One of the things that the annual World Junior Hockey Championships offers, aside from a dose of pure adrenaline, is a hypothetical barometer for measuring the development of the prospects involved.
There’s a saying that goes “to be the best, you have to beat the best,” and there’s a lot of truth in that. There are undoubtedly some limitations with the World Juniors as a tool when it comes to adopting that mentality (elite teenagers like Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews were eligible to participate but did not, while a number of players that actually did will never come close to making the NHL), but nevertheless, it presents an undeniably impressive collection of talent each year representing the under-20 age group.