If you are sick of the constant talk about the New York Rangers salary cap situation, restricted free agency and buyouts, there is hockey action going on at the World Junior Summer Showcase.
The tournament is happening now in Plymouth, Michigan and features rising stars from the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland. There are some future New York Rangers participating in the showcase that will feature 11 matches over nine days.
The USA team is a preview of the team that will play at the 2020 World Junior Championships. Representing the Rangers is defenseman K’Andre Miller, who was on the silver medal winning U.S. National Team in January. The 2018 first round pick is expected to be one of the cornerstones of the 2020 team. He is joined by blueliner Zac Jones, the Rangers third round pick in this year’s June draft.
Team Sweden included three future Blueshirts. 2018 first round pick Nils Lundkvist made the roster on the blueline for the team. He is joined by 2019 second rounder Karl Henriksson, a center. The third Ranger on the team is goalie Olof Lindbom, one of three goalies on the team. Lindbom was the Rangers second round pick in 2018, a pick that raised some eyebrows in Rangerland.
The teams from Canada and Finland have no Rangers prospects. This shouldn’t be seen necessarily as a negative. This is a tournament for players under the age of 20 and there are many players on the rosters who haven’t been drafted yet. Ten of the 24 players on Team Finland are draft eligible in 2020 though Team Canada is made up almost completely of players selected this June.
Competition so far
There have been four games played so far. The United States has so many players on their roster that they split their team in two, USA Blue and USA White. K’Andre Miller and Zac Jones are on USA White and saw action in two games, losing to Finland 3-2 and to Sweden 2-1.
In the loss to Finland, Zac Jones had an assist and three shots on goal. In the loss to Sweden, Miller notched an assist on a power play goal by Staten Island native Arthur Kaliyev. Jones added an additional three shots on goal in that contest though he finished the game minus two.
As for Team Sweden, both Lundkvist and Henriksson played in a 4-2 loss to USA Blue. Lundkvist sat out the win over USA White while Henriksson played, but he didn’t dent the scoresheet although he had two shots on goal.
It was revealed that Lundkvist had sustained a lower body injury late in the game against Team USA and will miss the remainder of the tournament. Nhl.com reported this comment from Sweden coach Tomas Monten: “We’re not going to play him anymore. Maybe he’ll get an X-ray (Monday) and we’ll have to talk to Lulea as well to find out what they’re saying. He got caught up in the net somehow at the end of the game and didn’t feel good.”
Lundkvist is due to play for Lulea in the Swedish Hockey League this season.
afterCompetition resumes on Tuesday with the final version of the USA team on the ice. The game to watch will be Wednesday’s match between USA and Sweden when the future Rangers will face off against each other.
How to watch
The early games in the tournament are available for a fee from hockeytv.com. The final six games of the series will be telecast live on the NHL Network. Here is the schedule of games on the NHL Network:
Wednesday, July 31Friday, August 2Saturday, August 3
Sweden vs. Finland 1:00 p.m.
USA vs. Canada 4:00 p.m.