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Finland Announces Preliminary 2023 World Juniors Roster

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One of the most consistent teams in recent years at the World Junior Championships has announced its preliminary roster for the 2023 edition of the tournament. Finland released its preliminary 25-player roster of three goalies, eight defensemen, and 14 forwards.

Finland will need to cut two players from this list to get down to the maximum roster size of 23 players, which should be announced in the coming days. The tournament begins in 12 days on December 26. Finland’s full roster is as follows:

F Niko Huuhtanen (TBL 224th overall, 2021)
F Lenni Hämeenaho (2023 eligible)
F Konsta Kapanen (undrafted)
F Oliver Kapanen (MTL 64th overall, 2021)
F Aleksanteri Kaskimäki (STL 73rd overall, 2022)
F Joakim Kemell (NSH 17th overall, 2022)
F Ville Koivunen (CAR 51st overall, 2021)
F Brad Lambert (WPG 30th overall, 2022)
F Jere Lassila (undrafted)
F Verner Miettinen (undrafted)
F Jani Nyman (SEA 49th overall, 2022)
F Sami Päivärinta (undrafted)
F Topi Rönni (CGY 59th overall, 2022)
F Kalle Väisänen (NYR 106th overall, 2021)

D Kalle Ervasti (undrafted)
D Aleksi Heimosalmi (CAR 44th overall, 2021)
D Aron Kiviharju (2024 eligible)
D Aleksi Malinen (NYI 189th overall, 2021)
D Ville Ruotsalainen (undrafted)
D Otto Salin (LAK 148th overall, 2022)
D Jimi Suomi (undrafted)
D Topias Vilén (NJD 129th overall, 2021)

G Niklas Kokko (SEA 58th overall, 2022)
G Aku Koskenvuo (VAN 137th overall, 2021)
G Jani Lampinen (undrafted)

Kiviharju, who is still just 16 and not draft-eligible until 2024, will be a name to watch. Considering Finland will likely only cut one skater from this current roster, he stands a decent chance to make the team and show what he can do on the biggest junior international stage. He notched six assists in six games at last year’s under-18 tournament for Finland.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Hockey Canada, Jiricek

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The NHL released its Three Stars for last week, with an unlikely name leading the way. Charlie Lindgren, who stepped into a starting role for the Washington Capitals with Darcy Kuemper injured, went 4-0 with a .949 save percentage. The veteran netminder allowed two or fewer goals in all four games and has helped the Capitals claw their way back into the Metropolitan Division race. Signed to a three-year deal in the offseason, Lindgren has already nearly set a career-high in appearances for a single season.

Because of that outstanding performance, Tage Thompson’s five-goal game was good enough for only second place. The Buffalo Sabres forward had seven points, though six of those came in one outing against the Columbus Blue Jackets, a game that saw him play a season-low 13:56 after it got out of hand early. Thompson now has 21 goals and 41 points in 28 games so far this year. The third star went to Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander, who had his own five-point effort over the weekend, taking him over a point-per-game pace on the year. The 26-year-old winger is averaging the most ice time of his career and is on pace to set career highs in basically every offensive category.

  • Hockey Canada has released its nominees for a new board of directors, a group that will serve on a one-year term if confirmed by a member vote on Saturday. Among those nominated is Cassie Campbell-Pascall, a familiar name for hockey fans both for her days as a player and broadcaster. Campbell-Pascall captained Team Canada to Olympic gold twice, and won six World Championship gold medals over her decorated playing career.
  • David Jiricek will be loaned to the World Juniors by the Columbus Blue Jackets to play for Czechia at the upcoming event, joining several other top prospects headed to the event. The sixth-overall pick from 2022 made his NHL debut and played two games for the Blue Jackets earlier this year. A force in the minor leagues, the 6’3″ defenseman has 13 points in 15 games for the Cleveland Monsters.

Snapshots: Guenther, Barkov, Toporowski

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With World Junior camps opening, many expected a handful of NHLers such as Shane Wright, Brandt Clarke and Dylan Guenther to leave their NHL teams for a short time to compete for gold. All three of those players will join their native Canada, making an already formidable squad just that much better. Although Wright and Clarke struggled to find consistent playing time and production with their NHL teams, both ultimately sent to the AHL on conditioning loans, the same cannot be said for Guenther. The 19-year-old, who was selected by the Arizona Coyotes ninth-overall in 2021, has 11 points in 21 games already, playing just over 12 minutes per game.

While Guenther’s loan to Team Canada wasn’t exactly shocking news, it also wasn’t the lock that Clarke and Wright’s loans appeared to be. PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan had a chance to discuss Guenther with Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong, who said he wanted to see how prospects performed “under fire.” Armstrong continued, “[y]ou like to see them in those pressure situations because you find out a lot about them and they really tend to grow for them.” The GM cited two of his former St. Louis Blues players, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, who were sent to the World Juniors, and the impact the experience had on their development.

  • After it was reported yesterday that Aleksander Barkov was expected to return today from a bout with pneumonia, the Florida Panthers confirmed their captain would play tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. Adding the superstar back into the lineup will no doubt give Florida, who went 2-3-2 in his absence, a big boost. Still, illness will continue to hold them back. The team announced that goaltender Spencer Knight and forward Anton Lundell are both missing tonight’s game with non-COVID illnesses.
  • NHL.com’s Mark Divver wonders if the Boston Bruins termination of Victor Berglund’s contract could pave the way to an NHL contract for forward Luke Toporowski. As Divver points out, this will leave the Bruins with 47 contracts, perhaps enough flexibility to add one back in that of Toporowski. NHL teams are allowed to carry a maximum of 50 contracts within the organization, but generally prefer to stay away from having 50, or even 49, in order to give them flexibility in certain situations. Divver adds there is interest from other teams in Toporowski, but Boston has exclusive rights with him until January 1st, and even thereafter can match any other offer Toporowski accepts. A product of both the WHL and USHL, Toporowski went undrafted but signed on with the Providence Bruins this offseason after scoring 35 goals in just 49 games between the Spokane Chiefs and Kamloops Blazers last season. The 21-year-old has 17 points in 21 AHL games so far this season.

Simon Nemec To Play In World Junior Championship

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The Canadian team got a pair of reinforcements this week when Brandt Clarke and Shane Wright were loaned away from their NHL organizations, and it appears as though the Slovakian team will get a similar boost. Miroslav Satan, who is now the president of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation, confirms that the New Jersey Devils will be loaning Simon Nemec to play at the tournament.

Nemec will be joined by Montreal Canadiens first-round pick Filip Mesar, who is currently playing with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL. Satan did not mention Juraj Slafkovsky, likely meaning that the first-overall pick will remain with the Canadiens instead of playing the junior tournament.

The 18-year-old Nemec was the second-overall pick this summer, giving Slovakia a sweep of the top two spots. That was a historic moment for the country’s hockey program, just as the bronze medal at the 2022 Olympics proved to be.

At the World Juniors, Slovakia has never placed higher than third. They took home a bronze in 2009, thanks to an incredible tournament from Tomas Tatar, and in 1999, thanks to Marian Gaborik and Ladislav Nagy (in 1993, just after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the two nations competed together and finished in third place).

With Nemec, Mesar, and other impressive youngsters in place (including 17-year-old Dalibor Dvorsky, a top prospect for the 2023 draft), Slovakia will try to reach the gold medal game for the first time.

Shane Wright Loaned To Team Canada For World Juniors

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Dec 8: As expected, the Kraken have officially loaned Wright to Team Canada.

Dec 7: Seattle Kraken top prospect Shane Wright is expected to report to Team Canada’s selection camp for the 2023 World Junior Championship tomorrow, per TSN’s Darren Dreger.

When Wright wasn’t named to Canada’s selection camp roster announced Monday, some eyebrows were raised. But Canada could not add him to their roster until the Kraken loaned him there, and after the team’s plan of getting Wright back into a game after his AHL conditioning stint, it appears that’s exactly what Seattle will do.

The 2022 fourth-overall pick scored his first NHL goal last night, making it two points in eight games with the Kraken. Appearing in five games with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds, he sniped four goals in just five games, proving he belongs in professional hockey.

Yet the Kraken don’t have a choice in where they send him long-term this year: it’s either the NHL or juniors, given his age and the NHL-CHL transfer agreement. Given Wright’s limited role on the team, and with Seattle sitting pretty in a playoff spot, it seems Wright is destined to return to junior hockey when the tournament concludes.

Wright joins an offense loaded with talent, including defenseman Brandt Clarke, who was loaned to Team Canada by the Los Angeles Kings just hours ago.

Los Angeles Kings Loan Brandt Clarke To Team Canada

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Finally, Brandt Clarke is getting his chance to play for Team Canada at the World Juniors. After not being named to the roster for the 2022 World Juniors, the Los Angeles Kings have now loaned the 19-year-old to Canada for 2023.

Clarke has not played for the Kings in over a month and was recently recalled from an AHL conditioning stint that allowed him five games in the minors. He’s been a healthy scratch since.

Those scratches haven’t necessarily been because of his play. Clarke is sitting at NHL games on the season – one more would cause his entry-level contract to go into effect. If he doesn’t play another game for LA, his contract will slide to next season.

Head coach Todd McLellan spoke on the team’s decision-making progress with where to assign Clarke moving forward:

Sometimes players get rushed and we don’t want to do that with Clarkie. There’s the hockey part, and then there’s all of the strength and professional habits, practice habits, travel habits and teammate habits that are really important and you don’t always get that at the junior level when you play 38 minutes a night and you stay on the power play for two straight minutes. I’m not saying that’s happening with Clarkie, they’re a very well-run team [in Barrie], but that can happen in certain situations. Right now, we think that this is a real good spot for him and we’ll see where it goes.

The eighth overall pick in 2021, Clarke has a goal and three assists in 14 games split between NHL Los Angeles and AHL Ontario this season. Despite notching over a point-per-game on a subpar Barrie Colts team in the OHL last season, Canada did not name him to their 2022 World Juniors roster.

It didn’t harm them – they won gold anyways. But with several players aging out of the tournament, Canada’s defense seemed weaker than last year’s when their selection camp roster was announced Monday. Clarke’s addition undoubtedly brings this team to an entirely different level and solidifies their status as favorites to win back-to-back gold medals for the first time since they won five straight from 2005 to 2009.

Hockey Canada Reveals 2023 WJC Selection Camp Roster

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With the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championships beginning in three weeks to the day, teams are beginning to prepare for the second version of the tournament in just five months due to COVID. Organizations are already starting to release their first edition of rosters for the tournament, with USA Hockey doing so earlier today. Hockey Canada joined them minutes ago, releasing their list of 29 players invited to their World Junior Championship Selection Camp.

The organization will need to make six cuts before the tournament, but their camp selections are as follows:

F Caedan Bankier – Kamloops, WHL (MIN 86th overall, 2021)
F Owen Beck – Mississauga, OHL (MTL 33rd overall, 2022)
F Connor Bedard – Regina, WHL (2023 draft-eligible)
F Zachary Bolduc – Québec, QMJHL (STL 17th overall, 2021)
F Colton Dach – Kelowna, WHL (CHI 62nd overall, 2021)
F Zach Dean – Gatineau, QMJHL (VGK 30th overall, 2021)
F Jordan Dumais – Halifax, QMJHL (CBJ 96th overall, 2022)
F Adam Fantilli – Michigan, NCAA (2023 draft-eligible)
F Nathan Gaucher – Québec, QMJHL (ANA 22nd overall, 2022)
F Ryan Greene – Boston University, NCAA (CHI 57th overall, 2022)
F Riley Kidney – Acadie-Bathurst, QMJHL (MTL 63rd overall, 2021)
F Zack Ostapchuk – Vancouver, WHL (OTT 39th overall, 2021)
F Brennan Othmann – Peterborough, OHL (NYR 16th overall, 2021)
F Joshua Roy – Sherbrooke, QMJHL (MTL 150th overall, 2021)
F Reid Schaefer – Seattle, WHL (EDM 32nd overall, 2022)
F Logan Stankoven – Kamloops, WHL (DAL 47th overall, 2021)

D Nolan Allan – Seattle, WHL (CHI 32nd overall, 2021)
D Ethan Del Mastro – Mississauga, OHL (CHI 105th overall, 2021)
D Tyson Hinds – Sherbrooke, QMJHL (ANA 76th overall, 2021)
D Kevin Korchinski – Seattle, WHL (CHI 7th overall, 2022)
D Carson Lambos – Winnipeg, WHL (MIN 26th overall, 2021)
D Jack Matier – Ottawa, OHL (NSH 124th overall, 2021)
D Evan Nause – Québec, QMJHL (FLA 56th overall, 2021)
D Ethan Samson – Prince George, WHL (PHI 174th overall, 2021)
D Olen Zellweger – Everett, WHL (ANA 34th overall, 2021)

G Tyler Brennan – Prince George, WHL (NJD 102nd overall, 2022)
G Benjamin Gaudreau – Sarnia, OHL (SJS 81st overall, 2021)
G Thomas Milic – Seattle, WHL (undrafted)
G William Rousseau – Québec, QMJHL (undrafted)

While Shane Wright is noticeably absent from this roster, all it means is that the Kraken have yet to loan him to Team Canada. Wright is eligible to play in the tournament as long as he is loaned to Canada by December 25.

East Notes: Atkinson, Lundell, Bardreau, Lysell

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It appears as if the Flyers could soon have winger Cam Atkinson available as the winger indicated to reporters including NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman (Twitter link) that he has been medically cleared to return to the lineup.  The 33-year-old has yet to play this season due to an upper-body injury and at this point, it appears that simply getting into game-level conditioning is what’s holding him back from making his season debut.  Whenever he does return, Atkinson will be a welcome addition to a Philadelphia team that sits 30th in the NHL in goals scored so far this season as he finished second on the team in scoring in 2021-22 with 50 points in 73 games.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Panthers announced (Twitter link) that center Anton Lundell will not play tonight due to an upper-body injury. This means that once again, Florida will be forced to play short a player as they do not have enough cap space to call anyone up.  While they’d become eligible for a cap-exempt recall after today’s game, Lundell’s absence appears to be a short-term one as he’s expected to play against Winnipeg on Tuesday.  The sophomore middleman has 13 points in 24 games so far this season.
  • Cole Bardreau’s latest stint with the Islanders didn’t last long as the team announced (Twitter link) that the winger has been returned to Bridgeport of the AHL. The 29-year-old did make his season debut last night, his first NHL action since the 2019-20 campaign.  Bardreau, for now at least, returns to the minors where he has nine goals in 19 games with Bridgeport but with Cal Clutterbuck still not skating, it’s possible that Bardreau is brought up again in the coming days.
  • With the World Juniors fast approaching, Sweden has approached the Bruins about winger Fabian Lysell, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal (Twitter link). The 19-year-old is playing with AHL Providence this season and is off to a nice start to his first professional campaign as he sits third on the team with 14 points in 17 games.  While some teams hesitate to loan their players from the NHL, it’d be a little surprising if Boston wasn’t amenable to loaning the 19-year-old for his final opportunity to play in that tournament.

Hockey Canada Names Coaching Staff For 2023 World Juniors

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The 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship is just around the corner, with Canada once again expected to dominate the tournament with what should be a roster full of future stars. Today, Hockey Canada announced their coaching staff for the championship, headlined by Dennis Williams as their head coach.

Hockey Canada also named Stéphane Julien, Brent Kisio, and Alan Letang as assistant coaches, and Kelly Guard as a goaltending consultant.

Williams sees a promotion from last year’s tournament, where he served as an assistant coach under Dave Cameron. The 43-year-old is a two-time WHL Western Conference Coach of the Year winner with the Everett Silvertips and also served as the head coach for Canada’s “Black” team at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in 2018. He was also an assistant coach at the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky U18 tournament.

It’s been quite the coaching ride for Williams, who got his first coaching experience immediately after graduating from Bowling Green University as a graduate assistant in 2002-03. 20 seasons and five leagues later, he gets the call to lead the reigning gold medalists at the top junior tournament in hockey.

Combined success at the World Juniors and as a bench boss in the CHL can often quickly lead to NHL opportunities. It wouldn’t be surprising if Williams found himself on an NHL bench in 2023-24 if Canada can repeat as champions.

Julien, 48, is the head coach of the QMJHL’s Sherbrooke Phoenix and has held the role for the past seven-and-a-half seasons. He was the head coach for Canada at this year’s edition of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which ended just two months ago. It’s his first time joining the coaching staff for the U20 team.

Kisio and Letang return to the Canadian bench at the U20 tournament as assistants, reprising the roles that they held in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Guard’s only previous national team experience came as the goaltending coach for Canada White at the 2021 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

IIHF Releases 2023 World Junior Schedule

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Despite just holding a World Junior tournament a few weeks ago, things are already ramping up toward the next one. The IIHF and Hockey Canada have released the schedule for the 2023 event, which will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick. The tournament begins with Finland and Switzerland doing battle on December 26, while the U.S. and Canada open their tournaments against Latvia and Czechia respectively later that evening.

The two North American squads will not have a New Year’s Day matchup this time around as they are in different groups, with Russia not included this year. The gold medal game will be held on January 5. The full schedule is as follows:

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