tyler Yaremchuk and Daily Faceoff Prospect Analyst Steven Ellis took a look at which players didn’t live up to expectations at the recent 2023 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships in Halifax and Moncton.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Steven, fans love watching the World Juniors and generally overreacting to what they see there. So we have three names of players who were kind of disappointing in the World Juniors so let’s talk about how worried these fanbases should be. The first name is Brad Lambert. It felt like it was his ninth World Juniors, but he was not that good in the tournament so how concerning was that and is it the right move to send him back to junior?
Steven Ellis: Lambert is going to the Seattle Thunderbirds, a team that can not seem to stop scoring. They were rumoured to be in on Connor Bedard and that would’ve been a junior super team if that happened. Lambert is someone who, 2-3 years ago, we were looking at him for a potential number one in the 2022 Draft. However, he fell late in the first round, and lots of scouts were just concerned; his compete level was weak and he wasn’t great defensively. I think we saw that at the World Juniors. Finland needed him to go out there and get lots of points but he had one goal and was virtually invisible. But this isn’t just a one-time thing, in the summer World Juniors he was a healthy scratch for the semi-final game. That was a bit of a shock, he had a decent pre-season with the Winnipeg Jets, and started off looking okay in the AHL. But he had only three points before the World Juniors. This is not just a short-term thing, there are a lot of concerns where he’s got the speed and skill to be a quality NHL player why can’t he just put this on every night? Too many shifts where he’s just floating, and I’m definitely concerned. I think right now going over to the WHL will hopefully gain his confidence back.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, he really seems like a boom or bust prospect; like will this guy boom and score twenty-plus goals a year or will he just fizzle out and never have much of a career? The second player on that list is Boston Bruins prospect Fabian Lysell, who was ejected in the bronze medal game. Which put an end to the tournament for him.
Steven Ellis: He was brought in to generate offense and score lots of goals. So, getting zero points in seven games is not what you like to see. Compared to Lambert though I’m not concerned, I think that his body of work in the AHL speaks for itself. Watching him with Providence this year I think he’s going to be a guy that’s a key piece of the Bruins’ top six for a while. Very quick skater, maybe one of the fastest skating prospects in the league. Very few prospects can shoot a puck the way Lysell does. So, I’m not too worried.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s go between the pipes for the third guy here. Vancouver Canucks goaltending prospect Aku Koskenuvo.
Steven Ellis: This is a guy who entered this tournament and had a whopping two games played for Harvard University. He played at the U20 Five Nations tournament for Finland and looked solid. Looked like he was supposed to be the starting goalie, Finland was actually the only team in the tournament with two NHL goaltending prospects. He did not look comfortable in that pre-tournament game against the United States, I feel like he was part of the reason why they lost. Then they lost to the Swiss, and Koskenuvo allowed a couple of goals that he probably wished he could’ve saved. Then they started him against the United States again to decide who wins the group and I think that was super important because Finland held more points and if they had won; they may have had a completely different run. Instead, they were out in the quarter-final and I think part of that is because Koskenuvo just laid an egg. This is someone who’s still a talented goalie, he’s got size at 6-foot-4 but when it comes to him he just needs to start playing, he’s got six games played all year long. I’m a little concerned, but I think he’s got the talent to bounce back.
You can watch the full episode here…