Prospect Avenue Ep. 14: The Kulich show goes worldwide

Prospect Avenue Ep. 14: The Kulich show goes worldwide

Hey everyone all right welcome back to another episode of the world famous Prospect Avenue podcast I am your host Chris Baker here in the bunker in lovely Hamburg New York happy holidays Merry Christmas it is presently Christmas Eve morning which means in just under 48 hours from now the 2024 IIHF world

Junior Championship will be kicking off over in gothenberg Sweden the Sabres will have seven prospects in total participating at the event thought we’d get together real quick and uh provide an update a little bit of a followup to last week’s World Junior preview episode of this podcast now that

We’ve seen an awesome week of pre-tournament action we can now refine and provide uh additional updates on what to expect from the seven sabers prospects that will be participating at the world juniors this year and I think we’ll just Dive Right In This is not

Going to be a very long podcast I say that every week I generally go over the the a lotted time I had in my mind but needless to say I just there’s not a ton of action to get to this week so we’ll dive into the seven sabers prospects

That are going to be at the tournament as well as we’ll end with a couple tidbits on a few other um newsworthy notes from a couple Sabers prospects that won’t be at the world juniors but again let’s just Dive Right In Sabers are going to have five prospects

Participating in group a and another two in Group B group a will be comprised of Canada Finland Sweden lva in Germany Group B will’ll have the USA czechia Slovakia Norway and Switzerland and we might as well start in let’s start in group b let’s do it backwards shall we um because probably

One of the biggest guns in this entire tournament will be in group b and that’s Yuri Kulik who is going to lead the way for czechia Kulik at the time that he left Rochester to head overseas was leading the entire American Hockey League with 16 goals he

Has since been caught by the way two other players caught him uh last night on Saturday and I think also on no on Saturday yeah two other guys caught him so now there’s a three-way lead at the top of the AHL leaderboard with 16 goals

But C’s one of them for sure and he’s just goingon to have a huge tournament I don’t think there’s any question I don’t want to repeat everything that I said last week but this is not a hockey development move this is a human being development move they want him to go

Back put on that check sweater lead the way for his country take on that leadership responsibility and then come back to Rochester and hopefully use the experience as a springboard into the second half of his AHL season that’s what happened last year they’re hoping for history to repeat itself in terms of

History repeating itself though Kulik had seven goals and seven games last year at the world juniors this will be his third world junior champion championship by the way so a lot of experience coming in knows what to expect he’s going to have some familiar line mates with mattius shapovalov

Edward shaa that unit was together last year shouldering a huge even strength load and power play load for the checks they’re expected to be the top line again this year but after having seven goals last year and he had nine goals in I want to say six games at the 20 22 under

18s how many goals can kig score this year he could lead the tournament in scoring I don’t think there’s any question about it I was out at dinner last night and I was just commenting on how this is going to be a fun tournament and I I actually

Hinted in that tweet that I think kie can score 10 goals in this tournament it’s possible he’s going to get the power play time for sure he’s got the cannon they’re just going to feed him pucks I I think I said over under 10 that means I’m actually putting the

Baseline at 10 I mean again he had nine at the under 18s and he’s coming in being the leading scorer in one of the best professional leagues on the planet I don’t see any reason why he can’t score 10 goals this year at the world junior so I guess we’ll see how that

Goes but gonna be really excited um you know not a cakewalk in group b the slovaks are going to be pretty strong this year and we’ll talk about them in a second and of course USA is stacked um I don’t think czechia will have too much trouble with Norway or Switzerland but

Again strange things happen at the world juniors you never know needless to say though Kulik is set to have himself a huge statistical event and we will see how that shakes out another player that will be playing in his third world junior Championship is Maxim stach strong sturdy right-handed defenseman stb

Comes into the event um coming off a nice first half of his freshman season at Michigan State where he’s had a goal and four assists we’ve liked what we’ve seen from sturb kind of a middle and bottom pair guy he’s like a 45d there as a freshman

With the Spartans um but look I I think that this is a player that Sabers fans should get familiar with pretty quickly um he’s going to be an NHL player I don’t have any doubt in my mind when you see him at Michigan State he’s very sure-handed he plays a

Safe kind of conservative game gets his shots through from the point but he’s defense first he protects his net front he works really hard and uses his body well beneath the goal line and wins Puck battles um plays the body and I saw two of his pre-tournament games for the

Slovaks this week they opened up against Finland and then they played against the Germans really high-scoring Affair which sarbach had a goal and three assists I’m actually going to throw that goal up for those watching on YouTube and he’s just excellent at this level at the under 20 level um this is clearly

Their Workhorse they don’t have uh Simon nemis so you know sturb GNA be the guy that’s gonna be leading the way for the slox at this tournament number one even strength minutes Number One PP minutes number one PK minutes he is going to get a ton of ice time no doubt about

It but I like the way that he shines more in his well-rounded game at the under 20 Level again playing against older competition and still adjusting to the NCAA ranks you kind of don’t get to see his total game that we’re going to see here at the under 20 Level he’s a

Little more ambitious carrying the puck he’s going to take more chances jumping into the attack because they’re going to need him to for the slox so he’s going to be out there a ton Sabers fans seriously let’s make it a point to get familiar with sturb um I’m not really

Calling the shot or kind of going way out of my way to say it I’m just very very confident that this is an NHL player if you think about what has ailed the Sabers at the NHL level the past couple of years in terms of just Own Zone

Steadiness playing tough and being very sacrificial of your body for the betterment of the team that’s what you get out of that warrior-like mentality of a maxim stach really excited for fans to see him kind of play at both ends of the ice her at the world junior

Championship a goal and three assists in that game against the Germans he was all over the ice and they they weren’t like really flashy plays it was just a non-nonsense game that led to production a lot of it was just getting shots through um from the point or working the

Top of the power play and kicking the puck to open men down low to start plays and make things Happ happen so I love stbox game right-handed defenseman he’s going to be a Workhorse in the next couple of weeks here at the world junior Championship all right that’s Group B

Now let’s go over to group a Canada let’s start there with the Matthew seavoy scored a pair of goals in the two games that I was able to see Canada played three pre-tournament games and uh we didn’t get to see their first one against Denmark but we did see

Their game against Switzerland and then their game Saturday against the Americans seavo came out and had a goal in each of those last two games against Switzerland and the Americans but speed and shiftiness it stands out seavoy has had a lot of jump in his step here uh at

This level he should be expected to shine his skill set especially on the big ice that the world junior is going to be played again uh played on it’s really set up for seavo to have himself a nice tournament here so in the games that I was able to see he was handcuffed

As a right winger handcuffed to Matthew Patra who the Bruins let go for this tournament so ptra at Center seavoy at right wing and they’ve been moving some Wingers the left wing in and out in the game against Switzerland they had uh Connor geeki who was an Arizona pick and

A teammate of seavo with wachi in the Western League uh they moved geeki off that line for the game against the Americans inserted Easton Cowan very fast effort player plays for the London Knights he was a late first rounder by torono in the 2023 draft I have a

Feeling they’re going to go at that Cowen Patra seavoy line when the tournament opens on the 26 but really you know Canada has a nice balanced lineup seavoy could in certain situations get some secondary PK time but he’s going to be mostly loaded up with a lot of even strength minutes and

A lot of pp time and I think this all sets up well for him to have a really nice tournament I mentioned last week on the world junior preview that I think goal tending is what’s going to make or break Canada’s ability to be well positioned coming out of group play um

Again group a is Canada Finland Sweden Germany and lvia and Canada Finland Sweden those top three it can go any order so it’s is going to be really really interesting uh but they’re going to need seavoy and they’re going to need the goal tending if they’re going to be positioned really

Well which leads me to Scott ratl so ratl came in if you recall we talked about the mission was just getting him on the team and then really having him position for the 2025 World Juniors but the door would not be closed on him getting minutes at this

Tournament right now I’m not convinced that Canada’s goal tending situation is settled Mattis rouso looks like like the guy they’re going to lean on when the Tournament begins on the 26th he got the start against Switzerland and then the idea was to get St hair and and Scott

Ratz left to split the game against the Americans but after rouso had kind of an up and down game against the Swiss they wanted to get him some more touches and have more pucks hit him so they gave him the start he played the front half of that game against the Americans before

Um he he split the game with st hair so ratl didn’t get in to those final two uh tuneups but again the door is open for him to come in depending on what happens with rouso we’ll see how it goes but right now it looks like Scott ratl is

GNA have to wait his turn if he is going to get any minutes in this tournament for Team Canada all right let’s talk about the host Sweden and we’re going to begin uh the Swedish discussion with Noah osen because he’s been kind of running in the show on their top even strength and

Power play units osen returned to action after missing a month so as I mentioned previously osen suffered a concussion in mid November in a game against lyncha ping he missed about a month with VCA was cleared to join Sweden’s under 20 camp and he just looks so crisp and

Sharp in his return scored a really nice sharp angle goal in a pre-tournament game against Switzerland and then he came out in their next game and made a beline To the Left Post and buried a nice saucer pass from Jonathan leaki for his second goal in his many games he

Looks good he looks ready to go full 200 foot player very responsible good on faceoffs really good details love his Pace just really crisp and clean in his execution um so I mentioned that osan’s been playing on a line with air bro forward Jonathan leer Maki at rightwing on the

Left wing is osan’s fellow Sabers Prospect Anton Wahlberg so Wahlberg picked up one assist in those two pre-tournament games um big body I like the blend of the skill sets there so in terms of offensive creativity leaki and oseland they know each other very well they were Junior teammates they played a little

Bit together um last year at this tournament but they also were very good at the under 18s together two years ago those guys know each other blending in Wahlberg is more of a big power forward that can win board battles work the corners be a big body in that center

Lane wahre has an excellent slot presence I like the blend of skill sets so putting a little power in there with that speed and skill makes a lot of sense in terms of Sweden’s roster construction and I think it’s great for future chemistry too to have Ain and Wahlberg as Sabers prospects playing

Together here at the world juniors Sweden so shl games are crazy and by the way osin and Wahlberg are the only two Junior aged forwards in the shl to average more than 16 minutes a game this year and I think that’s kind of important because they earned their way

Into a big role with Sweden’s World Junior Team by virtue of how well they’ve played at the professional level this year worth mentioning um but where I was going before and talk about the shl was to talk about the environment the shl fans are into it chanting all

Game very cool fun environment Sweden’s games again Sweden’s playing on home I at World Juniors I think it’s gonna be really um amazing crowd it’s gonna provide that team some extra juice and they’re gonna be a tough out I love that group with Canada and Finland um it can

Go any way I love the sweds lineup though I think they have some really talented defensemen they have enough depth there I think to make things happen so really excited to see Wahlberg and osen play together hopefully they can stick together throughout the entire tournament this would be great

Experience especially for Anton Wahlberg osen had a goal and three assists last year at the world juniors so he knows what this event is all about um I think he’s going to be a major major player at this under 20 Level here in the next couple the weeks I’m really excited to

See what he’s able to do and lastly in group a the the German club they had their Final Cuts made on Saturday as expected left-handed defenseman Norwin panaka who’s been playing in the queue with shikami this year he has 11 assists thus far as expected panaka did make

Germany’s team he is one of uh six 2005 born players on Germany’s 23 man roster and one of two 2005 born defenseman of their seven so he’s their second youngest defenseman he’s not going to be relied upon too much they have a veteran team for sure right now the expectation is he

He plays bottom pair minutes just play a safe and effective game he looked okay in the work that I saw him put in against Slovakia so I I like where he’s uh he’s set up again this is another kind of like with RL I think this is

Another move get him on the team this year get him some experience don’t overexpose him and um it sets him up really well as long as Germany doesn’t get relegated to play a bigger role at the 2025 World Juniors but they have some pretty experienced players to rely

Upon in the critical situations now it would be a great situation if panaka could work his way up into a critical role at this tournament but I’m not really expecting it from him I think they’re going to ease his way in and break off uh chunks of responsibility

And see what they can throw at him as the tournament goes on other than that though um I think that’s it it’s gonna be a really exciting tournament and just wanted to end this podcast this week with some news and notes but before we do if you could please I should have

Mentioned this at the top and I didn’t uh like the video subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already and on Apple and Spotify if you could leave a fstar review for Prospect Avenue it helps you can say whatever you want about me in the comments I don’t care as

Long as you leave a five- star review um greatly appreciate all the downloads of this podcast I mention it every week but I can’t say it enough um trying to make this a success and the feedback that you provide with five star reviews and likes on the YouTube videos helps take this

Thing to the next level so again thanks for stopping by as you do every week truly appreciated um just want to end this week with a couple other news and notes on some of the other guys abroad might as well go over to Russia real quick and talk about our buddy proor

Potapov potapov picked up one assist in three games as the Russian under 25 team was able to win the Channel One Cup channel one cup look I mean this event didn’t have a lot of luster Kazakhstan and bellarus are not very strong clubs China they notified the Russian Hockey

Federation that they weren’t allowing their athletes to fly into Russia just like a week and a half before the tournament so Russia had to scramble and put together another team but p topov uh got some nice experience regardless he uh made a nice cross- siiz pass to old

Pal vile glov for an assist and his only point in the three appearances that he made for the u25 team but yeah he’s come back um played some decent minutes here in a fourth line role in the three games for cesa since ruring for the under

25 um team but either way um he’s having a decent season you know know we set benchmarks for potapov this year of 10 goals and 20 points he’s halfway through the season and he has five goals and five assists so he’s kind of right on

Pace for what we wanted out of him this year you know the hottest Prospect in the sabes ranks right now not Nam Matthew seavoy and Yuri Kulik or isach rosan like the obvious ones it might be yakob Kenne um Kenne got off the schneide a couple weeks ago with an

Empty net goal for Sparta Prague and this was a player who had has um he now has six points in his last 10 games he had just one assist in his first 16 games this season so now he has three goals and three assists in his last 10

Games his rights expire in June of 2024 you know he’s one of those Never Say Never prospects I’m not sure he’s done enough to get a contract but needless to say look this is a player that I’ve always liked watching he has a lot of energy um he just has a lot of

Fun playing the game always has a smile on on his face so for him personally it’s nice to see him get off the schneide with that empty net a couple weeks ago and just it seemingly has brought confidence to his game and he’s now producing in that bottom line role

For a very good and Veteran Laden Sparta Prague Club um and then lastly I think before we get out of here I just wanted to follow up on topus lanan and so lanan of course disappointed that he was unable to make finland’s under 20 team for the world junior

Championship and now kind of wondering what’s next for him so juula um jyp they just fired their coach on uh earlier this week and lanin hasn’t played a game since November 28th he’s been kind of stuck behind vayy venan talked about it at nauseum on this

Podcast vanie V Alan’s one of the the top goalies one of the top starters he has that job it’s all his and it’s very hard for lanan and to get looks and this is a player that needs to see some shots to develop coming off that lengthy

Injury that he had to start the season so his last game was November 28th it was a li of start it didn’t go very well he played 43 minutes before getting the hook against ilves taree and just trying to figure out you know what this new coaching staff is going to mean for

Lanan in’s development we’re going to be coming up now on almost a month between starts here um jyp is going to come off the C break they have games on the 26th and another one on the 28th then I think they play one more before the new year

And then I think they have another game like January 3D something like that so they have some games coming up hopefully lanan and can pull one of those starts down but if not just wondering uh what the situation could be will they loan him to aesus team will they bump him

Down to aescula under 20 Squad to get him some Junior starts um I guess we’ll have to kind of watch and see what happens there but getting a little itchy for me you know this is a player again he needs to see some game action to develop I don’t

Care if it’s at the under 20 Squad at this point and I I just keep going back to that thought of what could have been had the Sabres had their way and got Lan in over to play in the CHL this year look that’s not confirmed but knowing

How the knowing how a lot of these NHL teams operate especially with goenda wanted him to come over and play in the qmj but um needless say just wanted to put a mention there we’re going on a month here and we need to get him some action

So more to come on that other than that guys that’s it um we’ve gone over 20 minutes kept it under 30 though which is kind of good but uh I really uh again I truly appreciate everyone stopping by on YouTube and downloading Prospect Avenue every week it’s really fun for me to do

This podcast love the engagement that I have when I do the live shows with Matthew Fairburn on the baker Fairburn hockey show Matthew uh recently welcomed the second child into his family and uh we were giving him a little break here he’ll be back after the new year and

We’ll get the baker Fairburn hockey show going as well and get that live chat fired up that is such a fun thing for Matthew and I to do but um I I hope everyone has a very happy holiday uh you get to spend some time with your family

And just enjoy it and come back clear a little area uh in front of that TV for the world juniors because it’s going to be a wild wild ride here especially that group play those games are going to be coming every morning and early afternoon seven sabers prospects will be in action

And we will be recapping all of that action right here on Prospect Avenue so looking forward to seeing you then Merry Christmas we’ll see you soon

In his “best and final” 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship preview, Kris Baker recaps the week’s pre-tournament action and let’s us know what to expect from the seven Buffalo Sabres prospects that will be in action:

How many goals can Jiri Kulich score for Czechia?
No rest for Maxim Strbak.
Matthew Savoie seems poised to make noise for Canada.
Will Noah Ostlund and Anton Wahlberg become Swedish linemates?
Norwin Panocha’s role for the Germans.

Plus some quick hits on Prokhor Poltapov, Jakub Konecny, and Topias Leinonen.

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Happy Holidays from Sabres Prospects!