The 2022 World Junior Championship was cancelled due to the pandemic encroaching upon the “bubble” (or lack thereof) in Edmonton and Red Deer last December, but the tournament will take a re-set and begin again in Edmonton this August.
The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi took note of the fact that some of the Red Wings’ Swedish prospects (Simon Edvinsson, Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder) will take part in the tournament, and they’re looking forward to the opportunity:
“When I was a little kid, I always wanted to play (in the World Junior Championship),” [Simon] Edvinsson said. “I just played two games, so yeah, that hunger goes a little bit more.”
For Edvinsson, specifically, the World Juniors are a primer for a chaotic couple of months that lie ahead. Yzerman said that he can’t think of a better environment for Edvinsson to prepare for trying to make the Wings’ opening-night roster.
“What a better way to prepare for training camp (than) playing in a highly important tournament, a highly competitive tournament,” Yzerman said. “We’ll just kind of let the whole thing play itself out, but the World Juniors will be a great stepping stone coming into training camp to try and make a good impression and earn a spot on the team.”
[Theodor] Niederbach downplayed the excitement that he had for the tournament, but maybe it’s because it’ll be his second time participating. He had two goals in five games during the 2021 World Juniors, playing between fellow Red Wings prospect Lucas Raymond and another top draft pick, Alexander Holtz (New Jersey Devils).
“I’m just happy to get ready here to be as good as possible,” Niederbach said. “When the tournament starts, you always give all you have, but we haven’t (thought) about it too much. … It’s been a long summer. And then maybe now we start to think about World Juniors.”
