VSN Presents: S92 WJC Roster Predictions

[McLovin 466]

VSN Presents: S92 World Junior Championship Roster Predictions!

 

Welcome to yet another VSN presentation of the World Junior Championship! We’re in the S92 edition today, and we have quite a bit to cover! The rosters for the S92 WJC have yet to be publicly announced, so in this edition of VSN, we’re gonna predict what each roster might look like, and how they’ll perform in the Round Robin and Medal rounds! Without further ado, let’s take a look at what these teams may look like in a few days!

 

 Team Europe: 

 

Starting out with arguably the strongest team in the WJC once more, we have Team Europe. The biggest things out the gate that I noticed of this team is their remarkably strong defense and goaltending. Of the top eligible players for Team Europe, 5 out of the top 7 players are either defensemen or goalies, and are all near or at the 400 TPA mark in terms of their earnings. With this in mind, Team Europe is projected by VSN to absolutely shut down games, and be able to put up some decent number of goals offensively too. Adi Dassler @BOOM, Kimi Raikkonen @mattyIceman & Nico Belique @Syzygy headline the forward core, and are all also high earning forwards with heaps of skill on both ends of the ice!

All things considered, Team Europe is looking incredibly strong this WJC, and once more are projected to win the World Junior Championship! As we all know though, upsets have happened in the past, and Team Europe’s worst enemy may be themselves in the Medal Round as what happened in last season's WJC. With that in mind however, they have everything to prove this season's tournament, that last season was just a fluke and they’re ready to return to the throne of the World Juniors. Considering they fixed the biggest issue that plagued last season's team in terms of their depth and goaltending woes, anything short of a Gold will be a massive disappointment to everyone in Team Europe's system. Time will tell what ends up happening in a few days!

 

 Team Canada: 

 

After a very disappointing end to last season's WJC, Canada has returned with a vengeance and looks to prove all the doubters wrong this season! Canada wants to at least win a game this season, and with the look of their projected roster, I expect them to win a lot more than just one!. With an incredibly strong first forward line in Isaac mclflopper @sportexperts show, Eno Velvson @Nykonax, and Bryce Woodworth @SirRupertBarnes headlining, the offense is going to be potent to say the least! Down the depth chart, they have a very strong center core, and will be leaned on rather heavily in special teams play. Beyond that, a good goalie in Toddly Bobbly @ToddlyBobbly and other wingers considered, Canada this season is going to be very offensively minded, and will be expected to put up a significant number of goals against weaker teams defensemen. 

 

The only thing concerning this roster is the severe lack of elite Canadian defensemen present in their eligibility lists, which means they’ll either have to work their way down the list to find their own defensemen, or pick from other teams in the tournament. Either way, it’s not an ideal situation by any means for Team Canada, and will likely suffer in the scoresheet for it. Expect very high scoring games in which Team Canada takes part in on both ends of the ice. There’s at least one team like this each World Juniors, so Team Canada games are going to be very entertaining to watch happen this season! Team Canada is also VSN’s dark horse candidate for the World Junior Championship as their offense against Team Europe’s defense is going to be very interesting, and I personally will be very invested in those games myself!

 

 Team World: 

 

Onto the halfway point of our coverage, we have the very interesting Team World! A similar situation to Team Europe, they bolster a remarkably strong goaltending situation. With arguably the best goaltender in the tournament between the pipes in Pipo Popa @npuBeT, and projected VHLM Playoff MVP in Jorgen Lovstrom @Pifferfish backing him up, Team World will likely have at least a few games stolen by their goalies. Moving past that, Theo Allard @InstantRockstar and Behrens Minion @UnknownMinion headlining the forward core as near top earners, Team World has a great chance at proving to be a bit of a Cinderella story in the making, and would certainly shake up the WJC dynamic if they ended up going all the way!

 

As with Team Canada, the depth might be the only thing holding them back from going rather deep into the Medal Round, but they have excellent pieces in key roles that makes the problem potentially void. A good goaltender duo in these kinds of tournaments usually makes or breaks a run, and Team World has everything they need in that regard to stay competitive. Whether the lack of All-Star caliber defensemen or depth proves to be a factor is yet to be seen, but Team World is going to be a very interesting team to watch in this tournament indeed. We shall certainly see what the future holds for them when the puck drops in a few days!

 

 Team USA: 

 

Nearing the end of our coverage, we have Team USA! This is a very interesting team in that they aren’t necessarily the best team in the tournament, but definitely not the worst. They have an incredibly strong first forward line similar to Team Canada, and duels between these two lines in historic rivalry games is going to be a treat to watch. George Richmond @badcolethetitan, Logan Ninefingers @Scurvy and Riley Martin @Smarch are all maxed out earners and are going to be on fire in this tournament offensively speaking. Looking past that line, the depth certainly falls off in terms of pure skill, but that doesn’t discount the value that these players can bring to Team USA. Bric Sheithaus @Oldhead91 especially, despite only being at 200 TPA, put up 96 points last season with Las Vegas, and was a menace on defense with 237 hits on his stat sheet. With this MVP performance considered, he very well makes up for the TPA difference with pure grit and fortitude against the other teams. 

 

Other players on this roster are excellent in their own regards too, as most of the projected players for Team USA’s defense are also near or at that 200 TPA marker, and will provide much needed VHLM All-Star caliber play to the American’s hopes to make a deep run. The only thing that may hamper this effort is their lack of goaltending depth compared to other teams. As mentioned previously, goalies more times than not make or break a run, but if Connor Hellebuych @HockeyFan4Life can pull out all the stops and put up strong games, Team USA very much has the capacity to upset a few teams and light up the tournament in the scoresheet!

 

 Team Asia: 

 

Onto the final team of our list, we have Team Asia. It’s not looking good for Asia as it stands, just at face value compared to the other team's potential players. The highest rated player on Team Asia’s potential players would be Petit Hughie @Sen at 262 TPA. While this is a serviceable and good level to be at in terms of the competition, leaning on him to carry the team is going to hurt their efforts in remaining competitive. The only other defenseman on this list is Vladimir Kozlov @vladbatton, and he’s at 199 TPA. This situation could be a bit of a blessing in disguise however, as Team Asia might be able to make up the difference competitively by selecting defensemen from Team Europe or World as they have good depth in those positions.

 

Offensively, they are in a similar rut, both in terms of high TPA earners and in lack of people to actually fill the positions themselves. The team is likely going to look like a mish mash of players from all the other teams in the tournament, so it’s a bit impossible to predict who will make the final roster when they get announced soon. With how deep some teams are in their depths however, Asia might be able to capitalize on this and select them for their own roster, and potentially upset teams with their own players. While Asia has great potential to play spoiler in these regards, expecting a very deep run from them would be ill-advised.

 

That concludes today’s edition of VSN’s coverage of the S92 WJC! We look forward to seeing all the teams final rosters, and hope you enjoyed reading this article on the World Juniors! We’ll see you next time when we cover the Round Robin! For VSN, this is Marcus Svedberg, signing off!

Edited March 11 by McLovin

[Mysterious_Fish 386]

6 hours ago, McLovin said:

Team Europe’s worst enemy may be themselves in the Medal Round as what happened in last season's WJC

Wonder who did that

[HockeyFan4Life 11]

USA!

[Scurvy 1,494]

Great article.   Lets go USA