In this tournament, the games I have seen so far were USA Blue versus Finland (4-1 win for USA Blue) and USA White versus Sweden (10-1 win for USA White). As an aside, the largest draws would have been Canada versus the USA teams. However, Canada is not in attendance, presumably to avoid the possibility of having to split rosters due to the conflict with the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. This issue resulted in projected 2024 first-rounder Aron Kiviharju of Finland missing the U18 event to participate in the WJSS. In addition to left-shot defenseman Kiviharju, the players who stuck out to me in the USA Blue/Finland game were Finland forward Lenni Hämeenaho (2nd round in 2023, 58th overall to NJD), USA Blue goaltender Jacob Fowler (3rd round in 2023, 69th overall to MTL), and USA Blue forward Will Smith (1st round in 2023, 4th overall, to SJS). Finland does not have much offensive firepower, and from what I saw will have to rely heavily on a select few forwards such as Hämeenaho to compete in December.
My offensively challenged analysis of Finland also holds true for Sweden. Fortunately for them, they do have several elite defenders with excellent offensive instincts. To that end, those who made the biggest impression on me were Axel Sandin-Pellikka (1st round in 2023, 17th overall to DET), and Calle Odelius (2nd round in 2022, 65th overall to NYI). For USA White, the entire line of Nazar (1st round in 2022, 13th overall to CHI) Snuggerud (1st round in 2022, 23rd overall to STL) and McGroarty (1st round in 2022, 14th overall to WPG) were formidable, led by Nazar’s 5 points (4 goals, 1 assist).