The World Junior Hockey Championships are approaching, and the Montreal Canadiens will have three prospects taking part at the tournament.
With the calendars turning to December, the World Junior Hockey Championships are right around the corner. Every year, current and future prospects of NHL teams battle it out for their nation to take home gold medals. Some fans only watch for the thrill of younger players competing on such a grand scale, while others, including the Montreal Canadiens, use the event as a time for evaluation.
The Habs have three prospects who will be playing in the tournament in British Columbia: Nick Suzuki, Josh Brook, and Jesse Ylonen.
Montreal originally acquired Suzuki along with Tomas Tatar from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Max Pacioretty. He stood out amongst the other youngsters and training camp but was sent down for another year in the OHL. Since then, Suzuki has been on an offensive tear putting up 20 goals and 21 assists in 27 games as a 19-year-old.
Brook is another Habs prospect who is having a strong year in junior. The 2017 third-round pick is controlling play from both ends of the ice using his skating and hockey awareness to defend and contribute offensively with 8 goals and 21 assists.
Ylonen has fit in nicely on the Pelicans since making his Liiga debut. The 2018 second-round pick has 5 goals and 3 assists in 26 contests and is keeping up amongst the older players in the league.
It’s good news for the Montreal Canadiens to have three prospects playing in the World Juniors (two for Canada and one for Finland). There could’ve been a possibility of a fourth and fifth with Jesperi Kotkanimi and Joni Ikonen, but current circumstances have taken that off the table. Kotkaniemi is where he needs to be in the NHL while Ikonen has yet to play a game with KalPa this season as he’s still recovering from an injury over the summer.
It’ll be interesting to see the storylines that occur from these three prospects. Perhaps they give Habs fans, even more, to be excited about.