Segment 5: Ryan and Michael predict the medallists, relegation battlers, MVP, top forward, top defenseman and top goaltender. The 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2024. [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAzMTE5NDYxNDA0NzgwMDk5/2024-iihf-wjc_1.jpg] The 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2024. With the final day of the world juniors' round-robin stage set to kick off on New Year’s Eve, the group stage is about to end with several games that will set up the quarterfinals. Germany will play Canada at 1:30 p.m. ET for the chance to avoid relegation. Czechia and Switzerland will play for third place in Group B at 11 a.m. ET, while Slovakia and the Americans will play a game at 6 a.m. ET that will decide the group's top seed. And in Gothenburg, the rivalry matinee matchup between Sweden and Finland goes down at 8:30 a.m. ET (2:30 p.m. local). There is still so much to be decided, but with everyone having played at least three of their four games – with Latvia and Norway having played all four – let’s look at how each team stacks up against the rest of the competitors in the world juniors power rankings. 1. SWEDEN When you walk through most of your competition and don’t concede a single goal against, you are probably doing something right. The host nation hasn’t only been good in their games, but they’ve been borderline dominant in a businesslike fashion. Even against Canada, their toughest test in the group stage, the Swedes came away with a 2-0 win that never really seemed in doubt. Sweden was the more crisp and refined team in all aspects of the game. Their top scorers are both St. Louis Blues first-rounders from this past June – winger Otto Stenberg and defenseman Theo Lindstein are tied for sixth in tournament scoring with five points each. Sweden has received contributions from up and down the lineup, and when the team takes the lead, it plays sound defensive hockey that gives nothing but low-danger chances to the opposing team. The Swedes have asserted themselves as one of the gold medal favorites, and they’ve hardly even played their best to this point. 2. USA Coming into the world juniors as the favorite, the American team has done everything asked of it, even if it needed a shootout to take down the Czech squad. The Americans boast one of the deepest stables of forwards and a diverse set of defenders. The health of their starting netminder Trey Augustine and one of their top defenders, Seamus Casey, will be important going forward as both missed their game against Czechia with an illness. Although it may not have looked like it from the outset of the tournament, Group B is the “Group of Death,” with Czechia and Slovakia in it as well. The Americans have a chance to make it through with nothing but a scratch with a win against Slovakia, which would set them up for an excellent draw in the elimination rounds en route to the gold medal game. 3. SLOVAKIA The Slovaks were one of the feistiest teams of the 2023 world juniors, and this year, they’ve fully ascended to contender status. They opened the world juniors with a convincing win over Czechia, having handled every team in their path since. Their head-to-head matchup with the Americans has the potential to be the game of the tournament, with both teams vying for supremacy in the group. Slovakia’s Servac Petrovsky leads the tournament in scoring with eight points, while Filip Mesar and Maxim Strbak are tied for second in scoring with six. The team has received outstanding goaltending from Adam Gajan on top of everything. The roster isn’t as deep as the Americans or as skilled as the Swedes, but this Slovak team is here to take home a medal. 4. CZECHIA The defending silver medalists have had a tough go to start the world juniors, but they have steadily improved throughout the tournament and pushed the Americans to a shootout in their most recent game. They will finish the round-robin facing the Swiss in a game for the third seed. Jiri Kulich and Eduard Sale have been leading the charge for the Czech squad, just as they have for this age group for the last few years. Goaltender Michal Hrabal hasn’t been the stud the team hoped for, but he hasn’t been bad by any means. The Czechs hope that as the games intensify, so will Hrabal. 5. CANADA From the moment they stepped on the ice, there has been something off about the Canadians at this year's World Junior Championship. The biggest weakness coming into the tournament became their only real stable component, as Mathis Rousseau has been quite good in net. The defense was depleted when Tristan Luneau fell ill, and Tanner Molendyk was injured before the world juniors began. Canada's forward corps has been underwhelming outside of Macklin Celebrini. The Canadian team can still secure second place in Group A, which would go a long way toward giving it an easier path through the elimination rounds. The players must stay out of the box – seemingly always an issue with the Canadians at the world juniors – and execute in a way they haven’t so far. They must clean things up in their play in all three zones. 6. FINLAND Despite their loss to Germany and an overall dreadful performance throughout the round-robin, the Finns remain a threat because of their potential. They look completely off-kilter in comparison to the typical Finnish squads that come to international events. Instead of being tactical and more than the sum of their parts, they have been messy and disjointed, with no one player finding a way to assert themselves. 7. GERMANY After defeating the Finns for the first time in 26 tries at the world juniors, the Germans set themselves up to be the ultimate spoilers at the event. A win over Canada would be historic for them and disastrous for the Canadians. Unfortunately, a loss to Latvia puts them at risk of missing the quarterfinals. They control their own destiny, though, as a win over Canada would put them in. 8. SWITZERLAND Switzerland is off to the quarterfinals, but the team was underwhelming and overmanned against Team Slovakia and Team USA. Switzerland simply doesn’t have the high-end talent this year to compete with the bigger countries, and it hasn’t played a consistently cohesive brand of hockey. 9. NORWAY The Norwegians may not have won a game, but they were a fun group to watch and did their best to stay in games, even giving the Americans a scare in their tournament opener. They haven’t been great by any means, but with players such as Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Petter Vesterheim leading the way, they will be a handful in the relegation game against either Latvia or Germany. 10. LATVIA Although they finally woke up against the Germans, the Latvians haven’t been very strong. They were shut out in their first three games before their group stage finale. Although they could conceivably squeak into the quarterfinals, they won’t be much of a test against either the Americans or Slovaks. A relegation game against Norway is the most likely scenario – and one they won’t be able to take lightly if they hope to avoid relegation.
