If he NHL Draft The lottery has become something of an unwanted annual tradition for People Who Matter, so this is another one for the New Jersey Devils in recent years. As the stanley mug The playoffs are underway, the International Ice Hockey Federation will start its annual World Championship. Multiple Devils are involved and it’s a good tournament if you want something different from the non-Devils action in the NHL. Also, this year’s tournament is in Finland, so you might be able to follow it during the day and watch the playoffs at night.
The tournament: The IIHF World Championships 2022
The Host Cities: Helsinki, Finland and Tampere, Finlanda
The days: May 13, 2022 to May 29, 2022
The website: The IIHF website. The the full schedule is here, with the first match between France and Slovakia in Group A and the United States and Latvia in Group B, both starting at 16:20 Finnish time. Which is 9:20 am Eastern Time, or seven hours ago.
Coverage: For fans of USA Hockey, the NHL Network will broadcast all games from the United States and beyond. As of this writing, I haven’t seen confirmation, but it’s possible that TSN has the games from Canada.
The format: The full criteria are here from the IIHF. Here’s a rundown: There are 16 teams in this year’s tournament. There is a group stage and a knockout stage of the tournament which is determined by the results of the group stage. A regulation win is worth 3 points, an overtime or shootout win is worth 2 points, an overtime or shootout loss is worth 1 point, and a regulation loss is worth 0 points. Each group has eight teams. The top four countries in each group by points will advance to the tournament. The bottom four won’t. The tournament will begin on May 26 with the quarterfinals. The semifinals will be played on May 28. The Bronze Medal Game and the Gold Medal Game will take place on May 29. All tournament games are single elimination.
Since other World Championship tournaments were played this year, there will be relegation in this year’s tournament. However, it is not a game. According to the IIHF, the “bottom two ranked teams overall will be relegated to Division I Group A of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.” They will be replaced by the winner of Group A and the second place from Group A. Slovenia won it all, while Hungary finished ahead of Lithuania for promotion.
The teams: Here are the sixteen teams. While there was no relegation from last year’s tournament, the IIHF ban of Russia and Belarus has added two new teams: France and Austria.
Group A: Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Italy, France
Group B: Finland, United States, Czechia, Sweden, Latvia, Norway, Great Britain, Austria
The demons involved: Here are the players from each nation that has a member of the New Jersey organization, barring any last-minute changes (which may occur). Six were known at the end of the Devils’ recent press sessions. One was recently added: Ryan Graves for Canada.
- Canada (Group A): Damon Severson, Ryan Graves, Dawson Mercer
- Switzerland (Group A): Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler
- Slovakia (Group A): Tomas Tatar
- United States: (Group B): Jon Gillies
I’m still baffled that USA Hockey invited Gillies. I know that getting players for these tournaments is not easy as players can choose to recover or rest or not want to go halfway around the world to play in a tournament after a season that probably didn’t go well because they’re not in the playoffs. . But Jon Gillies is on the USA Hockey roster. That’s weird. Stranger than Matt Hellickson on last year’s list fresh out of college. All the others make sense to their respective nations.
The most talented and the Devils are in Group A. I suggest watching them as they should all play a part in their respective teams. (PS Devils 2020 draft pick Benjamin Baumgartner will be in Austria, but the Devils’ rights to him end June 1 and he’s signed with Lausanne HC until 2025. So he may be on the roster for book just for one more month. Ergo, I’m not including him as a Devil.)
Notable 2022 Draft Eligible Players: The main tournament for those eligible for the draft at this time of year is the U-18 World Championship. However, that tournament ended. And so, some players eligible for this year’s draft can also participate in this tournament. Being named to the tournament is an achievement because it means the nation’s decision-makers thought well enough about the player’s game to deserve inclusion. This year’s WC has the following perspectives to consider:
- Juraj Slafkovsky, Slovakia – He is 6’4”. He weighs about 220 pounds. He plays professionally in Finland for TPS. He already dressed for Slovakia this year at the WJC (before they ended early), the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympic games, where he scored 7 goals in 7 games. The big forward may be coveted by many in the 2022 draft. This tournament may raise his profile a bit more.
- Simon Nemec, Slovakia: One of the top defensive prospects in this year’s draft; he could be the first to go depending on how much one rates him over David Jiricek. The right-handed defender has been as busy as Slafkovsky this year. In addition to his professional season with HK Nitra (39 season games, 19 playoff games), he played for the Slovak Under-18 team, the WJC, the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympic games. He cannot question his desire to represent his nation; no problem. We’ll see if he does even more in the WC this year.
- Marco Kasper, Austria – Kasper may end up being a first-round candidate this year. He is responsible at both ends and played more than a handful of minutes for Rögle BK in the SHL (46 season games, 13 playoff games, 12 Champions). He could provide a spark for Austria.
- David Jiricek, Czechia: One of the top defensive prospects in this year’s draft, until a knee ligament injury in the WJC against Canada sidelined him for several months. He returned to play at the end of the season at HC Plzen. The general word on him is that his talent, aggressiveness and size will still make him a top 10 pick. His skating was seen as an advantage, but it’s understandably a question after the injury. A good presentation in Finland will help answer those questions.
The prediction…?: I think Group A is anything but Canada to win. The battle for the other three spots should be fun. Group B could go sideways if one of the United States, Sweden or Czechia spoils early. I didn’t include Finland because I expect the host nation to have a great race. In fact, I will predict that they will win everything for it. Hey, they finished second last year. it’s doable. As for relegation: I think Britain and France go down to AI again and will be replaced by Slovenia and Hungary.
Your turn: Again, this is the open post where you can enjoy, comment, react and rant about the IIHF World Championships 2022 – games, news, plays etc. here in this open post. Nowhere else on the site, please. If it’s the World Championships then it goes here. As usual, all site rules apply to this open post. Enjoy the toilets. I will update this as needed.
Reference-www.allaboutthejersey.com