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TheIIHF World Junior Championship is one of the biggest stages in hockey as the best under-20 prospects gohead-to-head over the holidaysbattling for international glory. For some of theseplayers, it'salsoa platform to show off their skill ahead of the upcoming NHL Draft. Every year, we see draft-eligible players stand out on their teams and among their peers and last years edition is proof of this. , the eventual No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, dominated the tournament and helped lead Team Canada to the gold medal, . The German trio of , and became the talk of the prospect world while the Swedish pair of and showed off their skills in big ways. At the same time, Ru sian netminder struggled and eventual No. 2 pick had just one point. Its important to keep in mind that one tournament doesnt make or break a prospect. This tournament is simply one data point along a long hockey timeline. Looking at the 2021 World Juniors, we didnt see a Lafrenire-style performance from a draft-eligible player, but we did see numerous players prove why they are highly regarded ahead of the upcoming draft. Others showedsome flags in their games that will be worth additional looks moving forward and a fewjust didnt meet the expectations that were set heading into the tournament. With this in mind, lets take a look at five draft-eligible standouts and four players whose stock may have taken a hit over the course of the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship. 2021 NHL Draft risers , C, USA : 16 Out of all draft-eligible players in this tournament, youd be hard-pre sed to find one that stood out more than Beniers. The youngest player on Team USA played top-six minutes between Canadiens prospect and Wild prospect and not only keptpace with the two but often drove theplay. The University of Michigan star played all seven gamesrecording one goal and two a sistsen route to the team's gold-medal victory over Canada. He was put out in crucial moments of games to shut down opponents, was a beast in transition and wasnt afraid to get physical. He was extremely strong in his po se sion, maintaining a 56.4 Corsi For percentage (CF%) through the tournament. WJC 2021: Beniers came into this tournament as a player on the rise thanks to an impre sive start to his NCAA career and thatcontinued in a big way withinternational eyes seeing just how promising a player he is. The centerman is looking like a top-5 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. , C, Germany Preliminary rank: NA Elias, who was eligible but went unselected in the 2020 draft, truly impre sed in this year's tournament playing on the top line between Stuetzle and Peterka. At first glance, you might think that the overager was just benefitting fromplaying on a line with two of the top players at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship. To an extent maybe. Looking closer though, he contributed in his own way to the succe s of that top line. Hecollected at least one point in each of his five games, racking up four goals and five a sists for nine points; three of those a sists were primary. The Adler Mannheim(DEL) forward played on both the power play and the penalty kill, won 59 percent of his puck battlesand averaged 5.4 takeaways a game. He also steadily improved his pa sing in the tournament, from a 69 percent accuracy in the opener against Canada to a 93 percent rate against the Ru sians in the quarterfinals. After being pa sed over in 2020, Elias has put himself on the map for 2021. The 18-year-oldled the DNL (Germany's junior development league) in goals last season and will look to continue that succe s in Germanys top league. , G, Finland Preliminary Mike Reilly Jersey rank: NA Coming into world juniors, many had the Finnish net locked for Penguins prospect that wasn't the case. Instead, Finland seemed to be between Piiroinen and . They split the exhibition game versus the United Statesand then each played a game. From there on out, it was Piiroinen's net. After a 5-3 win against Germany in the opener, Piiroinen shut out Slovakia, made 36 saves against Canadaand, after giving up two goals in the first period against Sweden in the quarterfinals,shut the door and backstopped the team to a 3-2 win. In the ,he let in four goalson 26 shots. But le s than 24 hours later, to put the cherry on top for his tournament, he denied 28 of Ru sias 29 shots to securing the bronze for Finland. Hefinished the tournament with a .915 save percentage and 2.18 goals-against average. WJC 2021: Piiroinen was a big reason the Finns made it to thatbronze-medal game, making some big saves when it mattered most. Hes been impre sing in Finland this season in the Mestis (on loan) with TUTO Hockey posting a7-2-5 record with a .924 save percentage and 2.26 goals-against average. The Finn might be worth a look in the later rounds of the 2021 draft. , D, Czech Republic Preliminary rank: 26 Svozil was a name draft pundits already knew well. The smooth-skating defenseman is labeled one of the best defenders in a cla s full of young promising blueliners and on theinternational stage,he proved why. While he had just one a sist in five games, Svozil put on display what makes him such an intriguing prospect: his feet and his instinct. The young defenseman's ability to read the play and jump into action without a moments hesitation wasextremely impre sive. His vision to findlanes into the zone stood out and his excellent acceleration helped him exploit them. He played an average of 16:48 for the Czech Republic, despite not seeing much time on special teams. Svozil was already in first-round consideration coming into the world juniors and this outing showed why. , G, Sweden Preliminary rank: 4 He may not have played a big part in Swedens world juniors run with head coach JoelRonnmark opting to go with Lightning prospect , but Wallstedt made it count when given the chance. Playing against a dangerous Ru sia in his first and only start of the tournament, the Swedish netminder faced 35 shots, making 31 saves. The next night, the Swedes turned back to Alnefelt against the eventual golden Americans. After letting in four goals, Wallstedt was thrown back in the net for the remaining 36:06 of the game, stopping all 17 shots he faced. With just 99 minutes of action, he held a .923 save percentage. The top goaltending prospect in 2021 looked very calm and collected in both games. On another note, the young netminder showed what he can do with the puck, attempting 21 pa ses and completing 20 of them for a 95.2 percentaccuracy rate. In a tournament full of goalies mishandling the puck, the youngest one participating showed the others how it's done. 2021 NHL Draft fallers , D, Slovakia Preliminary Rank: NA Becar may not be a well-known name in the 2021 draft, and after a quiet world juniors performance, that wont change any time soon. The defenseman had zero points and didnt make an overall positive impact with his defensive play. Throughout the 2021 edition,the defender made some questionable decisions with the puck resulting in scoring chances against or even goals against. In the match versus Germany, his lack of reaction time resulted in a goal bouncing off of him and into his own net. That game eventually went to overtime, and Becar was not only out for the goal against but attempted what appeared to be a two-pad stack to block a shot rather than attack the puck carrier. The game-winning goal was scored seconds later. Playing in the Slovakia2 and Slovakia U20 leagues this season, hes not likely to gain a ton of traction for the draft. This was his chance to get his name out there and with minimal impact for his team, he failed to do that. , C/W, Switzerland Preliminary rank: NA Switzerlands Canonica came into this tournament with quite a bit of hype around him, especially after looking good in the U20 exhibition games and collecting three points in four games. While the Swi s werent expected to make much noise in the tournament, more was expected from the young forward who collected just one a sist in four games and was fairly quiet throughout the tournament. Despite receiving time on the power play, Canonicas shot total in each game decreased from three versus Slovakia in Game 1, down to just one in each of his last two contests against Canada and Germany. He took a few poor penalties and simply looked out of place at times on the ice, especially when facing off against the strong Canadian and Finnish teams. Canonica has been playing overseas in the Swi s U20-Elit league until he can join the QMJHLs Shawinigan Cataractes. Coming to North America, playing with more eyes on him, could give the prospect a chance to raise his draft stock as the July draft draws closer. , D, Ru sia Preliminary rank: 24 The most notable name among the fallers on this list is Chayka. Marcus Hogberg Jersey |
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