First of all, Happy Remembrance/Veterans Day to all the Canadian & US service men and women out there. We would not be enjoying our freedoms without you, so you can’t be thanked enough.
Congratulations to Canada Red (gold), Canada White (silver), and Team USA (bronze) on their medal-winning performances at this year’s tournament. In a reversal of last year’s results, Canada Red beat Canada White 6-3 in the second consecutive all-Canadian final in this event (Canada White emerged victorious in 2024 with a 3-1 victory over their countrymen). It was a tightly-contested final that essentially was a one-goal game. The Red Team’s fifth and sixth goals were empty-netters, each coming with less than two minutes to play.
In the bronze medal game, Team USA defeated Team Czechia 3-1 to bring home third place. The Americans finished last season’s event in fourth place with a 5-4 overtime loss to Sweden in the third-place game. The Swedes placed sixth at this tournament following a 3-2 overtime loss to Team Finland in the placement game.
From an individual standpoint, there were a lot of players to like at this tournament. The player who was impossible to ignore was Canada Red’s Alexis Joseph of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs. Joseph finished as the tournament’s leading goal-scorer with 6 tallies, and its second-leading points-getter with 11 points (6G 5A). As a 6’5″ 16-year-old with overwhelming skill, he will be in the conversation for the first overall pick at the 2027 draft.
Joseph’s point total was trumped only by Team USA’s Brayden Willis, who managed 12 points on 5 goals and 7 assists. Willis was the most effective American forward, using elite vision and lightning-quick hands to be involved in seemingly every Team USA scoring threat. Team Czechia forward Adam Neces was impressive as well, using his speed and skill to play a prominent role in the Czech offense. (As an aside, this Adam Neces is no relation to New Jersey’s Slovak D-man Simon Neces. However, Simon Neces does have an 18-year-old brother also named Adam, who is a projected 2nd/3rd round pick in 2026 per NHL central scouting.)
Defensively, Czechia’s Lukas Kachlir is an excellent player. Kachlir is undersized at this point (5’8,” 150 lbs.), but is unmatched speed-wise in the open ice, and already plays in Czechia’s top pro league. Also impressing on the defensive side of the puck was Canada Red’s Brock Cripps of the Prince Albert Raiders in the WHL. Cripps utilized his elite passing skill to QB Canada Red’s power play en route to compiling 6 points (1G 5A).
Finally, the goaltenders standing out to me were Czechia’s Vaclav Osvald and Team USA’s Eli Winters. Osvald’s playing style is reminiscent of Nashville draft pick and current University of Michigan netminder Jack Ivankovic: slightly undersized but technically sound, very athletic and ultra-competitive. Osvald is 12-0-0 with a .926 save percentage for his U17 team in Czechia. Winters matched that save percentage in this tournament, and was the winning goaltender in both games in which he appeared for Team USA. One of those wins came versus eventual champ Canada Red. In that game, Winters made 47 saves in regulation & overtime, and stopped 7 of 8 shootout attempts.