Three Blue Jackets prospects selected for World Juniors bubble

Jarmo Kekalainen was happy with the five players the Blue Jackets selected in the 2020 NHL draft in October.
Two months later, his selections have continued to impress, and three of them are now headed to the prestigious and hotly contested IIHF World Junior Championship later this month.

First-round pick Yegor Chinakhov of Russia, third-round selection Samuel Knazko of Slovakia and fourth-round pick Mikael Pyyhtia of Finland have traveled to Edmonton for the tournament and will represent their native countries in the event that will run from Dec. 25-Jan. 5.
The tournament won't quite have the same pageantry as usual -- because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the games will be held behind closed doors, shutting out the rabid Canadian crowds where the event has taken on an almost outsized importance -- but the games will still give the CBJ prospects a chance to see how they and their countries measure up at the Under-20 level.
Leading the way is Chinakhov, whom Columbus chose with the 21st overall pick of the draft. The 19-year-old winger had a standout year at the Russian junior level a season ago and has continued it this year with the big club, Avangard Omsk of the KHL, where he has used a lethal shot and strong offensive instincts to post eight goals and 15 points in 27 games this year. He is the top-scoring teenager in the KHL this year.
Internationally, Chinakhov played for the Team Russia during November at the Karjala Cup competition. The Russian team sent its U-20 squad to the event to face senior national teams as preparation for the World Juniors, and Chinakhov impressed with two goals in the three games. He is expected to be a second-line forward for Russia at the World Juniors and could be an X-factor offensively.
"I think he has a very high skill level, great on-ice awareness, he can see the ice, make plays, he has good one-on-one skills and a tremendous shot," Kekalainen said. "He has a lot of different qualities that we think are going to translate to the North American game and the NHL game, and that's why we drafted him where we did and that's why we had him so high on our list."
While the Slovakian team must still drop a handful of players from the roster of skaters it has traveled into the Edmonton bubble, Knazko is considered a lock to make the team and should be one of its leaders from the blue line. The 18-year-old two-way blueliner is having a standout season with the junior squad at TPS in Finland U-20 league, as Knazko has a 4-9-13 line in 22 games and is plus-16.
He is experienced at the international level, having skated for Slovakia's junior national teams for each of the past four seasons, including five games at the World Juniors a year ago.
"From the start of the season I am an all-around player," he said of his game upon being drafted in October. "A couple of years back, I was only like an offensive defenseman and I couldn't defend a lot, so now I have improved that a lot. I think I am now pretty much a two-way defenseman who likes to shoot, who likes to pass and make plays. Very creative, very good on his skates, I can skate very good, so I think I can bring that to Columbus also."
His TPS teammate, Pyyhtia, will be making his WJC debut at the upcoming event. The 18-year-old winger has joined Knazko in putting up strong numbers on the TPS junior squad, posting nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points in 16 games. Pyyhtia also has earned a call-up to the TPS senior squad in the Finnish Liiga, skating in two games.
He played seven games with Finland's U-20 national team a year ago, notching a goal among his three points.
"He's a skill player," Kekalainen said. "He's a work in progress, as they most are at this age, but he can score. He's got good hockey sense. He's got a good feel for the game. He's a skill player that we watched and he's another guy that we watched into this year now that they're playing over there. He's grown a lot from last year."
Columbus had four representatives at last year's tournament in Russian forwards Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov, Canadian forward Liam Foudy and Swiss defenseman Tim Berni, all of whom have aged out of the event. Foudy won gold with Canada a year ago before making his CBJ debut in February, while Marchenko and Voronkov have become KHL mainstays.