Sweden & Finland 2024 World Junior Championship Preview
Prospect Corner | Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Axel Sandin Pellikka, Konsta Helenius, and more!
The Hockey Writers' prospects experts Logan Horn, Matthew Zator, and Peter Baracchini get together to preview the upcoming 2024 World Junior Championship with the first set of team previews. This time they discuss Finland and Sweden.
Last Episode’s Poll
In our last poll, I asked you which prospect has the best chance to be drafted second overall in the 2024 Draft. The overwhelming majority of you chose Cole Eiserman as the most likely fit for the second overall slot, over guys like Sam Dickinson, Anton Silayev and Konsta Helenius.
While I was definitely in that same boat when the season began, I can’t help but think that the field for the top-5 (behind Macklin Celebrini of course) is pretty much wide open and a smaller winger who excels at scoring goals but doesn’t do much else at a high-end level isn’t exactly the prototype that typically goes in the first couple of picks.
Eiserman needs to make it clear that he’s an elite goalscorer, not just an excellent one, if he wants to stick around in the top-3 conversation since a large group of defensemen have improved their stock a ton in this year’s draft. Dickinson, Silayev, Artyom Levshunov, and Zeev Buium have each risen into the conversation as top-10 picks and many of them have the momentum necessary to continue their rises. Should be a fun few months to end the season!