I never want my “scouting” work/prospect coverage to let up, especially for guys who are coming up on their draft eligibility, so I’m going to be doing a wrap-up of each day’s worth of action in one of the most important junior tournaments there is (even despite its lack of official sanctioning by the IIHF). With this taking place in the summer, unlike the IIHF U18’s, you are guaranteed to see a wide breadth of talent due to a lack of schedule conflicts, while USA Hockey also gives a shot to talents outside the US NTDP. Ergo, you won’t be reading about what the likes of James Hagens will be doing in this series. You’ll have to wait until the World Juniors come around for something like that. That said, you’ll still be reading about some really good players making a statement about their value as future NHL talents on a big stage.

With this being a week-long event that is going on during a busy time in our publishing schedule, these articles won’t include exhaustive reports on each game, but will instead feature quick hit summaries featuring my thoughts on each day’s worth of action and some events and individual performances that stood out to me. We’ll knock ’em down one-by-one in sequential order:

Game one: Sweden 4-3 Slovakia (OT)

LW Filip Ekberg (Almtuna IS, 2025 NHL Entry Draft eligible) lived up to his reputation as a smart player in the OZ in this matchup and had both the goal that opened the scoring and the OT GWG to show for it. Naturally, I was impressed by one of our favorites in the form of C/W Viggo Björck (Djurgårdens IF, 2026 NHL Entry Draft eligible), as well, with him having injections of speed and well-placed pucks to adrenalize shifts pretty often. He only got on the stat sheet once today with an assist, but his minutes definitely were not anything resembling “cardio” at any point. I expect him to make his mark in an even more apparent fashion as the tournament progresses. F Jakob Ihs-Wozniak (Luleå HF, 2025 NHL Entry Draft eligible) also stood out to me with his positional awareness and overall IQ, as well. He was aided by a fortuitous bounce on his goal, which Björck tallied the primary assist on, but he looked legitimately impressive out there. Much credit to LW Viktor Klingsell (Skellefteå AIK, 2025 NHL Entry Draft) for his game high 3 points via 1g-2a, as well. He was engaged offensively and he and his team benefited from it.

The persistence of the Slovak squad ended up surprising me, as I figured they were going to make a game out of it even when the advantage in sustained pressure and getting penetration laid firmly in the hands of the Swedes, but they took it to an even further extent than I anticipated. I was thoroughly entertained and satisfied by the fact that this game ended up going to overtime. They’re going be a nuisance of a matchup for their opponents throughout, I have a feeling. A couple of players on Slovakia who stood out to me in their efforts to hang with Sweden included C/RW Tobias Tomik (HK Dukla Trencin, 2026 NHL Entry Draft eligible) and F Adam Nemec (Team Slovakia U18, 1Liga, 2026 NHL Entry Draft eligible – brother of D Simon Nemec of NJD). This group is resilient and I won’t be surprised if they compete for a medal at the end of this.

Game two: Germany 2-1 Finland (OT)

Admittedly, I had to miss this one, so I can’t offer much insight. However, I will say I was happy with the result, but not terribly shocked. This incarnation of the German team has some low-key impressive talents on it. For them to seemingly play a competitive game effectively wire-to-wire with Finland and overcome the adversity of allowing the first goal of the game twelve seconds into the second period wasn’t beyond the realm of my imagination. RecruitScouting has a terrific article that you should read that features some strong analysis of this group.

Game three: Czech Republic 2-1 USA

The story of this game centers on C Adam Benák (Youngstown Phantoms, 2025 NHL Entry Draft eligible), in my opinion. His creation abilities were on point and factored him into registering assists on both goals, with his awareness being especially on display when connecting with LW/RW Adam Novotný (Mountfield HK, 2026 NHL Entry Draft eligible) for the game-tying goal. There were also times where it felt like he was driving the play just by being the fastest kid on the ice. He has an uphill battle ahead of him due to his small stature at 5’7″, but his skill will see to it that having a terrific career is still very, very much attainable. Sioux Falls Stampede (University of Minnesota commit, 2025 NHL Entry Draft eligible) D Matt Grimes’ accidental Stephen Curry-esque score from center ice was definitely an accident, but he also did put in a legitimately good performance, making solid reads and exhibiting good decision-making skills.

Game four: Canada 10-0 Switzerland

What can you say?

The guys that you’d expect to do their jobs to great success showed up. C/LW Gavin McKenna (Medicine Hat Tigers, 2026 NHL Entry Draft eligible) put on the sort of show that you’d anticipate from the player perceived as the next generational talent. He tallied 1g-2a, impacting shifts sometimes by being just so good at the fundamentals that he was dictating play just by getting the little things right (a marker of true skill) and other times by using quick bursts of top-end speed. His shot on the five-on-three that yielded his goal was a reminder that not only is his shot a laser beam, it’s already impressively deceptive. Despite being their youngest player, you can see why McKenna is effectively the talisman for Canada right now. He’s going to piggyback well off of his historic performance at the U18’s. D Matthew Schaefer (Erie Otters, 2025 NHL Entry Draft eligible) made a statement about his very possible D1 status for this upcoming class. Sometimes, he was just tearing the game up via absurd processing abilities (which could be visible both when facilitating the offense like a point guard from the back-end or by making timely defensive plays which turned into leading the transition on the attack – Hockey IQ exists in multiple forms and he may just have all of them). However, his skill was on display, too, particularly on both of his goals wherein his footwork and his stick work’s top capabilities were on display. He has a long runway as one of the youngest players in his draft class as a September 2007 birthday and as a player at a position that takes longer to develop, but he looks like a unicorn already. He should go high in the draft, no question. Focusing on the present, however, Schaefer most certainly earned his player of the game honors between his impacts, his 2 flashy goals, and his primary assist on McKenna’s tally.

However, as great as these performances were and while I could also give nods to the primary linemates of the player I’m going to talk about in the forms of C Caleb Desnoyers (Moncton Wildcats, 2025 NHL Entry Draft eligible) and LW Émile Guité (Chicoutimi Saguenéens, 2025 NHL Entry Draft eligible), I know what my favorite story of the night is. C/RW Cole Reschny (Victoria Royals, 2025 NHL Entry Draft eligible) had a game-high five points and it wasn’t by accident. On his two goals (assisted by McKenna and 2025-e C Brady Martin of the Soo Greyhounds, respectively) to close out the scoring, he did an exceptional job finding soft ice/getting into exceptional scoring position and teeing off. He served as both a great primary and secondary playmaker in the game, starting plays in a manner yielded by effort and getting things going even when the game wasn’t opening up for him. He showed forechecking and board work prowess in this game and even did well as a netfront guy. I was rooting for the Macklin, SK native, whose status as my favorite current prospect is something I make no secret of, and I knew he’d make an impact, but my expectations were shattered by being day one’s leading point scorer. If he was any sort of well-guarded secret, he won’t be by tournament’s end, and I guarantee you the obvious talent he has will also be even more apparent throughout his DY.

Tomorrow (technically today)’s schedule:

Game five: Germany vs. Czech Republic – 2:00 PM ET

Game six: Finland vs. USA – 5:30 PM ET

Game seven: Sweden vs. Switzerland – 7:30 PM ET

Game eight: Canada vs. Slovakia – 9:30 PM ET