FLYERS AT THE WJC: PRESENT AND PAST
The Philadelphia Flyers will have seven affiliated prospects at the 2015-16 IIHF Under-20 World Championship (better known in North America as the World Junior Championship or WJC) in Helsinki: 2014 first-round pick Travis Sanheim (defenseman) and 2015 first-round pick Travis Konecny (forward) will represent Team Canada, 2015 first-round pick Ivan Provorov (defense) and 2014 sixth-rounder Radel Fazleev (forward) will play for Russia, 2014 fifth-round pick Oskar Lindblom (forward) and 2015 third-round selection Felix Sandström (goaltender) will play for Sweden and 2015 fifth-round pick David Kase (forward) will play for the Czech Republic.
In sheer volume, the seven affiliated Flyers prospects going to the tournament is a franchise record. Lindblom, Provorov and Kase are all returnees from last year's tourney, while the other four are first-timers.
This year, look for Sanheim, Provorov, Lindblom and Kase (currently on the Czech second line) to play major minutes for their respective teams. Konecny, who has been impressive in pre-tournament action could quickly work his way up the ice time pecking order of his strong play continues. Fazleev will likely be asked to play more of a checking role -- a role he's played before, although he is now a top-line WHL player in his final junior season with the Calgary Hitmen -- for the Russians. Brynà¤s goaltender Sandström's playing time in goal for Sweden depends on how coach Rikard Grönborg opts to handle a trio that includes 19-year-old New York Islanders prospect Linus Söderström and recently turned 19 year-old Arizona Coyotes prospect Erik Kà¤llgren. If he doesn't play much this year, the 18-year-old Sandström can still use it as a learning experience to push to be the undisputed No. 1 goalie next year.
At the 2013-14 WJC in Malmö, Sweden, the Flyers had five prospects. Scott Laughton captained Team Canada, and Taylor Leier was a teammate. Robert Hà¤gg played for Team Sweden. Anthony Stolarz was the backup goalie for Team USA. Valeri Vasiliev was on the Russian roster.
Depending on how one chooses to count the numbers, the Flyers' system was represented by three, four or five players at the 1998-98 tournament. That year was also arguably the most successful in terms of the collective impacts that Flyers' prospect had on a single WJC tourney, although only one player went on to enjoy a significant NHL career.
The 1998-99 tournament rosters featured then-center Simon Gagne for Canada, center Tomas Divisek for Czech Republic and defenseman Marko Kauppinen for Finland.
Gagne led all players in the tourney with seven goals. Divisek tied Team USA's Scott Gomez and Canada's Brenden Morrow for the tournament assist lead with seven. Kauppinen was second in overall scoring among defensemen at the tournament with five points and first in goals with three.
Additionally, Vaclav Pletka (Divisek's then-undrafted linemate on Team Czech Republic) scored five goals in seven games and was promptly drafted by the Flyers that summer. Finally, goaltender Antero Niittymà¤ki was on Finland's preliminary roster but was only the team's emergency third-stringer and did not dress in a single game as a backup. Niittymà¤ki became Finland's WJC starter the next year.
At the 2004-05 tournament, Jeff Carter (Canada) tied for the tourney lead with seven goals and was fourth in overall scoring with 10 points. Teammate Mike Richards posted five points (one goal, four assists) in the tourney. In 2007-08, James van Riemsdyk (USA) led the tournament in overall scoring with 11 points in six games. He was tied for third in goals with five.
The all-time leading tournament scoring champion is Peter Forsberg (Sweden). Foppa was still affiliated with the Flyers at the 1991-92 tournament, in which he posted three goals, 11 points and 30 PIM in seven games. His NHL rights had already been traded to Quebec in the Eric Lindros deal by the time of the next tourney, when he posted a record 31 points in seven games. Forsberg's teammate on the 1991-92 Swedish team, 1990 Flyers second-round pick Mikael Renberg, posted six goals and 10 points.
Finnish defenseman Joni Pitkà¤nen was already Flyers property, drafted with the fourth overall pick of the 2002 NHL Draft, at the time he was named to the tournament All-Star teams selected by both the IIHF Directorate and the attending media at the 2002-03 tourney in Nova Scotia.
Carter, drafted by the Flyers with the first of their two picks in the first round of the 2003 NHL Draft, was a two-time tournament All-Star representing Team Canada at both the 2003-04 WJC in Finland and the 2004-05 tourney in the USA.
Flyers 2005 first-round pick Steve Downie earned a tournament All-Star team selection while playing for gold medalist Team Canada at the 2005-06 WJC (six games played, two goals, six points, plus-six, 16 penalty minutes). He represented Canada again the following year at the 2006-07 tourney in Leksand and Mora, Sweden.
In 2007-08, Flyers 2007 first-round pick van Riemsdyk made the most of his second trip to the WJC with tournament All-Star honors on the strength of leading all players in scoring (five goals and 11 points). However it was a Columbus Blue Jackets goaltending prospect named Steve Mason who took overall tourney MVP honors along with positional MVP and tournament All-Star team selections. Mason's stellar performance (1.19 GAA, two shutouts) for gold medalist overshadowed the fine play of two other goalies who later became Flyers: Sergei Bobrovsky (Russia) and Michal Neuvirth (Czech Republic). Van Riemsdyk appeared in his third and final WJC in 2008-09, posting six goals and 10 points in six games.
During the 1978-79 tournament, Swedish goaltender Pelle Lindbergh took positional MVP honors en route to a bronze medal. He was drafted by the Flyers in the second round of the 1979 NHL Draft.
Russian defenseman Dmitri Yushkevich was drafted by the Flyers with the 122nd overall pick of the 1991 NHL Draft, six-plus months after being named the 1990-91 World Junior Championship tournament All-Star Team. Lindros was not yet Flyers property when he played for Canada in 1989-1990 and then captained the Canadian squad in 1990-91.
Likewise, the NHL rights to young Czech defenseman Jiri Latal still belonged to his original drafting organization, the Toronto Maple Leafs, when he was named to the tournament All-Star team at the 1986-87 WJC (the year of the infamous "Punch-up in Piestany" that resulted in the disqualifications of both Team Canada and Team USSR). A few years later, Latal broke into the NHL as a member of the Flyers.
Current Flyers forward Brayden Schenn had not yet been traded by the LA Kings to the Flyers when, at the 2010-11 WJC, LA's 2010 first-round pick made himself arguably the most highly touted already drafted prospect not playing in the NHL. That year, Schenn led the WJC in scoring by a mile (eight goals, 18 points in seven games) and took tournament MVP as well as positional MVP and tourney All-Star Team honors. However, Team Canada had to settle for a silver medal.
Current Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, drafted by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2012 NHL Draft, was used as the sixth defenseman for gold medalist Team USA at the 2012-13 World Junior Championships in Ufa, Russia. Gostisbehere sat out one game in the tourney as a result of a spearing incident and match penalty in a preliminary round game against Slovakia.
At last year's tournament in Canada, 2013 Flyers first-round pick Samuel Morin was sparingly used by the gold medal winning Canadian team a few weeks after returning from a broken jaw. On loan from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Hà¤gg played on the top pairing for Team Sweden, which was dominant in the preliminary round and then finished a disappointing fourth in the medal round. Lindblom skated on the Swedes' top line and opened eyes with a hat trick game. The yet-to-be-drafted Provorov played a supporting role to older defensemen for the Russian team, while Kase dressed in four of five games and notched one assist for the Czech team.
This year's WJC will be the 40th installment of the tournament, which officially dates back to 1976-77. There were three previous tournaments (1973-74 to 1975-76) that are not counted in its official history as an IIHF-sanctioned World Championship, but which featured a host of future prominent NHL and international players.
Perhaps the most interesting of the "unofficial" WJCs from a Flyers historical standpoint was the 1974-75 tourney played in Manitoba, Minnesota and North Dakota. Team Canada prominently featured a powerful young center by the name of Mel Bridgman, whom the defending Stanley Cup champion Flyers selected a half-year later with the first overall pick of the 1975 NHL Draft, which was acquired from the Washington Capitals in the deal that sent Bill Clement to the Caps. Bridgman posted six points (one goal, five assists) in four games.
While that year's tourney featured a host of future NHL stars -- including Bryan Trottier, Peter Stastny and Kent Nilsson -- it was a Latvian player for Team USSR named Viktor Khatulev (Viktors Hatulevs) who really caught the eyes of scouts in attendance. Able to play either wing or as a defenseman with superstar-potential skill, Khatulev was named to the tournament All-Star team as a forward (six points in four games) while also moving back to the Soviets' blueline as needed.
A half-year later, the Flyers used the 160th overall pick of the 1975 NHL Draft on Khatulev, making him the first Soviet born and trained player to be selected in the NHL Draft. There were defection rumors that never came to fruition. Khatulev led a short, tragic life that scuttled his hockey career and ended with him being found dead in a street at age 39.
The few hockey people who ever got to see Khatulev play in his teens and early 20s often ranked him among the best pure talents they ever saw: very big for his era (6-foot-2, 210-plus pounds), a good skater with an explosive first stride, bullishly strong in fending off opponents yet also extremely skilled with the puck. Although trained in Soviet style hockey, Khatulev was said to have had all the tools for stardom in the North American game if had he been born in a different time and place and also not plagued by personal demons.
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AUBE-KUBEL SURGED INTO QMJHL BREAK
Flyers 2014 second-round pick Nicolas Aube-Kubel got a cursory look for Team Canada in August but did not receive a WJC evaluation camp invitation in what is his final year of Under-20 tournament eligibility. Perhaps it was a suspected concussion from a blindside hit by Rimouski's Michael Joly and an all-around slump in his game from mid-October to early-November (including a six-game pointless drought) that cost him an invite amid a crowded and highly competitive field of contenders.
Whatever the case, Aube-Kubel has been on fire since the middle of November. He has compiled a 13-game point streak for the QMJHL's Val-d'Or Foreurs, racking up 11 goals, 17 assists and 27 assists in than span without a single minus-rated game (+15 overall) at even strength in that stretch. For the season, Aube-Kubel has 20 goals and 44 points in 29 games to go along with a plus-29 rating.
Reputations can be hard to shake for young players. Aube-Kubel has had some scouting critics outside the Flyers organization during his earlier junior career who say that, despite his speed and skill. Aube-Kubel is prone to streakiness at both ends of the ice and there are games in which he simply disappears. The same critics say that the player's offensive game might not translate as well to the highly structured NHL game as that of other players and that he is prone to an excessive number of undisciplined minor penalties.
In fairness to Aube-Kubel, he has come a long way in most facets of his game since his draft season. It would be hard to ask more of him than he's done so consistently well for the past six weeks except to simply pick up where he left off when the season resumes.
The QMJHL is currently on a schedule hiatus until after Christmas. Aube-Kubel's team last played on Dec. 18 (a 5-3 road loss on the back end of a home-and-home set with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, featuring Flyers defense prospect Philippe Myers). The Foreurs do not return to action until Dec. 28. When a break is that long, it's almost like starting over again as all momentum and streaks go out the window. For Aube-Kubel, it will be an excellent opportunity to show that the "streaky player" label is outdated, just as reports on Oskar Lindblom being a subpar skater are based on reports from two seasons ago and not his current traits.
Aube-Kubel is currently in a three-way tie for 14th in the QMJHL -- still a relatively high-scoring league, although not nearly the way it used to be -- with his 44 points. Among the players above Aube-Kubel who are within seven points of his current totals, all have played four to seven more games this season. If he keeps up his current 1.51 points-per-game pace and stays healthy, Aube-Kubel should surge into the league's top 10 scorers by the end of the season.