Poll: Who Will Win The Gold At The World Juniors?

The 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship is far from a usual one.  The tournament usually runs just after Christmas but it had to be rescheduled for August and runs from today through the 20th.

This is often a tournament where we get to see many of the NHL’s top prospects in the same setting.  That isn’t exactly the case this time around with many teams asking their top youngsters not to participate with rookie camps a little more than a month away.  However, there are still plenty of quality prospects throughout the lineups for this summer event which will help bridge the gap between a slow month of NHL activity and the start of camps next month.

The United States come into the event as the defending Gold Medallists after beating Canada in the 2021 event.  They’ll have a whole new goalie tandem with Spencer Knight now in the NHL while Trevor Zegras was the leading scorer in that event and he is now in the NHL as well.  The Americans have four first-round picks on their roster while forward Thomas Bordeleau is someone with a bit of NHL experience after playing the last few weeks with San Jose last season.

Canada, the host team for the event, has seen quite a bit of turnover from the initial event in December as there are nine new faces on the roster.  However, they’ll be led by returnees Mason McTavish and Kent Johnson up front along with the expected first-overall pick in 2023, Connor Bedard.  In total, they have eight first-round picks on their roster.

Finland took home the bronze back in 2021 and they have seven returnees from that squad.  Topi Niemela leads the way defensively while Joakim Kemell and Brad Lambert, a pair of first-round picks last month, will help pace the attack.  While most of their team remains intact from December, one notable absentee is Penguins goalie prospect Joel Blomqvist who had a dominant year in Finland’s professional league and is getting ready for his next season with them.

Sweden is a team that could have plenty of firepower with five forwards picked in the first round headlined by Isak Rosen and Jonathan Lekkerimaki.  On the back end, Simon Edvinsson is poised to have a big tournament that could help propel him into a battle for a roster spot with the Red Wings in training camp while Jesper Wallstedt is a highly-touted goalie prospect.  Overall, all but three of their 25 players are NHL prospects.

Slovakia looked to have an opportunity to make an impression at this event but most of their NHL prospects, including Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec (the top two picks in the draft last month), are taking a pass on the recommendations of their NHL teams but they still have a trio of drafted players plus a projected top-ten 2023 pick in Dalibor Dvorsky.

Meanwhile, Czechia has a dozen NHL prospects on its roster headlined by the sixth pick last month in defenseman David Jiricek.  If their matchup today was any indication, both of those teams could be capable of pulling off an upset or two as the tournament progresses.

Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Latvia round out the field, one that will remain intact for the 2023 event that begins in December as there will be no relegation or promotions from this event.

Who do you think will take home the gold?  Will it be one of the favorites, or will one of the lesser-known teams pull off some upsets and go all the way?  Make your prediction in the poll below.

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