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The 2022 World Juniors have come to an end with four of Montreal’s prospects picking up medals.  Some played well, others underwhelmed which leads to a mixture of grades in our end-of-tournament report card.

Jan Mysak – A-:

Considering he made the tournament All-Star team as voted on by the media, you might think I’m being a bit tough with this grade.  However, he was one of the older players in the event in his third World Juniors (not counting the December version).  Expectations were higher for Mysak in this event than any other Canadiens by a significant margin.  For him to get a higher grade, he’d have needed to score more.

Don’t get me wrong, he did quite well.  He was an all-situations player, led Czechia in ice time for forwards, and had a point in all but one game.  Interestingly, he spent some time on the wing as well which might be his future spot in the pros.  Mysak did everything he was supposed to in this event and played with more intensity and aggression than he showed in junior last season which was a good season.  This was basically the last event of his junior career and while he doesn’t leave with a medal, that’s about the only negative for him from the tournament.

Stats: 7 GP, 5 goals, 3 assists, 8 points, 0 PIMS, +3 rating, 25 shots, 20:41 ATOI

Joshua Roy – A-:

I didn’t have particularly high expectations for Roy in this event.  I figured he’d have a bottom-six role and the takeaway would be that he did well enough to contend for a top-six spot in December.  Considering he didn’t make the original team, that’d be a pretty good outcome.

Instead, Roy started the tournament on the top line and quite frankly, he didn’t fare well.  He is someone that is better served as the go-to threat on a unit instead of being a complementary player which is something this prospect pool doesn’t have a lot of.  In that sense, his eventual demotion to the third line changed his trajectory for the better.  Suddenly, he was more aggressive and productive with the end result being that he became one of Dave Cameron’s most trusted players which says a lot for his defensive play which is an area that needs to be worked on.  A solid WJC debut for sure but I’d like to see a little more movement as he was puck-watching on too many occasions.

Stats: 7 GP, 3 goals, 5 assists, 8 points, 2 PIMS, +4 rating, 15 shots, 19:44 ATOI

Oliver Kapanen – C:

After a tough season offensively, I was hoping to see Kapanen retake his original top-six spot from the December event and play the two-way game that has been argued is one of his strengths.  That didn’t happen.

Instead, Kapanen was very limited offensively and while he was earning himself a bigger role as the tournament progressed, it was more for his defensive play and energy.  Good for him to find a way to move up the depth chart but the hope was that this would be a springboard event to start next season on a high note.  If this is any indication (and it’s hard to put a ton of stock into it as this was a summer event), the start of 2022-23 could resemble most of 2021-22.

Stats: 7 GP, 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 points, 4 PIMS, +1 rating, 15 shots, 16:34 ATOI

Petteri Nurmi – C-:

I was on the fence on whether or not to grade Nurmi who only played in two games due to an illness that might keep him out for a little while yet.  But as someone that spent all of last season in Finland’s top level, I was expecting a little bit more dependability from him.  Maybe he was playing through the illness which derailed things so don’t put a lot of stock in this grade; I just was expecting to see him be more impactful in that stay-at-home role than he was and with only two games to assess him, there wasn’t enough time for some good moments to outweigh the not-so-good ones.

Stats: 2 GP, 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points, 2 PIMS, even rating, 2 shots, 17:57 ATOI

Riley Kidney – N/A

It’s pretty hard to evaluate someone who only played seven shifts in the tournament.  He was clearly the lowest on the depth chart based on the opening roster and for the most part, Canada stayed healthy which limited his chances to even get into the lineup.  He got a couple of weeks practicing with top-level junior competition so if you’re looking for a silver lining, there’s that.

Stats: 3 GP, 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points, 0 PIMS, even rating, 0 shots, 1:49 ATOI

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