Montreal Canadiens: Oliver Kapanen, Petteri Nurmi On Finland’s World Junior Roster

The Montreal Canadiens have several high profile prospects who will elect not to play in the upcoming summer World Junior tournament. The event is always played around the holidays, but the 2022 tournament was postponed due to Covid outbreaks.

Now, it will be played from August 9th – 20th in Edmonton, but it will be without some of the Habs best prospects. Both Juraj Slafkovsky and Filip Mesar were taken in the first round of the 2022 NHL Draft, and both were left off the World Junior roster for Slovakia.

The pair of young players are getting ready for their first pro seasons in North America, and the Canadiens encouraged them not to start their season in early August since it will be a long enough year already.

Even Vinzenz Rohrer, a third round pick who is heading back to the Ontario Hockey League for his second Junior season, is sitting out the tournament. His country, Austria, is short on elite talent so a third round NHL pick would have played a huge role. Unfortunately for them. Rohrer will not attend, though he will likely play in the 2023 tournament in December and January.

We still don’t know who will play for Canada. Is Kaiden Guhle going to play or sit out like Slafkovsky and Mesar? Are Joshua Roy and Riley Kidney going to make the team for next month’s event or just in 2023, or neither? Who knows. Hockey Canada is a little busy dealing with sexual abuse lawsuits these days so they have been quiet on roster announcements.

It was announced earlier this summer that Jan Mysak will play in the event for Czechia. Finally, Finland announced their roster as well and it features two Canadiens prospects.

Oliver Kapanen was a third line centre for Finland when the event first began back in December. He was a second round pick of the Canadiens in the 2021 NHL Draft, and he will return to suit up in Edmonton in a couple of weeks.

He had four points in 18 Liiga games last season, but put up 15 points in 11 Under-20 games showing a bit of a scoring touch against players his own age.

Also on Team Finland is defenceman Petteri Nurmi. He was the Canadiens 7th round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. The 6’0 and 168 pound left defenceman had four points in 58 Liiga games last season as a shutdown teenaged defender in a pro league.

That puts Mysak, Kapanen and Nurmi in the tournament while we wait to hear from Canada and the United States. Blake Biondi, Luke Tuch and Lane Hutson are trying out for the American team, but they have not yet published their final roster.

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