World Junior Championship preview: it’s Canada’s tournament to lose, but USA, Sweden, Russia, and Finland will try to steal the gold

First, Max and Corey preview the World Junior Championship and discuss Team Canada as the tournament’s significant favorite, boasting a roster with star power and depth at all positions, featuring Shane Wright, Owen Power, Dylan Guenther, and Sebastian Cossa, Team USA’s path to victory beginning and ending with Luke Hughes and Jake Sanderson playing at their highest levels on both sides of the puck, the need for offense from Matty Beniers, Brett Berard, and Matthew Coronato, the pressure on Drew Commesso in goal, and more.

Then, the guys talk about the three other teams with a chance to damage Canada’s gold medal hopes, Sweden, Russia, and to a lesser extent Finland, and discuss the ability of Team Russia’s Yaroslav Askarov to steal games in net, Team Sweden’s impressive top line of William Eklund, Alexander Holtz, Oskar Olausson, and make their picks for the medalists and tournament all-stars.

Plus, to close things out, the guys answer listener questions about Brennan Othmann’s draft year plus one season so far, if Winnipeg Jets prospect Dmitri Rashevsky is for real, looking back, who to draft first: Jake Sanderson or Jamie Drysdale, if the New Jersey Devils have any chance of turning their season around, how someone new to prospects can get caught up to speed, any 2023 draft eligible defensemen looking exceptional this far out, and how Alex Turcotte is doing for the Los Angles Kings.

And, right now, you can sign up for an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow

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