The New York Rangers sent seven prospects to the World Junior Championships. Three of those prospects are heading home with a gold medal and another with a silver.
Saturday night Team Canada captured their 19th World Junior Championship. Beating Team Finland by a final score of 3-2 in a thrilling overtime win. Canada was led by Rangers top goalie prospect Dylan Garand who went a perfect 6-0 in the tournament and made 29 saves in the gold medal game. Garand was joined by Rangers prospects Brennan Othmann and Will Cuylle on Team Canada. Let’s take a look at how all seven players performed in the tournament.
Dylan Garand- Team Canada (6-0, 1.98 GAA, .925 SV%)
Dylan Garand and Team Canada beat Slovakia 11-1 last night. The Rangers goalie prospect made 22 saves in the win. Check out some of his highlights from the game below and listen to our interview with his goalie coach @ddepalma1!https://t.co/jYVEa7cp95#WorldJuniors #NYR #WJC2022 pic.twitter.com/SMAiF0EmBx
— The Broadway Hat Podcast (@Broadwayhatpod) August 12, 2022
Dylan Garand was outstanding for Canada. Garand went a perfect 6-0 in the tournament and his 148 saves were the most of any goalie. Coming off a great season with the Kamloops Blazers and winning the CHL Goaltender of the Year award Garand took that momentum into the tournament. Right before the tournament, I sat down with Garand’s Kamloops goalie coach Dan De Palma on The Broadway Hat Podcast to talk about the young goalie.
Brennan Othmann- Team Canada (2 Goals, 4 Assists, 6 Points, 2 PIMs)
Brennan Othmann with a big hit ?#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/YxiH5iKnPt
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 18, 2022
Othmann had a great tournament for Team Canada. The Rangers first-round draft pick showed that he can score at the highest level and bring his physical style of play along with it. Othmann had some of the biggest hits of anyone in the tournament while averaging a point per game.
Will Cuylle- Team Canada (2 Goals, 2 Assists, 4 Points, 25 PIMs)
Will Cuylle adds to Canada's lead #WorldJuniors
— Elite Prospects (@eliteprospects) August 18, 2022
?: https://t.co/EuteaRzSR8pic.twitter.com/qLGnPkMqji
Cuylle scored a couple of real nice goals for Team Canada, helping them capture gold. His best highlight might have been the pass he made to set up future Rangers teammate Brennan Othmann for a goal. Cuylle played more of a bottom 6 role for Canada, a role he might need to adapt with the Rangers if he wants to possibly crack the Rangers lineup this season.
Kalle Vaisanen- Team Finland (1 Goal, 1 Assist, 2 Points, 0 PIM)
Lucky number 7 for @leijonat! A broken stick leads to a rebound by Kalle Vaisanen#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/kLbj7zWEXs
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) August 14, 2022
Vaisanen and Team Finland came inches away from bringing home gold. Vaisanen had a nice assist in the gold medal game to help the 3rd-period Finnish comeback, but they came up short in OT. Kalle had a solid tournament and played well in both the offensive and defensive zones.
Brett Berard- Team USA (1 Goal, 0 Assists, 1 Point, 29 PIMs)
Jammed it home! #WorldJuniors ?? pic.twitter.com/uVEngr1XCT
— USA Hockey (@usahockey) August 15, 2022
It was a disappointing tournament for both Berard and Team USA. Coming into the tournament as the defending champions, the Americans were upset in the opening knockout round by Czechia. Bedard managed to only produce 1 point in 5 games after putting up 5 points in last year’s tournament. Bedard also took a terrible penalty in the loss to Czechia that led to a 5-minute major and a game misconduct.
Adam Sykora- Team Slovakia (1 Goal, 0 Assists, 1 Point, 27 PIMs)
Adam Sykora. ?#FutureBlue pic.twitter.com/16MtGtnAXr
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) August 13, 2022
The Rangers 2022 2nd Round pick did not have a great tournament. In 4 games he managed to only put 5 shots on the net but did have a nice highlight reel goal. He did pick up a game misconduct penalty for a knee-to-knee hit against Finland which hurt Slovakia’s chances. He is still only 17 so will see him in this tournament next winter.
Jaroslav Chmelar- Team Czechia (1 Goal, 0 Assists, 1 Point, 25 PIMs)
Bad angle? No problem for Jaroslav Chmelar ?
— Elite Prospects (@eliteprospects) August 11, 2022
The Czech forward beats Leevi Meriläinen to give his team a 1-0 lead! #WorldJuniors
?: https://t.co/UXgsmvOek6
pic.twitter.com/Dp2IpNVhdH
Chmelar was limited to just 3 games after suffering a shoulder injury early in the tournament. Czechia did pull off the upset of the tournament, eliminating Team USA in the opening round of the knockout stage. The 6’4 winger showed his physical style of play laying some big hits in the tournament. His aggressive play also led to a game misconduct when he hit fellow Rangers prospect Brennan Othmann from behind.
dirty hit here from jaroslav chmelar on brennan othmann. canada's off to a five-minute powerplay as chmelar gets called for a boarding and is given a game misconduct. pic.twitter.com/9JMdpQwptS
— zach laing (@zjlaing) August 13, 2022
Future Blue
It was great to see all these Rangers prospects play on the biggest junior hockey stage at the World Junior Championships. The prospects did set a dubious record of the most game misconducts by a team in a championship, with 4 players picking up match penalties. Maybe they wanted to showcase a hard-nosed side to their game for Chris Drury. We are now just a couple of weeks from Rangers training camp and 50 days until the season opener!
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