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2016 NHL Draft: World Juniors – Day 1

By Max Marko |

HELSINKI, FINLAND – DECEMBER 26: Simon Stransky #11 of the Czech Republic and Russia’s Yevgeni Svechnikov #7 battle for the puck during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)

2016 NHL Draft:  Summary Wrap-Up of Day One Action at WJC

Throughout the 2016 World Juniors Championship, I will be tracking all players that are eligible for the 2016 NHL Draft for the first time in June, playing in the tournament. The preliminaries began on December 26th and the gold medal game is on January 5th. 

Day one of the 2016 World Junior Championship began today as the world watches the greatest young prospects playing the game.

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Russia 2 vs Czech Republic 1 (SO)

The first game on the day featured Russia up against the Czech Republic. A matchup of two rather underwhelming teams that should have really been a blowout, but wasn’t.

Russia won the game in the shootout 2-1. Vitek Vanecek had a very good game in net for the Czech Republic, but Russia had a very poor game in terms of passing in the offensive zone and setting up plays.

Michael Spacek scored for the Czech Republic and Artur Lauta scored late in the 3rd for Russia.

The draft eligible players playing in the game were Filip Hronek, Simon Stransky, and Tomas Soustal for the Czech Republic. For Team Russia, Yegor Korshkov and Alexander Polunin are eligible for the 2016 NHL Draft for the first time in June.

The best draft eligible on the ice this game had to be Alexander Polunin. Even though he missed a wide open net by a good eight feet, he still was in a position to score or make a play. Polunin made some pretty good passes as well.

Tomas Soustal was the Czech’s best draft eligible. An argument could be made for Simon Stransky, but Soustal was a better all-around player in this particular game.

Yegor Korshkov made his mark by taking a hit from behind by Boston Bruins prospect Jakub Zboril. Zboril was ejected and given a five-minute major.

Sweden 8 vs Switzerland 3

Sweden versus Switzerland was a much better game to watch in terms of draft eligible players having an impact in the game.

This matchup saw Carl Grundstrom, Rasmus Asplund and Alex Nylander of Sweden gang up on Calvin Thurkauf of Switzerland. Team Sweden has a much more well-rounded team and it showed in their 8-3 win over the Swiss.

Alex Nylander had a helper on his brother’s and Sweden’s first of the game, but the brother-brother connection would be short-lived when William was taken out of the game by a hit from Chirs Egli.

Alex would still go on to rack up 2 more assists on the day and showed some amazing chemistry with Maple Leafs prospect Dmytro Timashov.

Rasmus Asplund had quite the day as well. Asplund plays in Sweden and is used to the larger ice surface, which may explain the long distance goal he had from the high slot.

Carl Grundstrom finished the day with one shot on goal, which is surprising considering how deep the success came during this game.

Swiss forward Calvin Thurkauf made his mark by taking Adrian Kempe out of the game. The Los Angeles Kings prospect was hit up high and left the game.

Thurkauf was given a one-game suspension by he IIHF; however, he was not penalized on the play.

Belarus 0 vs Finland 6

Belarus was the only team in the tournament to not have any player eligible for the 2016 NHL Draft on the team. Finland has three on the roster and the trio consists of three potential top 10 picks.

Jesse Puljujärvi, Patrik Laine, and Olli Juolevi all play for the Fins and each had a major impact on the outcome of this hockey game.

All the offense came in the third period, but the first goal of the game was from Jesse Puljujärvi on a nice half-breakaway side to side move.

Then in the third, things came alive. Finland took a 2-0 lead from a complete 2016 NHL Draft goal. Patrik Laine from Jesse Puljujärvi and Olli Juolevi. Then Finland added onto their lead when Puljujärvi scored with an assist to Juolevi.

All three played tremendous games and showed why they are considered top draft prospects this year. Both the wingers and the defenseman are big bodies that can hold their own and they gave great examples of that throughout the game.

USA 4 vs Canada 2

This game was also great to watch if you are a fan of the NHL Draft, but it could have been much better.

Alex DeBrincat got things started with a spearing penalty on Canada’s Travis Konecny which led to a game misconduct for the 1st round hopeful. The penalty was a retaliation penalty which made matters worse for DeBrincat.

Canada was unsuccessful on that power play but still held momentum going into the 2nd period. The Canadians solved Alex Nedeljkovic off of a Mathew Barzal goal. The goal was set up by a great pass from 2016 draft prospect, Julien Gauthier. Gauthier made the team out of camp and has impressed many thus far.

Zach Werenski’s go-ahead goal on the power play was set up by two draft eligibles in Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews. Tkachuk had an assist on Matthews’ goal to make the game 4-2, but he played very average-like. He did nothing to stand out from the rest of the pack of draft prospects like he had been doing all year.

It was quite an eventful day for NHL Draft hopefuls during the first day of the 2016 World Junior Championship. Sunday things die down a bit as only 5 total draft eligibles are playing.

Next: Bruins Loan David Pastrnak for WJC

Here are the stats for all 2016 NHL Draft-eligible players:

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