The Red Wings have seven players participating in the World Junior Championship–Theodor Niederbach, Lucas Raymond, Albert Johansson, Gustav Berglund, Elmer Soderblom (all playing for Sweden), Eemil Viro (Finland) and Jan Bednar (Czech Republic).
Today, DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter noted Red Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin’s comments regarding the Wings’ stable of WJC participants:
“For (those) that don’t know, the World Junior Tournament, in my opinion, is the best under-20 tournament in the world,” the Wings’ assistant GM said. “It’s best-on-best competition. It’s an incredibly competitive tournament with lots of players that even have NHL experience all the way down to high-end juniors.”
While many North American players have had extended pauses in their offseason regimens due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Martin noted that most European prospects have been able to continue their training almost uninterrupted, allowing them to develop and get a jumpstart on preparation for the World Junior Championship.
“A lot of these (European) guys have had very few interruptions in their season dating back to when their training camps opened in the late summer, early fall,” Martin said. “They’ve had some delays, but for the most part, a lot of the European leagues have been pretty consistent in getting their games back up and running, dedicating time to practice and (for) development.
“For the European players, I don’t think there’s been as much of an impact in terms of development, but the opportunity to play in this tournament regardless of what the players have been doing for the fall, it’s great experience.”
Merry Christmas to everyone. I watched Viro for 2 periods yesterday. He is #6 for Finland. Observations: no mistakes that I could see, quick movements physically when needed, couldn’t judge overall speed though, saw ice well, quick movement with the puck, good outlet passes, saw him hit someone and lastly saw him fire a snap shot from almost the blueline that had real good speed. He was briefly on the penalty kill. He doesn’t treat the puck like it has COVID. For an 18 year old who was just drafted, the kid has potential. He also is big.