Day 3 at the World Juniors was a quieter one on the schedule, with just two games on deck. Here are the daily standouts and notes from The Athletic’s prospects writer Scott Wheeler.
• Czechia ran up the score on Kazakhstan, beating them 14-2 by scoring five-plus goals on both of Kazakhstan’s goalies and forcing a rare double goalie pull. Three Czech players had hat tricks. St. Louis Blues prospect Jakub Stancl was named player of the game for Czechia with three goals, five points, seven shots and a plus-six rating. Kraken D prospect Jakub Fibigr had four assists from the back end.
• USA beat Latvia 5-1 but the Latvians, a night after one of the tournament’s all-time great upsets against Canada, hung in on the tail end of their back-to-back against a rested American squad. Latvia held the shot advantage at the midway point of the game before USA pulled away.
Islanders’ Nelson impresses for USA
It’s not easy playing between the highly talented but at-times enigmatic Cole Eiserman (NY Islanders) and Trevor Connelly (Vegas), two 18-year-olds who are all-offense in a lot of ways. But Danny Nelson has slotted between them really nicely early on in the tournament and scored twice on Saturday, once at even strength and once on the power play. He was named USA’s player of the game and it was well-deserved. Nelson’s a big boy with a defensive conscience who plays a detailed two-way game that has added layers over the years. He looks like a future NHLer to me. — Scott Wheeler
Hagens continues to rack up points
One of the storylines of this year’s tournament coming in was the race for first overall in the 2025 NHL Draft and the potential big roles that all three of the prospects in it could play. Porter Martone, after starting high in Canada’s lineup through selection camp and into pre-tournament, has played mostly down the lineup early on. And while Matthew Schaefer emerged as the front-runner for No. 1 and looked like arguably Canada’s best defenseman through four periods, he’s now done for the tournament after breaking his collarbone against Latvia on Friday.
GO DEEPER
Canada’s Matthew Schaefer out for remainder of World Juniors with injury
Hagens is centring USA’s top line and has been excellent. I didn’t think he was as much of a factor in the third period against Latvia but he was great early on and made the play that set up two of USA’s goals. He now has six points (two goals, four assists) through two games and his skating, maneuverability and craft on the puck have stood out — and always do against his peers. — Scott Wheeler
(Photo of United States forward Ryan Leonard and Latvia goaltender Linards Feldbergs: Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press via AP)
