It's a new year and another IIHF World Junior Championship has been concluded. The United States stunned Canada on their home ice (Saskatchewan) in overtime to win their second Gold Medal ever at the WJCs.   Scott Stevens fan and Washington Capitals prospect John Carlson was the hero with the glorious end-to-end game winner.  Per SBNation, the American U-20 team was jubilant as expected after a monumental victory.  Here's a video from HockeyWebcast on Youtube of highlights of the final game so you can see how it all broke down.

So Canada came away with a Silver medal and Sweden stomped on the Swiss to take home the Bronze.   Not that either team is ecstatic over their result, but at least they got a medal.  Maybe if Canada didn't allow a two goal deficit to the U.S. to come back to, they'd have the gold.  If Sweden had some players from junior leagues like, just to pick a name at random, Alexander Urbom, then perhaps it would have made a difference against the Americans.  I'm not saying, I'm just saying.  2011 in Buffalo, NY will certainly be an interesting one to see the United States defend their title.

Admittedly, none of the four Devils prospects broke out with huge point totals in the tournament.  For Sweden, it was the Magnus Paajvari-Svensson (3 G, 7 A) show featuring Ander Petersson (8 G, 3 A) and Anton Rodin (3 G, 7 A).  As for Canada, Taylor Hall (6 G, 6 A), Alex Pietrangelo (3 G, 9 A), and Jordan Eberle (8 G, 5 A, massive "comeback-ability") got the spotlight.  This isn't to say the Devils prospects didn't do anything.  Patrice Cormier was the captain for Canada; Mattias Tedenby and Jacob Josefson played well together; and Adam Henrique was moved away from his Windsor teammates Taylor Hall and Greg Nemisz and managed fourth line duty. 

Moreover, I admittedly didn't watch these games closely; so I can't comment on how they played in general.  So please leave a comment in this thread or let me know by some other way (e-mail, FanPost if it's detailed enough) of what you thought of either of the four Devils prospects in this tournament.   Let's discuss how the prospects did.  What follows is a quick summary of what each player did in the 2010 WJCs.

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Hockey doesn't come cheap too often, so a chance to see the Lowell Devils of the AHL take on the Hartford Wolfpack - farm team of Our Hated Rivals - for $15 at the Prudential Center was too good for myself and a buddy of mine to pass up.  We got more than our money's worth, getting treated to a night of tense, tough and tenacious hockey, culminating in a 3-2 Lowell win in the final minute... oh, and a line brawl featuring goaltender Jeff Frazee, who was solid in the winning effort, making 28 saves.

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Ryan Remiorz - AP

Jacob Josefson will represent Sweden again at the IIHF 2010 World Junior Championships. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz)

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The 2010 IIHF World Junior Championships are upon us!  The most prestigious U-20 tournament in the world will be hosted by Canada, specifically Saskatchewan.  See the best prospects from recent drafts and a few for the next draft.  Four New Jersey Devils prospects will be representing their nation in the tournament, and so they warrant our attention.

Four Devils in the tournament isn't bad at all.  At one point there were six possibilities.  Michigan center David Wohlberg was in the United States evaluation camp, but he was cut on Sunday.  Brandon defenseman Alexander Urbom, of course, did not make the roster for unclear, but possibly daft reasons. Considering how Canada apparently dominated Sweden in a recent exhibition game, maybe Sweden could have used a big defenseman who is experienced on the North American-sized rink and the style of hockey that the Canadian juniors play.   Your loss, Sweden!  (At least Urbom can use this snub as motivation to continue improving his game in the WHL.)

In any case, the 2010 IIHF WJCs will run from December 26 through January 5.  With the Devils being real busy with games in that time frame, I'll be keeping an open thread for the WJCs in the FanPosts. I'll provide little updates on these four prospects in particular.

With the Christmas break keeping many teams idle today, I'd figure today was a good day as to put together another stat update of the various prospects in the Devils' system.  With Vladimir Zharkov playing up in New Jersey, I took him off and put Matt Halischuk - who is now in Lowell - back in the list.  Please let me know how the players are actually playing beyond the stats, if you have seen them play, in the comments.  Let's use this as a point of discussion about the team's prospects.  The basic stats I could find, of course, don't tell the whole story - so anything you have to add is most appreciated.

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Two days ago, Sweden announced their roster for the 2010 World Junior Championships to be played in Saskatchewan, Canada.  Devils prospects Mattias Tedenby (23 GP, 2 G, 3 A with HV71) and Jacob Josefson (20 GP, 3 G, 5 A with Djurgardens) were named to the roster; but Alexander Urbom was not.  Even the IIHF article about the team's roster was surprised at the omission of Urbom and two other Swedish players.

When an article from the organization that's running the tournament is surprised at some of a team's selection, it's definitely not a minor issue.  To get some insight, I've contacted Adam Savonen of Norren's Hockeyblogg, which is based in Skelleftea about the omissions.   While the emphasis is on AIK, Savonen follows the Swedish Elite Leagues as well as Sweden's national teams. 

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This is certainly an interesting move.  The injuries to the Devils have offered us a chance to see the organization to experiment with youth in a big way for the first time in a long time.  That continues with the Devils calling 24-year old defenseman Tyler Eckford up from Lowell (AHL).  

Tom Gulitti has thoughts from GM Lou Lamoriello:

"He's playing extremely well, so we're going to take a look at him," Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "He'll come in and practice with us today and then it will be a coach's decision (whether he plays Thursday)."

Eckford has 5 goals and 10 assists on the season, pretty solid numbers for a defenseman.  I always liked watching him in pre-season games and scrimmages I've checked out at The Rock.  This will be a chance for the 2nd round pick from 2004 to play his first NHL game, as Murphy's being sent down means that either he or Matt Corrente will play their first NHL game this Thursday in Nashville.

Since the New Jersey Devils prepare for tomorrow's game against Buffalo, most of the news today focuses on the Devils' gameplan for tomorrow.  That will be covered in tomorrow's preview.  To pass the time, why not check out how the team's prospects are doing in their respective leagues?

Now, I've seen none of them actually play with their current teams.  So feel free to call this lazy, stat-sheet analysis.  Nevertheless, I took Hockey's Future's list of the Top 20 Devils prospects and looked up the stats for each player.  The only exceptions are Nicklas Bergfors and Matt Halischuk, as both are with the New Jersey Devils.  I also included some additional notable prospects in Lowell (e.g. Eric Castonguay) as well as the rest of the 2009 draft class to give a broader look at who is in the system.  That draft class, by the way, is now college-heavy on the lower end now that Curtis Gedig has committed to Ohio State for next year.  He joins Derek Rodwell as a 2010 NCAA committed player and Helgeson, who is already in with Minnesota.

The big chart comes right after the jump.  Please note that all stats were taken from the team's or league's respective sites as of October 27, 2009.

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While the focus here has appropriately been on the New Jersey Devils for the past month with training camp and preseason, the Swedish Elite League has already begun play.  This is important because two of the top Devils' prospects - if not the best prospects - in the system are playing right now.  Jacob Josefson is playing for Djurgardens and Mattias Tedenby is playing for HV71, and they are up with their senior teams now. 

Note: I'm running these links of match reports and the like through Google Translator.  They lead to some "interesting" and sometimes hard to parse results in English.   So be forewarned should you want to check them out.   Also, be forewarned that I'm basically highlighting what they've said - so yeah, I'm being a bit lazy. If you have seen the game and/or follow either team, by all means, feel free to add your comments.

So far HV71 has played 4 games, while Djurgardens IF has played only 2.  Let's see how both teams are performing this season, as well as what Tedenby and Josefson have contributed.

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Earlier this morning, Tom Gulitti reported that the Devils finally made their first cuts of training camp.  In total, 13 players were assigned to the Lowell Devils and 5 were returned to their respective junior teams.   The fight isn't over for those who've been demoted to Lowell as a number of those cut are still on tryout contracts - they could end up in Lowell, end up signed but sent to Trenton, or not make the organization entirely.

Incidentally, all the prospects who played in the Devils-Rangers preseason game are still with New Jersey. So if you're a Nicklas Bergfors, Vladimir Zharkov, or a Mark Fraser fan, you have to be pleased with this.  Junior-eligible defenseman Alexander Urbom and center Patrice Cormier are still with New Jersey, signs that they are having a good September so far.  Also, some who have not played with the Devils roster are still around, such as defensemen Matthew Corrente and Tyler Eckford and center Michael Swift.   Whether or not they'll survive the second cut or make the team is entirely another question, but they passed the first test.

The full list of players cut and a quick thought about each will come after the jump.

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