Montreal Canadiens: Cole Caufield Begins World Juniors on Christmas Day

Montreal Canadiens prospect Cole Caufield will begin the World Junior Tournament on Christmas Day.

The Montreal Canadiens have sent some top prospects to the World Junior Hockey Championship over the past few seasons.

We have seen great performances from Ryan Poehling, who was named MVP of the event two years ago. Cayden Primeau was his goaltender and he played exceptional in goal for USA en route to a silver medal.

They lost that gold medal game to Finland in 2019, which had Canadiens prospect Jesse Ylönen playing a third line role while also chipping in on the power play.

None of the Habs prospects were better than Alexander Romanov over the past two events. The Russian left defenceman won the Top Defenceman Award in  2019 and was just as good a last year’s event. He was putting up point per game numbers while shutting things down defensively with solid positioning and thundering body checks.

We don’t know how their prospects will perform at the upcoming event, but we do know it will start on Christmas Day.

It has been tradition over the past 15 years that the World Juniors starts on Boxing Day. However, this season the schedule is a little different because the teams will be competing in a bubble environment in Edmonton, much like the NHL players just did for the postseason.

This means every single game will be played on the Rogers Centre ice surface. So, instead of having four games some days, the tournament will just start a day early and there will never be more than three games in one day.

The first day of action will see Cole Caufield’s USA team take on Russia.

Caufield could be joined by a few fellow Habs prospects on the American squad. Jayden Struble, Luke Tuch and Sean Farrell were all invited to the team’s development camp. Struble has an outside chance at cracking a deep defence core and Tuch would be a smart choice as a physical fourth line winger. Farrell is a smart, creative, playmaker, but the American forwards are extremely deep so it will be tough for a small, skilled forward like Farell to crack the final roster.

There could be a few more Habs prospects taking part, but not as many as we have seen in the past. Alexander Gordin has a chance of making Russia’s team since he was one of the top scorers in their top Junior league last season. But Russia has a plethora of skilled forwards to choose from and Gordin’s sniping ability might not be enough if his skating isn’t up to par with the rest of the team.

Jan Mysak will certainly be there leading an underdog team from Czech Republic. Mysak played at last year’s event, scoring one goal and one assist in five games. The Czech’s have a tough schedule, as they are off on Christmas Day, but then face Sweden, Russia and USA in the next four days. It will be interesting to watch Mysak face that elite competition and see how he handles going head to head with their best players.

The Canadiens first round pick, Kaiden Guhle, has a chance to make Canada’s team. He is a smooth skating and big left defenceman but the country is loaded with skilled defencemen. Guhle won’t be able to steal a roster spot from Bowen Byram or Thomas Harley on the left side, so he will be battling for that final spot. Of course, teams can carry 25 players at this year’s event instead of the usual 23. Still, Guhle might have to wait a year before he gets his chance.

For sure, we are going to see Caufield play a big role for USA and Mysak will do the same for Czech Republic. Gordin’s shot alone gives him a chance to make the Russian team. Tuch makes sense for USA in a depth role. Struble is one of several defencemen who could fill out the lineup for them and Farrell is an option up front but I wouldn’t bet on either making the final team. Guhle could be a depth piece for Canada this year.

It’s not the same star studded Habs prospect group we have seen recently. Two years ago they had Poehling who was the MVP of the tournament, Romanov was voted the best defenceman, and Primeau was arguably the best goaltender that year.

Still, I’ll be excited to watch Caufield and Mysak take on big roles for their countries. I’ll also be excited to see what kind of role Tuch and Guhle can carve out on deep teams. We finally have a schedule for this year’s event and now we start the countdown until Christmas.