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World Juniors Special 2025
In this issue of The Hockey News, we feature wall-to-wall coverage of the 2025 World Junior Championship, complete with previews of all 10 teams plus some of the most prominent players involved. Also in this issue, we shine the spotlight on San Jose's Tyler Toffoli, Philadelphia's Travis Konecny and a team from Haida Gwaii that really goes the extra mile.
TRY TO STAY POSITIVE
THE BAD NEWS for Latvia is last year’s team scored just eight goals in five games, starting the tournament by getting shut out three straight times. Both the power play and penalty kill were awful, and only Norway (who were relegated) gave up more goals. As for the positives, at least they blew out Germany to avoid the relegation round. So…glass half-full? In all estimations, the scrappy squad will struggle again, though a quarterfinal berth is within their grasp. The team’s top scorers from last year, Dans Locmelis and Sandis Vilmanis, have aged out of the tournament, but the Latvians will have Eriks Mateiko, a Washington Capitals pick and the captain of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs. Mateiko is a rambunctious forechecker with an imposing 6-foot-5, 208-pound frame and a decent…
THE NEXT BIG THING
FROM THE TIME HE saw a group of kids playing on a frozen pond when he was three, Alexander Carmanov has been in love with the game. The way Carmanov tells it, he was walking in the park with his parents and pointed at the boys on the ice and said, “Hockey! Hockey! Hockey!” and he’s been playing ever since. Now, it’d be really something if the most intriguing thing about the 16-year-old Carmanov were that he’s from Moldova, a tiny former Soviet republic tucked between Ukraine to the east and Romania to the west. After all, the country has only two indoor rinks and has never produced a player for the NHL or the KHL. It might even be fairly interesting if the hook were he’s playing for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights…
METRO DIVISION HOLIDAY GIFT
As one of the top teams in the NHL, the Hurricanes don’t need a lot these days, but perhaps they could help the world by sharing their values. To that end, coach Rod Brind’Amour could be gifted a PODCASTING KIT because the man knows how to motivate. From his post-game speeches to the generally elite culture he’s helped established in Raleigh, you never have to ask if the Canes are all on the same page – and it all starts behind the bench. Let’s get Brind’Amour a deal with Spotify. It’s one of the hardest things to find – Columbus GM Don Waddell might as well be trying to nab a Cabbage Patch Kid in the 1980s – but what the Blue Jackets need right now is GOALTENDING. Thanks to the…
BACKUP PLAN
IN A CITY WHERE you’re only as good – or as bad – as your latest performance, everything was simpatico in The Center of the Hockey Universe™ for one night. The local heroes/bums earned full marks for a dominating victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 21 in the only game on the NHL schedule that night. That group included the man in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ net. The callers into the post-game show were happy, in large part due to a 5-on-3 penalty kill when Anthony Stolarz started by saving a laser from Brandon Hagel, then reached back and snatched the puck off the goal line on the Jake Guentzel rebound. Stolarz termed it “desperation mode.” Stolarz was talking about one of the almost 3,000 saves he has made during…
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