Some good news has come down for Vancouver Canucks prospects over the weekend.
With the Karjala Cup just a week away, the Canucks have good news that Viktor Persson has been added to Sweden’s U20 team. Persson has been on a tear over the past couple of weeks and with that hot streak, he has worked his way onto a high powered Swedish roster that should be a powerhouse at this year’s World Junior Championships.
The Karjala Cup is one of the best pre-WJC tournaments. The tournament will be held in Finland and begins on November 5th with Sweden taking on the Czech Republic. Russia and Finland are the other two teams that will round out this tournament and they will play their first game following the SWE-CZE game.
The first matchup of Canucks prospects will be on November 7th when Dmitri Zlodeyev and Vasili Podkolzin take Viktor Persson in what will be an exhilarating Russia versus Sweden game at 3:30 AM pacific time.
I’ve been looking forward to this game for a long time and with the late addition of Persson to Sweden’s roster, I am only more excited about the match. Though Podkolzin is a lock on the World Junior team, Zlodeyev and Persson will need to continue to show well at these tournaments and in their respective leagues play to secure their spot on their World Junior teams.
This is Persson’s final year of eligibility for the WJC, so he will need to show well at the Karjala Cup and continue with his dominance of the J20 Swedish league.
For Zlodeyev, he is still eligible to play in next year’s WJC and though he is not a lock for this Winter’s tournament, if he continues to progress the way he has this season, he will be a high-end contributor at next year’s tournament.
Here’s the full schedule for the Karjala Cup:
The tournament kicks off on Thursday with games at 4:30 and 8:30 in the morning. It should be a great showcase for those who want to see some offensive production from Canucks’ top prospect Vasili Podkolzin. He is by far the best player in this tournament.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to wake up early. We will have you covered wall to wall from this tournament here at CanucksArmy.