The Columbus Blue Jackets may be struggling at the NHL level, but a couple of their prospects are off to a hot start at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC). They have four representatives in the tournament, which features the best players from each nation who are under the age of 20. From the 2023 Draft class, Gavin Brindley is representing the United States of America and Oiva Keskinen is playing for Team Finland. Meanwhile, Canada has two of the Blue Jackets’ top prospects, who are a little older, Jordan Dumais and Denton Mateychuk.
Brindley’s Player of the Game
Brindley had the most impressive debut in the WJC of all Blue Jackets prospects, as he was named player of the game for USA following a two-goal outing against Norway. Both of his goals came in the second period, and one ended up being the game-winning goal as well. Although Jimmy Snuggerud of the St. Louis Blues organization opened the scoring, Brindley put the game out of reach for an impressive Norwegian team. He’s coming off of a solid rookie performance in last year’s tournament, where he posted a total of four points through six games. Now, he has a much bigger role and his ability to play anywhere in the lineup will be a key piece of USA’s success this year.
Brindley has also been playing very well at the University of Michigan in the NCAA. That team has undergone a major facelift this season, as Adam Fantilli, Luke Hughes, and quite a few others are no longer with the team. As a result, he has a bigger role there as well and his goal-scoring ability has shined. Although he’s keeping up the point-per-game pace we saw from him last season, he’s already scored 10 goals in 18 games this season compared to the 12 he scored in 41 games last season. There’s a lot of pressure on the American team this year, as Group B seems to be the easier of the two groups so a single loss would be a drastic disappointment. They’re going to have to rely on their leadership to make sure nobody gets complacent, as considering Brindley was named as an alternate captain; he’s going to have quite a bit of that responsibility.
Check-In With the Canadians
Dumais and Mateychuk are making their WJC debuts this season at the age of 19. Due to their age, this will be their only opportunity to play in the tournament and they’ll be looking to make an impact. Dumais nearly made the Blue Jackets roster out of training camp in October, but following an injury, he was one of the final cuts and was sent back to the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). He played very well for Canada in the pre-tournament games, putting up a total of five points in three games. However, in the first game of the tournament against Finland, he was held off the score sheet. In his league play though, he continues to be a QMJHL superstar. Through 21 games, he currently has 47 points and if he continues at that pace, he can easily pass his point total from last season, which was 140 in 64 games.
Mateychuk on the other hand got quite a bit of responsibility from Canada’s head coach Alan Letang. He recorded an assist in the opening contest against Finland and played 24:03. As the captain of the Moose Jaw Warriors, he will undoubtedly embrace the amount of weight on his shoulders in the tournament and I’d expect him to continue being one of Canada’s top defensemen on a nightly basis.
The Other Side of Canada vs Finland
Oiva Keskinen was a seventh-round pick by the Blue Jackets in the 2023 NHL Draft, and like the previously mentioned Canadians, he’s making his debut in the WJC this year. He was on the losing end of the opening night matchup between Canada and Finland, but he did see quite a bit of ice time. He played 18:12 in the 5-2 loss to Canada and will look to show what he can do in their next game against Germany on Dec. 27. As a rookie in the Finnish Liiga, he’s been very impressive right out of the gate. He currently has 15 points through 29 games for Tappara, and the Liiga is typically a fairly difficult league for young prospects to produce in.
Related: 2024 Guide to the World Junior Championship
The WJC is underway and Blue Jackets fans have a reason to be excited for the next couple of weeks. Although things have been rough in Columbus this season, this is a nice reminder that it won’t always be that way and the organization has a bright future.
