Welcome to the Boxing Day Prospect Ramblings that probably should have been out a little sooner but with the holidays, are we not all behind in anything we need to get done?

Every year a group of friends and I do a draft for the World Junior Championship. These are popping up more on social media, which is good, but the caveat of the one I do is that none are experts (except me, of course) online, but have all done fantasy hockey for a long time, with one person who also just wants to play because he likes it so much.

For all years before this, from whenever we started, the rule of this pool was that it was only six rounds and you had to have four Canadian and two international skaters. Since we are all in Canada, it made sense as you want to cheer for your team to win. This year though, thanks to the recently Canadian collapses, the person who runs it wanted four international skaters as other teams are (thankfully) getting better leading to more times Canada could be out early.

Additional Pool rules:

• You only get points all the way up until the gold medal game, so the bronze game does not get you any points
• You have to have your four Canadian players by the end of round six
• Scoring: 1 G, 1 A, 1 GWG, 1 Shootout GWG

I will just highlight my picks and give any reasoning I can think of as I want to just get this out there ASAP. I picked fourth. I will also post the doc viewing link, just do not get mad at any name spelling mistakes in there as I will fix as I go

T – 1^st overall

Gavin McKenna, CAN

D – 2^nd overall

Tij Iginla, CAN

J – 3^rd overall

Porter Martone, CAN

Me – 4^th overall

Michael Misa, CAN – I did not expect to get Misa but I also was torn between him and Martin. I was torn because getting a player on the 1PP is generally one that will get you more points, so I focus there. Misa is the top C but has not been featured on the 1PP but Martin has. It is a risk but there is still a chance Misa can get on the 1PP

A – 5^th & 6^th overall

Zayne Parekh then Brady Martin, CAN x 2

Me – 7^th overall

Michael Hage, CAN – I saw that he played flank on the 1PP (thanks to Mark Masters) recently, so I hopped on getting him. He is also the 2C and still plays in the top six.

J – 8^th overall

Cole Hutson, USA

D – 9^th overall

Braeden Cootes, CAN

T – 10^th & 11^th overall

Cole Reschny and Jett Luchanko, CAN x 2

D – 12^th overall

EJ Emery, USA

J – 13^th overall

Kashawn Aitcheson, CAN

Me – 14^th overall

Cole Beaudoin, CAN – Beaudoin is tearing it up for Barrie recently and Canada’s third line is still a good scoring line. I also noticed that drafting him gave me the top three Canadian centre’s, which I thought was neat

A – 15^th & 16^th overall

James Hagens and Brodie Ziemer, USA x 2

Me – 17^th overall

Harrison Brunicke, CAN – I always like to wrap up Canada first as if they go to the finals then you tend to get the best of the bunch, if international skaters are drafted earlier. Also, there are a ton of top scoring international players and I can just grab whoever later. This year though, I was really out of the loop on the full international rosters and top players for each team, life hey?

J – 18^th overall

Ivar Stenberg, SWE (could be the best pick of the draft)

D – 19^th overall

Liam Greentree, CAN

T – 20^th & 21^st overall

Sam O’Reilly, CAN, and Cole Eiserman, USA

D – 22^nd overall

Kasper Pikkarainen, FIN

J – 23^rd overall

Cameron Reid, CAN

Me – 24^th overall

Anton Frondell, SWE – He could also be the top player for Sweden and the person picking after me could not pick international skaters anyway. Pretty happy to snag Frondell though!

A – 25^th & 26^th overall

Keaton Verhoeff and Carter Bear, CAN x 2

Me – 27^th overall

Will Horcoff, USA – Top line for USA, top goal scorer in the NCAA, if the USA goes far it is a good pick. Usually, three of the other selectors here load up on the USA and I grab none, so this is different

J – 28^th overall

Ethan MacKenzie, CAN

D – 29^th overall

Ben Danford, CAN

T – 30^th & 31^st overall

Viktor Eklund, SWE and Adam Benak, CZE

D – 32^nd overall

Eric Nilson, SWE

J – 33^rd overall

Max Plante, USA

Me – 34^th overall

Emil Hemming, FIN – So many players still out there. I just figured here that Finland needs players to score and he should be leaned on for that

A – 35^th & 36^th overall

Roope Vesterinen, FIN (was stoked to take Benak here but then panicked and had to pick as I had to leave ASAP) and Adam Novotny, CZE

Me – 37^th overall

Adam Jiricek, CZE – I wanted to pick him as he has been out for both tournaments and will really want to show what he can do. He should be leaned on for 1PP duties, in my mind, and I hope I am not wrong

J – 38^th overall

Petr Sikora, CZE

D – 39^th overall

Blake Fiddler, USA (was cut!) now AJ Spellacy

T – 40^th overall

Teddy Stiga, USA

***

Thanks for reading, let’s hope I win and win some cash, Follow me on Twitter @FHPQuinn

Link here

Pat Quinn