Canada won gold on home ice in 2015. Can the Finns do the same this year at better than 6:1 odds? (Photo credit: sillygwailo via Foter.com / CC BY)
This article is from last year’s tournament. Click here for the 2017 odds page.
We all love to do world junior hockey betting during the holidays, but almost all of us don’t know very much about it.
Never fear, we’ve done our research into the 10-team field for this year’s IIHF Under-20 World Championship in Helsinki, Finland.
Helping us were a couple of great international hockey websites, www.thehockeyhouse.net and www.thehockeywriters.com. We’ve condensed some of their world junior hockey previews and added a bit of our own opinions to come up with this world junior hockey betting preview. We recommend checking out their world junior hockey previews for more info about each team.
All odds are from Sports Interaction’s world junior hockey Futures odds. Sports Interaction is one of our favourite sportsbooks to use for world junior hockey betting, since they offer a wide range of props and good live betting.
Props and live betting are just two of the other ways to bet on the world junior hockey championships, just in case you don’t feel like laying $5000 to win $100 on Canada beating Belarus.
Enjoy, and good luck!
Canada (+112)
Canada returns four players (Lawson Crouse, Joe Hicketts, Brayden Point and Jake Virtanen) from the team that won world junior hockey gold last year in Toronto. The team also has several players that won gold at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament in 2014.
MacKenzie Blackwood is likely to be Canada’s top goalie, but he’ll have to sit out the first two games of the tournament due to an OHL suspension. Canada will probably go with Mason McDonald, a Calgary Flames draft pick, to start the tournament.
The defence includes four NHL first-round picks and has good balance. If there’s a criticism of Canada’s blue line, it might be that there doesn’t seem to be a stud that sticks out, particularly to quarterback the power play.
Up front, Canada boasts two top-four NHL draft picks in Mitch Marner and Dylan Strome. They have plenty of other talented forwards as well, though the knock is that Canada might be a little small.
Canada has not won gold in Europe since 2008, which was the fourth of five straight world junior titles for Canada from 2005-09.
You won’t get a lot of value betting on Canada to win the gold, but it’s hard to argue with that pick.
United States (+299)
It’s a little surprising to see the Americans ranked so highly by the oddsmakers. This is a very young team and while many of their competitors got stronger with loans from the NHL and AHL (see William Nylander, Sweden), the U.S. was unable to secure several of its top players for this tournament. That includes Paul Bittner (injury) and Noah Hanifin (not made available by the Hurricanes).
The U.S. has lots of talented players, they’re just inexperienced. They hadn’t completely finalized their roster as of Dec. 21, when this preview was posted, so it’s a little early to speculate on exactly who will be on the team. We’ll update this part of the world junior hockey betting preview when the U.S. roster is announced.
At just 3:1 odds, we don’t expect to be betting on the Americans to win the gold this year.
Russia (+524)
The bad news for Russia is that they don’t have a clear No. 1 goalie. The good news is that they seem to have two goalies very capable of being the top dog in Capitals first-rounder Ilya Samsonov and Alexandar Georgiev, which could prove valuable in a short tournament or in case of injury.
Ivan Provorov, who has averaged nearly a point per game this season with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, is a stud on a Russian defence corps that is otherwise mediocre, but defence has never been Russia’s strength.
Offence is what the Russians are known for, and they’ll bring it again this year with Red Wings first-rounder Evgeni Svechnikov and undrafted Maxim Lazarev. Predators draft pick Yakov Trenin, who has struggled a bit this year in the QMJHL, could round out a solid top line, and Russia also has good talent on its second and third lines.
Silver medalists last year, Russia has potential to reach the championship game once again. At better than 5:1, that’s pretty good value.
Sweden (+411)
The Swedes are motivated by a disappointing performance last year, when they failed to win a medal for the first time since 2011. And they’ll have three of the top 10 scorers back from last year’s tournament, including Leafs prospect William Nylander, Oskar Lindblom and Adrian Kempe.
Sweden has three potential first-round picks in next year’s NHL draft (Rasmus Asplund, Carl Grundstrom and Alexander Nylander).
It’s not like Sweden laid an egg last year. They won all of their group stage games and scored the second-most goals in round robin play, but they fell 4-1 in the semis to Russia and then couldn’t rebound to defeat Slovakia in the bronze-medal game.
The downside for Sweden is that they’re pooled with Canada and USA in Group A. They’ll need to defeat either one of those teams in order to have an easier quarter-final game, though they’re completely capable of beating Russia or Finland in the quarters and advancing to the final regardless.
Rather than taking Sweden +411 pre-tournament, we suggest waiting to see how pool play unfolds and then checking out their odds at that point.
Finland (+627)
The Finns boast perhaps the best goaltending tandem in the tournament in Veini Vehvilainen (just 18 years old) and Wild prospect Kaapo Kahkonen.
They also have two stud defencemen in Olli Juolevi and Vili Saarijarvi, who have turned heads as OHL rookies this year.
On forward, Finland has good speed, experience, balance and depth, led by Sebastian Aho, Rangers prospect Aleksi Saarela and highly-touted Jesse Puljujarvi.
With this year’s tournament on their home ice, Finland is aiming high. Whether the home crowd will help spur them on or whether they’ll feel too much pressure will probably be the biggest factor in whether Finland can challenge for gold or not.
At +627 odds to win the gold, Finland is worth a shot.
Czech Republic (+4200)
Goaltending was the main culprit in the Czechs’ disappointing showing last year, but that might not be the case this time as both Vitek Vanecek and Daniel Vladar return with a year’s experience under their belt. Vanecek is a Washington Capitals pick and Vladar went in the third round this year to the Bruins.
The defence is anchored by Bruins first-rounder Jakub Zboril, who should be motivated by being cut from the team last year, and Lightning prospect Dominik Masin.
Forwards are led by Devils prospect Pavel Zacha, who collected 34 points in 37 games as an OHL rookie last year, and goal scoring shouldn’t be an issue for the Czechs.
The Czech Republic has not won a world junior hockey medal in a decade, but has the potential to make things tough for opponents and might be flying under the radar a bit after last year’s ugly performance.
The Czechs should be a good puck line bet as underdogs in the tournament.
Switzerland (+10900)
Switzerland narrowly avoided relegation in last year’s tournament, but that result may have been misleading. The Swiss beat the Czech Republic during the preliminary round, but Denmark’s surprising success bumped Switzerland out of the quarter-finals.
Now, Switzerland returns 10 members from last year’s team, including three of its top scorers and both goalies. Eight players who attended their tryout camp play in a pro Swiss league, and four are in the Canadian Hockey League. They also boast a few NHL draft picks.
This doesn’t mean Switzerland is a medal contender, or even a sure thing to advance to the playoff round. But don’t just dismiss this team because it’s Switzerland.
All that world junior experience makes them a tough out for any team, and maybe worth a few puck line bets during this tournament.
Slovakia (+21800)
The Slovaks surprised us all by winning bronze last year, riding previously-unknown Denis Godla who was named the tournament’s top goaltender. Godla is gone now, and it will be hard for Adam Huska – a late-round pick by the Rangers – to fill his skates.
Slovakia doesn’t have any top-end talent on its blue line, but it has a few players that have proven themselves to be capable in the top men’s league in Slovakia, the OHL or in past world junior tournaments.
Radovan Bondra (no relation to Peter), Kristian Pospisil and Matus Sukel lead a sizable forward unit (the average height on the Slovak roster is 6-foot-1). There isn’t a ton of offensive talent on this team, but many players are familiar with each other from having played together on other teams in the past.
Slovakia will want to play things close to the vest, so Under is the best way to look in their games.
Denmark (+55600)
The Danes were a huge story last year, reaching the quarter-finals. That was with George Sorenson saving the day in net, though, and he’s not available this year. Thomas Lillie and Lasse Munk Petersen have looked good in recent international play, but Denmark will need them to play like Sorenson to even have a chance in any games.
That’s because they’re also without a lot of their offensive talent from last year, returning just three forwards.
On defence, Swedish pro player Matias Lassen and Hamilton Bulldogs OHLer Christian Mieritz are two of the only bright spots.
Denmark will be in tough to avoid relegation to Division 1A next year.
You’ll probably cash a few bets betting against Denmark on the puck line.
Belarus (+55600)
Belarus got into the top division of the world junior hockey championships with a strong team last year, but unfortunately only four of the players from that team were eligible for this year’s tournament. That means Belarus enters this competition with a young squad that appears overmatched.
If there’s a bright spot for Belarus, it’s their two goalies – Alexander Osipkov and Vladislav Verbitski. Osipkov was the top goalie for Belarus at last year’s Division 1A U18 tournament, and Verbitski has played well with the Dynamo U20 team and in a win at the Four Nations tournament in November.
Belarus might hang around for a bit in games, but they’re in over their heads. They might be a good team to fade in live betting if the game is still close in the second period.