Prospect Report: Three CBJ draft picks headed to World Juniors

For many hockey fans, it's the most wonderful time of the year.
The annual IIHF World Junior Championship begins Monday -- Boxing Day, in some corners of the world -- and always provides plenty of intrigue as well as a look at the future stars of the sport.

The tournament matches the top Under-20 talent in the world wearing the sweaters of their home countries in a tournament that has steadily grown in stature over the past three-plus decades. It's a bona fide celebration in Canada -- which will again host, with Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick, doing the honors this year -- and also a major event across the world as countries see how their young hockey talent stacks up against the rest of the world.
Canada is coming off the championship of the 2022 tournament, and Blue Jackets fans might remember how that ended. The tournament was moved from its usual December-January schedule to August because of COVID, and current CBJ forward Kent Johnson scored the tournament-winning golden goal in the final against Finland.
This time around, three Blue Jackets prospects are expected to take part, and they'll be familiar names to those who have followed the tournament in years past. While there are 10 teams in the Maritimes ready to battle for the crown, all three CBJ draft picks are on the same squad -- Czechia, which upset Team USA in the quarterfinals in August and has what it thinks could have one of its most talented entrants in some time.
Leading the way will be potential captain David Jiricek, the Jackets' top pick in the 2022 draft at No. 6 overall. The big defenseman who excels in both zones already has skated in two games with the Blue Jackets this season and is off to a tremendously impressive start with Cleveland of the AHL, notching a 4-14-18 line in 18 games, plus a career-best three assist game Saturday.
Jiricek is a veteran of the World Juniors, having taken part in each of the past two versions of the event and accumulating a 1-5-6 line in 12 games. He also skated for Czechia at the 2022 World Championships, posting a goal and an assist in five games while playing against NHLers and other top players from around the world.
CBJ draft picks Stanislav Svozil and Martin Rysavy also have made the Czechia roster and return from the squad that participated this summer. Svozil also will be in his third World Juniors, as the 2021 third-round pick has posted a 1-3-4 line in 11 previous games from the blue line and could end up on the top pair with Jiricek. This season, he has a 5-32-37 line in 28 games with Regina of the WHL, where he is tied for fourth in the league in assists and leads the way in power-play assists with 23.
Rysavy will be in his second World Juniors after posting two goals in seven games this summer. The big wing, who was taken in the seventh round in 2021 by Columbus, has a 2-9-11 line in 21 games this year with Moose Jaw of the WHL.
Forward Jordan Dumais and defenseman Aidan Hreschuk were invited to Team Canada and Team USA camps, respectively, but did not make the final rosters.
To hear more about the Blue Jackets prospects competing at the World Juniors, Dylan Tyrer of the Blue Jackets radio network chatted this week with prospect expert Chris Peters of FloHockey and the Talking Hockey Sense podcast to preview the event.
CBJ Radio
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The Pipeline Podcast: World Junior Preview with Chris Peters

Monsters Update

What could have been a memorable night for the Cleveland Monsters, the top minor league team of the Blue Jackets in the AHL, instead ended on a rough note Tuesday night.
The Monsters built a 3-0 lead in the second period behind two Emil Bemstrom goals plus a tally from defenseman Brandon Davidson, but Utica stormed back with four straight goals (including three in the third) to down Cleveland by a 4-3 score. It was Bemstrom's fifth two-goal game of the season at the AHL level.
The loss was the second in a row for Cleveland and leaves the team fourth in the AHL North Division with a 12-10-1-2 record. Cleveland still has two games before the holiday, as the Monsters host Utica again tomorrow before traveling to take on Grand Rapids on Friday.
Sunday was also a 4-1 setback, this one coming against Laval, but the Monsters did get a goal from Joona Luoto that set off the team's annual teddy bear toss.

Before that, Cleveland did get a 7-4 win Saturday over Laval that included Jiricek's three assists. The Rocket actually led 3-1 and 4-3 before the Monsters scored four straight goals, as Bemstrom had two tallies and Trey Fix-Wolansky had a 1-2-3 line.
In all, Bemstrom has 14 goals in 20 games to tie for sixth in the AHL in tallies, and his 29 points are good for a tie for eighth in the league. Fix-Wolansky is also tied there with a 12-17-29 line in 20 games, while Brendan Gaunce has 7-11-18 in 17 games.

Visiting Russia

The Blue Jackets have four prospects currently playing in Russia, and it can be harder to keep tabs on those players given they are half a world away. But there's some pretty good things happening for forwards Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Dolzhenkov, defenseman Nikolai Makarov and goaltender Sergei Ivanov.
Voronkov is the closest to potentially making an impact with the Blue Jackets, and the 22-year-old recently completed a successful stint with the Russian national team at the Channel One Cup. The big, physical center drafted in the fourth round in 2019 has an 8-6-14 line in 29 games with Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL, with all eight goals coming in the last 10 games after an early-season injury.
Makarov is the next oldest player, as the defenseman was taken in the fifth round of the 2021 draft. The 19-year-old with good size has spent most of the season with Krasnaya Armiya Moskva, the junior arm of CSKA Moscow. So far, he has a goal and four assists in 18 games while posting 41 PIM and a plus-5 rating.
Dolzhenkov was taken in the fourth round of this past summer's draft and has spent most of the season on the same Krasnaya Armiya team. The massive 6-foot-6 forward is one of the top scorers in the MHL, posting a 12-17-29 line in 29 games while also playing five games with the big club without a point.
Ivanov is a goalie taken in the fifth round of this summer's draft who is on the other side of the Army Rivalry with SKA St. Petersburg. Just 18, he's played at three differenet levels in the SKA system this year, including two scoreless appearances in the KHL. He's spent the most time in the VHL, the top Russian minor league, where he has a 3.18 GAA and .900 save percentage in 11 games with SKA-Neva.

Prospect Notes

• Dumais hasn't seen his historic production levels in the QMJHL slide since he was cut from World Juniors camp, as the 2022 third-round pick has five goals and seven points in his last three games since returning to the Halifax lineup. In all, Dumais has 61 points, good for second in the CHL behind likely No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard, while he's tied for fifth in the CHL with 24 goals and tied for second with 37 assists. Halifax also just added the top goal scorer in the CHL, Alexandre Doucet (27 goals), so those numbers could even inch upwards.
• Meanwhile, two CBJ draft picks are also posting excellent seasons production wise in the Canadian junior ranks. 2021 fifth-round pick James Malatesta has 23 goals in 30 games with Quebec to place tied for fifth in the QMJHL in tallies, while 2022 second-rounder Luca Del Bel Belluz has a 17-17-34 line in 30 games with Mississauga of the OHL to place tied for 15th in the league in goals.
• 2021 first-round pick Corson Ceulemans is having a productive sophomore season at Wisconsin, posting a 5-7-12 line in 15 games so far for the Badgers.