As a tool for prospect evaluation, sometimes the World Juniors can be a bit overblown. It is technically as close to “best-on-best” as you can get at the U-20 level, but it is ultimately just a one-off tournament during the holidays that disproportionately benefits players who are playing well at that specific moment.
With two of the Flyers’ most important prospects representing Canada in Porter Martone and Jett Luchanko, it has been intriguing to watch how they have adapted to their linemates and different roles on what is a stacked roster full of future NHLers. At the same time however, there is only so much to be gleaned from games where they blitz an unsuspecting Danish team with nowhere near as much talent.