QMJHL makes presence felt at 2016 World Juniors

With another World Junior Hockey Championships now in the books and Finland now the toast of junior hockey for a second time in three years, here is a look at how the players hailing from the QMJHL fared in this year’s tournament.

Team Canada stumbled this year to its worst showing in 18 years as the normally dominant Canadians failed to reach the podium. While their showing was a far cry from their gold medal performance of a year ago, the Canadians have now not earned a medal in three of the last four World Junior events.

The QMJHL contingent for Canada included goalie Mason MacDonald (Charlottetown) went 1-1 in his two starts, notching a 6-1 triumph over Denmark. The Calgary Flames prospect posted a 2.52 goals against average a .861 save percentage in his two games played. The other QMJHL goalie on their roster, Florida Panthers’ prospect Samuel Montembeault (Blainville-Boisbriand), didn’t see any action in the tournament.

The three Canadian forwards from the QMJHL all chipped in on the scoresheet. Leading the way was for that trio was Ottawa Senators’ prospect and Saint John Sea Dogs defenceman Thomas Chabot with three assists, tied for points with Joe Hicketts as top-scoring blueliner for Canada. 2016 NHL Draft prospect forward Julien Gauthier (Val-d’Or) chipped in with two helpers of his own while the New York Islanders first round pick in 2015 Anthony Beauvillier (Shawinigan) scored a goal for the Canadians, a game-tying even-strength effort in the 6-1 win over Denmark in the second game of the tournament.

The silver-medal winning Russians had three Q players in their lineup. A force for Russia all tournament long, forward Maxim Lazarev (Cape Breton) put up six points (2-4-6), and scored the game-winning goal in a shootout in his team’s opening win over the Czech Republic. His linemate with the Screaming Eagles Yevgeni Svechnikov was held off the score sheet through seven games, as was defenceman Sergei Boikov (Drummondville).

The Russians have now reached the 14 of the past 15 podiums, including now four gold medals to trail only Canada’s six gold medals over that same span.

The only other Q product who came close to cracking the podium this year was Sweden’s Dmytro Timashov (Quebec). The Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospect forward tied for the team lead with five assists and put up seven points in seven games for the Tre Kronor who missed out on a bronze medal by losing 8-3 to Team USA. He was particularly solid in his team’s first game, being involved in three of Sweden’s four opening goals with a pair of power-play goals and an assist. He also set up the opening goal halfway in the first period of the semi-final against Finland, before the eventual champions replied with a pair of goals in two minutes in the second period, cruising to victory. The Ukranian-born Swede also finished the tournament second among Swedish forwards with a +4 rating.

Always keen to put a scare into tournament favourites in the draw, the scrappy Swiss counted a pair of QMJHL players this year in a tourney that saw them battle Canada to a 3-2 shootout loss. Timo Meier (Halifax) followed up his coming out party of a year ago with five points in six games (2-3-5) for Switzerland this year. He was the most efficient player of the tournament, winning 23 of 29 face-offs (79.31 %). Meanwhile forward Auguste Impose (Quebec) failed to register a point in six games for the Swiss.

The Czech Republic’s two players from the Q were defenceman Jakub Zboril (Saint John) and forward Filip Chlapik (Charlottetown). Zboril, a Boston Bruins’ prospect picked up an assist and finished second on the Czech team with a +2 rating and the second most penalized player of the competition with 31 minutes in the box, while Ottawa Senators’ prospect Chlapik failed to register a point and had a +1 rating.

Slovakia’s lone QMJHL player, Kristian Pospisil (Blainville-Boisbriand) was held pointless in five games.

This year marks the second-straight year that a host nation has gone on to win the gold medal – a first at the World Juniors.

The countdown has already begun to the 2017 World Junior Hockey Championship to be co-hosted by Toronto and Montreal. All eyes would’ve been on Canada regardless, but the perennial favourite’s shaky showing this year will only intensify the spotlight on the world’s most decorated junior hockey nations.

Is a world’s best 16th World Junior crown in the cards for Canada? We will have to wait roughly 365 days to find out.