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World Juniors Special 2024
Get everything you need to know about the 2024 World Junior Championship with our annual preview edition! Inside, you'll find scouting reports for each country and features on key players to watch. Also in the issue: stories on Pettersson, Rantanen, Hintz, Byfield, Bratt, Necas, Karlsson, Zuccarello, Spooner, Flanagan and more, plus an early look at the 2024 free-agent class.
GETTING BETTER WITH AGE
MATS ZUCCARELLO WILL always be linked to the New York Rangers. That’s the team he’s suited up for the most in the NHL – more than 500 games plus the playoffs, including a run to the Stanley Cup final in 2014 – and he is still greeted by enthusiastic chants of his ‘Zucc’ nickname by Rangers fans whenever he returns to Madison Square Garden. But what he’s accomplishing in Minnesota is becoming a memorable chapter in his career because he’s playing some of his best hockey with the Wild. “This is where I’ve been for four years and had a great time,” Zuccarello said. “Not just on the ice but off the ice as well with your teammates. Just being in Minnesota, I really enjoy it.” Zuccarello joined the Wild in 2019, signing…
RANTANEN AND RAVING
“HI, IT’S MIKKO. Sorry for calling you on Thanksgiving. I know I was supposed to call you a couple of times. Sorry about that…” He apparently isn’t aware that Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in the middle of October and not late November, but that’s cool. And understandable. What sticks with you is how there are absolutely no airs, no sense that the receiver of the call should be honored that an NHL (super?) star would even consider ringing him back. Yeah, Mikko Rantanen is like that. Even for a country that produces some of the most down-to-earth people in the world, Rantanen stands out. He’s definitely not quiet and reserved, and he speaks easily, though not quite on a Teemu Selanne/Patrik Laine level. But there is a refreshing lack of self-importance surrounding…
USA HOCKEY IS NO. 1
I REMEMBER THE DAYS WHEN 80 percent of NHL players were Canadian. When my dad gloated over his Boston Bruins’ rare wins over the Montreal Canadiens and Bobby Orr being better than anyone in the Habs’ lineup, my only recourse was to remind him that No. 4 was Canadian. I also used the same comeback when my brother would beam about his Chicago Black Hawks and Bobby Hull. Hockey was Canada’s game, and we dominated in so many ways, including the number of Canadians on the rosters of every NHL team. That was then, and, eventually, it will not be the case if you look at the numbers. For the first time in the history of tracking registered hockey players in every member country of the International Ice Hockey Federation, in 2022,…
GOODBYE BOSTON, HELLO TORONTO
KALI FLANAGAN IS LOOKING for more than a cup of coffee in the PWHL. The 28-year-old blueliner is looking to build a career in North America’s new league. While the Massachusetts native and Boston Pride alum thought she’d be staying in her hometown, she’s instead set to embark on a new adventure in Toronto. After playing her youth, collegiate and pro hockey to date in Boston, Flanagan was drafted in the sixth round (35th overall) by Toronto, and in the blink of an eye, everything changed. Fast-forward through real-estate agents, contract negotiations and goodbyes with friends and family, and Flanagan is set to claim her place in the hearts of Toronto fans the only way she knows how – with her wheels. “What I’ve always tried to bring is my speed,” Flanagan…
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