Europe united

[jRuutu 2,426]

 

Team Europes World Junior Championship roster was announced during the weekend! Team Europe has an interesting group of players that combines VHL experience and upcoming superstar players. Some names that you should follow, let's start with the VHL experience, Fernando Jokinen has already played almost 100 VHL games, he is the on and off the ice leader for Team Europe.  Jokinen has the most points among all the Team Europe players in VHL so far with 1+19.

 

Milos Slavik is also playing in VHL already, 38 games for Davos this year where he has managed to score 3+11 for 14 points. That total is the most among all the rookie Team Europe players, so look for Slavik to be among the players who you see a lot in the powerplay especially. Ben McGirr could be the one who enjoys Slavik´s playmaking ability the most - 7 goals during his rookie year in VHL, most than any other Team Europe player so far.

If we look at the upcoming side, Roque Davis is second in VHLM scoring at the moment with 21+69 in 38 games, excellent offensive defender. Another interesting player is Ola Vikingstad, a center who has 80 points in 39 games, shades of Havlova and Lahtinen?

 

The icing on the cake is Swedish goalie duo Sjostrom and Bruden, both still playing in VHLM. Not much between the two when going into the tournament, so we could potentially even see fair 50/50 split in games started.

 

 Clarke having a chat with Vikingstad

 

What makes Team Europe a great team is balance, you got everything in the team from playmaking to hitting ability, but what is perhaps underrated is having guys like Odin Omdahl, Will Clarke, Mikko Lahtinen and Markus Nygren in the team with the upcoming talents. They have played excellent junior seasons and have now moved on to the big show. Having Odin next to Roque Davis, for example, is not just valuable for Team Europe, but it's valuable for the younger players like Davis themselves, they can talk to these older guys and learn from them. They have gone through the same road as these junior players are going through right now.

 

The older players with VHL experience can carry the team through tough spots during games, younger players can in return turn games to Team Europe's advantage with their fearless approach.

 

One thing is for sure, Team Europe is a team that has real depth in the roster, the defensive group is strong, centers the same thing. Only little question mark if you can call it that is the winger and goalie positions, not easy to find the right the combinations for lines and the goalie is a tough position sometimes when playing tournament games - the pressure is high, one bad game could mean that the other goalie gets the starting spot for next game, before you know it the tournament is already too far for fair rotation. The same goes for other positions as well, need to play well right from the start if you want to play in the powerplay for example.

 

When you are thinking about who could with the s70 World Junior Championship, Team Europe is a great bet.