World Junior Championship Recap: Tampa Bay Lightning

Every season as we prepare to enter a new year, some of the biggest prospects from every NHL team gear up to take on the most elite players under the age of 20 from around the world.

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In a tournament that is frequently used to gauge just how good players will be at the NHL level, every shift matters for every player.

Many of these prospects are playing their first games in a real high-pressure environment.

We’ll break down exactly what that meant for the three Tampa Bay Lightning players who made their way to Canada for the tournament.

Click here to read more about the expectations of each player going into the tournament

Anthony DeAngelo (Defenseman, United States): There where high expectations going into the tournament for Tampa Bay’s 2014 first round draft pick. In his first game, DeAngelo looked a bit shaky and hesitant to jump onto offense. He got beat in quite a few battles and made some defensive mistakes.

After that game, it was hard to find a thing the guy did wrong. The offensive presence of DeAngelo was as good as any forward on the team, let alone a defenseman. Although he was not the most sound defenseman on the ice, his offensive abilities did make up for it. He tallied two goals and three points in five games.

DeAngelo is going to need a pretty substantial amount of time in the AHL before he is ready to make the step up to the big league. Although he is a talented prospect, his defensive game is not anywhere near where it needs to be. In the OHL, DeAngelo is able to play deep into the offensive zone and rely on his speed to get him back in time to stop breaks the other way. The higher the skill level of the competition, the less that strategy is going to work. That is likely why the prospect struggled to get his bearings in the first game of World Juniors.

Brayden Point (Center, Canada): We knew a lot less about Point going into the tournament then we knew about DeAngelo. Point was drafted in the third round of the 2014 draft by the Lightning. Before the tournament, there wasn’t much to say about the kid. After the tournament, you could write a book on the way he played. It was like seeing Martin St. Louis on the ice after he already had ten years of NHL experience.

With only a few minutes of ice time in each game, Point had minimal opportunity to impress those that were watching him, yet he managed to do something special on every shift. He was constantly beating opponents with his speed, winning 50/50 battles, setting up scoring chances, and helping defenders keep the puck in the zone.

Point ended up playing his best game in the final against Russia where he got more ice time then any other game in the tournament. The center finished with two goals and four points through seven games, although with his playing time it was more like three games. Watch out for this kid, he could be the next underdog to make an impact in the NHL.

Dominik Masin (Defenseman, Czech Republic): Masin was drafted by the Lightning in the second round of the 2014 draft. Even though he only tallied a single assist over five games in the tournament, Masin had quite a big impact on his team. Masin has a nearly nonexistent offensive presence, but he does his job defensively. His is fantastic at backchecking and quickly clearing the puck out of the zone. He has a vision down the ice that allows him to make great breakout passes and start a rush the other way.

Masin will likely develop into an NHL play more quickly then DeAngelo will on defense. It is far easier to teach a defensively-sound player to play at a higher level. Don’t take that as us saying that Masin has a higher ceiling, because that is far from true. Given time to mature, DeAngelo has the ability to become a top-pair defenseman.

Next: Has The Decline Of Ben Bishop Already Begun?

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