Down on the Farm – Stock Up, Stock Down for Kraken prospects at the World Junior Championship

Welcome back to “Down on the Farm,” your almost-weekly Sound Of Hockey Podcast segment in written form. We took last week off for the holidays, but we’re back this week to talk about an event that reminds us of this joyful season—the World Junior Championship. We’ll also get you caught up on a few top performers in the Kraken system otherwise, and deliver two weeks of player data.

As always, if you have a prospect-related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey or on Bluesky at @deepseahockey or @soundofhockey.com. Let’s dive in.

Mid-tournament check-in on Kraken prospects at the World Junior Championship

Team Canada’s approach to roster building is outdated. The team left too many skilled players at home. The staff misused the players they did bring, and Canada’s best players didn’t step up.

All of this and more has been debated ad nauseum over the last 36 hours as the entire hockey world reacted to Canada’s surprising failure to advance past the Quarterfinals, losing in dramatic fashion to Czechia. For the second straight year, Team Canada finished without a medal—and, even worse, this year the loss was at home in Ottawa.

We’ll touch on Team Canada’s failure again, but our update, as always, will focus on Seattle’s tournament-high eight players in play. Five Kraken prospects remain alive in the tournament as the semi-finals begin Saturday.

Kraken stock check

Eduard Sale – Team Czechia – Stock up

It has been an impactful tournament for Sale, who is serving as Team Czechia’s captain. His five goals are tied for the tournament high as we enter the semi-finals. Add in two assists, and he is just two points short of the overall tournament scoring lead.

Beyond the scoresheet, he’s playing fast and confident through contact. He’s more engaged off the puck than we’ve ever seen him, regularly backchecking and, at times, diving into the slot to defend dangerous chances. He’s never going to be a Selke award winner, but he’s looking more and more competent defensively, continuing a trend we saw in Coachella Valley.

Though he still looks to score in the same ways he always has—off the rush or lurking for soft spots in coverage on the weakside—this relatively well-rounded and engaged Sale is almost unrecognizable from the player who floundered in the OHL last season. After plateauing a bit in the AHL over the last month, the arrow is again pointing up on Sale.

Jakub Fibigr  – Team Czechia – Stock up

Initially, we weren’t certain Fibigr would crack the roster for Czechia, but, as it turns out, the 18-year-old blueliner not only earned a roster spot but has taken regular shifts on the team’s third pair. The scoring has been solid; he is one of only seven Czech players averaging at least a point per game (though four came in one game against the over-matched Kazakhstan). He has shown his speed and skill in transition, but more importantly, he has played well defensively—which is notable because defense has been regarded as his biggest weakness. He’s third (and second among defensemen) on the team in plus-minus at +8.

Zeb Forsfjall  – Team Sweden – Stock up

Forsfjall made Team Sweden’s roster for last year’s tournament as a checking fourth-liner. This year he has taken more responsibility (on an arguably superior team) in a middle-six role, and he has delivered, scoring two goals and adding three assists in five contests. He’s always responsible defensively, and, while he lacks a dynamic element offensively, he has solid instincts to connect his teammates and find the right spots in the offensive zone.

Julius Miettinen  – Team Finland – Stock up

Miettinen earned Finland’s third-line center as an 18-year-old—a feat even more impressive than it might initially have appeared as Finland’s roster has performed well and put itself squarely in medal contention. Miettinen may only have one goal and one assist, but he has been very noticeable to us when he’s been on the ice, playing with very strong pace for a player his size.

Caden Price  – Team Canada – Stock up

A stock up from Team Canada? Price earned it. The 19-year-old has surpassed every expectation set for him this season. He excelled for Kelowna, ranking among the most prolific blueliners in the entire CHL before the World Juniors. Then he stood out at Selection Camp, earning a roster spot over very talented players like Zayne Parekh. And then he worked his way into the regular lineup over Beau Akey and Sawyer Mynio to begin the tournament.

Throughout the World Juniors, Price played with pace and creativity in transition and on the offensive blue line, but also passed his test defensively, frequently saving Canada from high-danger chances against with his skating and deft stick work. Would Canada have been better with Parekh or Carter Yakemchuk on the blue line? Perhaps, but Price was far from “the problem.”

Berkly Catton  – Team Canada – Stock neutral

Perhaps it is generous to put the 18-year-old Catton in a “stock neutral” category given the hefty expectations set for him as a top-six center and the limited results (one point in five games). But Catton looked to me like one of the few players on Team Canada trying to make his teammates better rather than play “hero ball.” He was dynamic with the puck on his stick creating space for passes and chances, but his teammates weren’t on the same level and didn’t help him at all.

The tournament does hint that he may be more successful as a facilitator than a scorer at higher levels, but I think Catton was at least adequate in this tournament. In fact, I think Canada would have been wise to go to him more when it couldn’t score. If he’s not in the NHL by then, he should be back in the World Juniors—perhaps as Canada’s captain?—next year.

Kim Saarinen – Team Finland – Stock neutral

Goalie Saarinen hasn’t seen the ice yet for Finland, as Petteri Rimpinen seized the net from Day 1 and hasn’t looked back. Teams often get their backup goaltender one of the Round Robin games against weaker competition, but Finland rode Rimpinen all the way. Rimpinen, 18, and Saarinen, 18, both could be back next year. If so, it’s clear that Saarinen has work to do if he’s going to get any time in the 2026 tournament.

Carson Rehkopf  – Team Canada – Stock down

Rehkopf—who was at one point practicing on Canada’s second line during training camp—saw the ice for only 18 minutes total in the entire tournament as he bounced between Canada’s 13th forward spot and a healthy scratch. There were whispers that management didn’t like Rehkopf’s “effort” in camp, but I find it hard to blame anyone but the coaching staff for the low ice time. Cole Beaudoin (1.2 points per game in the OHL) took first-line minutes while Rehkopf (1.75 points per game in the OHL) watched from the press box. Continuously deploying grinder-types and failing to use perhaps your best pure shooter while the team is struggling to score is defensible only in the most tortured ways.

On the other hand, Rehkopf didn’t do himself any favors when he was out there, taking two penalties in 10 minutes on ice in Canada’s New Year’s Eve loss to the United States. Of course, you could argue that the penalties could be attributed to Rehkopf being “cold,” but it is hard to increase a player’s ice time after he puts the team on the penalty kill twice. In the end, Rehkopf’s 2025 World Juniors ended scoreless—an almost unthinkable outcome for the sharp-shooting Kraken prospect.

Kraken prospect data update

Shifting focus back to the Kraken prospects playing club hockey, Nathan Villeneuve earned the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week for the week of Dec. 23, when he had a hat trick and an assist in his only game. Overall, he totaled eight points in four games since our last update.

Oscar Fisker Mølgaard continues to score as a middle-six forward for HV71. While the sample size is still small because he missed time due to injury, he leads all Kraken organization prospects in our “data score” metric.

Semyon Vyazovoy is our Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week for the week of Dec. 30. He has started two games since our last update and posted shutouts in both. Vyazovoy, 21, now leads the entire KHL in save percentage among goaltenders under 24 years old.

While the first month-plus wasn’t perfect, the goaltending group has performed well of late with Victor Östman, Aleš Stezka, Nikke Kokko, and Vyazovoy all clear of a .900 save percentage for the season.

2024-25 Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker

Clarke Caswell: 2

Berkly Catton: 2

Alexis Bernier: 1

Andrei Loshko: 1

Oscar Fisker Mølgaard: 1

Tyson Jugnauth: 1

Victor Östman: 1

Caden Price: 1

Nathan Villeneuve: 1

Semyon Vyazovoy: 1

Previewing the week ahead

Miettinen, Saarinen, and Team Finland meet Forsfjall and Team Sweden in one WJC semi-final Saturday afternoon, while Sale, Fibigr and Team Czechia take on Team USA in the other WJC semi-final Saturday night. However it shakes out, the Kraken will have at least one player on the ice in Sunday’s final.

Previous prospect updates

December 20, 2024: Kraken system after the Kaapo Kakko trade, David Goyette’s progress, and World Juniors

December 13, 2024: Three Kraken prospects make Team Canada WJC roster

December 6, 2024: Seattle Kraken goalie prospects progressing in the professional ranks

November 29, 2024: Data check in at U.S. Thanksgiving

November 22, 2024: Projecting the Seattle Kraken’s right defense prospects

November 15, 2024: Will an NCAA ruling change the landscape for Seattle Kraken prospects?

November 8, 2024: Kraken prospect Jagger Firkus is doing the little things necessary to succeed

November 1, 2024: ‘No days off’ approach for Kraken prospect Clarke Caswell

October 25, 2024: Kraken prospect Eduard Sale’s “tryout” in Coachella Valley is going well

October 18, 2024: Kraken prospect Andrei Loshko filling the stat sheet in the OHL