Welcome back to Catching The Torch, where we keep up with the Montreal Canadiens’ CHL prospects and how their development is progressing week by week.
This edition will be an exception to the CHL/USA split, as we’ll be breaking down the performances of the four Habs prospects who just finished playing on the biggest international Junior stage in the world. Filip Mešár, Owen Beck, Lane Hutson, and Jacob Fowler participated in this year’s World Junior Hockey Championship, and we’ll be grading and dissecting their performances for their respective countries.
I happened to catch every game this year, thanks to multiple 5 AM wake-ups and espresso shots, but it was especially worth the effort this year for a great tournament overall full of tight matchups, upsets, and surprise standouts.
We’ll start off with the best performer of the bunch:
Filip Mešár
Built for bigger ice
Tournament grade: A+
In a word, Mešár was elite. It was easily the best stretch of games he’s ever had at the international Junior level. Dynamic, electrifying pace of play made him a headache for opposing defensive structures. The work he has done on his shot really showed in this tournament, and his refined playmaking and vision combined to make Servác Petrovský look like an NHL scorer.
Mešár’s defensive game and off-puck work rate were also more than evident in this tournament. He regularly backchecked and stick-lifted his way to additional puck touches, was solid in his defensive positioning, and forced opponents into channels that his teammates occupied off the rush.
Although the Slovaks dropped the ball in overtime against the Finns in the quarter-finals, it was despite Mešár playing his heart out night in, night out. A pinching error by Maxim Štrbák allowed a Finnish forward to walk right in and backhand the puck past Adam Gajan, sending Mešár and the Slovaks home.
Mešár was lights-out in this tournament, and would’ve earned a spot in my team of the tournament if he had played beyond the quarter-finals, but he didn’t earn a mention as one of the IIHF’s three stars of the team. Instead, Petrovský, Štrbák and Gajan earned those honours.
All three were great at this tournament — and we can add Adam Sýkora, one of the best under-20 defensive forwards in the world, to the mix — but Mešár was the difference-maker. He outdid himself every game, showed a new facet of dominance with every new opponent, and came up clutch multiple times for Slovakia.
Built for the bigger-ice game with his transition ability, skating speed, agility, mobility, vision, and defensive work rate, Mešár was the Habs’ most impressive representative at this tournament — even though two of them won gold.
Owen Beck
Canada’s shutdown centre
Tournament grade: B
Canada had a rough time at this tournament. No one will deny that. A distinct lack of chemistry and cohesiveness along with poor performances from their best players saw them eliminated in the quarter-finals at the hands of Czechia, who went on to win bronze.
Owen Beck, however, was a rare bright spot on the only line Canada iced that showed any sign of chemistry. A checking line for the ages, with Beck centring Nate Danielson and Owen Allard.
Beck was moved around a bit as Canada threw everything at the wall to see what would stick, but overall most of his ice time was spent with those two. Beck was responsible for shutting down the opposing teams’ top lines, and did that exceptionally well. Mitch Brown and Lassi Alanen’s tracked data for the World Juniors had Beck in the 97th percentile for overall defensive impact, meaning only 3% of the skaters outperformed him in that area.
Owen Beck:
— Hadi Kalakeche (@HadiK_Scouting) January 8, 2024
– High-end defensive impact for 🇨🇦
– Solid transition game
– Placed in a shutdown role, and did what he could with it
– Offensive game lacked pop, even when iced temporarily with Rehkopf, Poitras, etc. pic.twitter.com/WqN1g0DX5b
Still, Beck’s offensive impact as the team’s only returnee was muted. He couldn’t work his way up past the bottom six for more than half a period as Canada scrambled mid-game to find a line that worked, and only scored one goal, his only point, in five games, two of which were against Latvia and Germany.
Beck showed his floor — a bottom-six, shutdown centre — at this tournament, but not his ceiling — a middle-six defensive ace with a 20-goal shot. His role as an all-defence player was defined from day one on that roster, and this was the near-inevitable result. He’ll be aged out of World Juniors eligibility next year, and should end up plying his trade in either a top-six role with Laval, or in a bottom-six role in Montreal.
Lane Hutson
Impactful in a different role
Tournament grade: B
By this point, anyone who’s heard of Hutson has heard of his elite offensive prowess. The weight-shifts, the breakout game, the unrivalled mobility at the offensive blue line, and the often unbelievable level of vision he displays. Hutson’s skill with the puck is perhaps the best among prospect defencemen in the world.
At these World Juniors, however, Hutson was offered a different role than that of a pure offensive driver: play as many minutes as possible, and simplify his game. It wasn’t always pretty, but Hutson settled into that role, playing a whopping 54 minutes in a 24-hour span covering the semifinal and Gold Medal Game. Somehow, he still had enough energy by the end of those minutes to do this:
The offensive game took a hit, though. In fact, Hutson was kept off the scoresheet and outscored by fellow Hab Jacob Fowler in an 11-3 thrashing of Switzerland. Some breakout turnovers were symptomatic of an over-correction, as Hutson traded his deke-and-pass game that regularly opened up third or fourth options coming out of his zone for a more predictable reliance on his first outlet.
As the tournament rolled on, however, and with a familiar face to his right (former NTDP defence partner Ryan Chesley), Hutson made himself indispensable on the first pair. The latter half of Hutson’s World Juniors saw him double-shifted, and deployed in every scenario from the penalty kill, to defensive-zone faceoffs to, of course, the power play.
Lane Hutson:
— Hadi Kalakeche (@HadiK_Scouting) January 8, 2024
– Elite playmaking stats, unsurprisingly
– Struggled massively at preventing zone entries, again unsurprisingly
– Was placed in a prominent role, played 54 mins in 24 hours between semis and gold medal game
– DZ faceoffs, PK, he did it all, adapted, and made it work pic.twitter.com/FiHB4epovp
Hutson ended the tournament with six assists in seven games, and overall, he found his footing in the medal round. He even earned himself a spot on the IIHF’s Team of the Tournament. His first half of the tournament limits his grade to a B, however.
Jacob Fowler
More than the numbers suggest
Tournament grade: B
Fowler was the backup goaltender to Trey Augustine in this tournament. He put up a 2.59 goals-against average and an .889 save percentage in three starts, all of which were wins. The numbers themselves aren’t impressive, but overall Fowler showed that he could very well develop into a starter next year for Team USA.
Especially solid in the 4-3 shootout win against Czechia, Fowler was given a test in that game. He allowed three goals on 23 shots, but was almost perfect in the shootout, turning away six shooters and only conceding one to Jiri Kulich — one of the best players in this tournament. Fowler also stepped things up from the third period onward, making key saves to keep USA at a one-goal distance from tying it.
Next year will hopefully offer a better look at the Habs’ promising young goaltender. His handful of games at the World Juniors along with his excellent performances for Boston College in December earned him the title of North American prospect of the month in our monthly series, and heading back to the Eagles with a gold medal to add to his already-packed trophy collection should put a spring in his step.
Thanks for reading — follow me on Twitter @HadiK_Scouting for more prospects-related content, and to keep up with the rest of my work!
