Although undrafted, Kristian Tanus led Finland in scoring at the 2020 World Juniors and became a champion with Tappara this year.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
If you’re a draft-eligible player who comes to the IIHF World Junior Championship after being passed over by NHL clubs, you can still shine individually on the international stage, come home with a medal, or go on to a strong NHL or IIHF career.
Want proof? Check out this diverse selection of players who defied the odds and the scouts in one way or another. We’ve listed the years in which each player appeared at the World Juniors in parentheses, as well as their national teams.
Our selection excludes players like Wayne Gretzky, who was never drafted prior to entering the NHL due to the terms of his personal services contract with then-Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, or the Soviet and Czechoslovakian stars who were not selected based on the unlikelihood of getting them to North America in the Iron Curtain political era.
Dieter Hegen (West Germany: 1981)
When West Germany hosted the 1981 World Juniors, expectations were low for the host nation. Udo Kiessling, the first German-born and trained player ever to make the NHL, was still more than a year away from his lone game with the Minnesota North Stars. So it was hardly surprising that no team had drafted Dieter Hegen at the 1980 NHL Draft at the Montreal Forum.
However, the talented 18-year-old left wing from ESV Kaufbeuren raised eyebrows when he led the World Juniors in Fussen with eight goals and one assist. Propelled by Hegen’s prowess, the West Germans tied Finland for the third-most goals at the tournament (29) and pulled off upsets over both the U.S. (4-2) and Canada (7-6). This prompted the Montreal Canadiens to draft him in the third round in 1981 (46th overall).
Although Hegen never made the jump across the Atlantic, he was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame as a five-time Olympian and 13-time World Championship participant.
Brian Rafalski (USA: 1992, 1993)
Do you love watching Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks skate and handle the puck? If so, you might also have been a fan of Brian Rafalski, the fellow American defenceman and three-time Stanley Cup champion to whom Hughes has been compared more than once.
Scouts didn’t recognize Rafalski’s potential. The University of Wisconsin-trained puck-mover was 18 at his first World Juniors in Germany (1992), where he earned a bronze medal, and 19 at his second one in Sweden (1993), where the U.S. settled for fourth place. Rafalski remained undrafted and only got his NHL shot with the New Jersey Devils after tearing up Finland’s SM-Liiga for three seasons with HPK and HIFK.
Rafalski, who won his third and last Cup with Detroit in 2008, also became a three-time U.S. Olympian, reaping silver medals in Salt Lake City (2002) and Vancouver (2010).
Niklas Backstrom (Finland: 1998)
In later years, Niklas Backstrom would struggle to avoid confusion with Nicklas Backstrom, the superstar centre of the Washington Capitals. In 1998, the 19-year-old Finnish goalie was under the radar for a different reason: he was Mika Noronen’s undrafted backup at the World Juniors in his native Helsinki.
Backstrom acquitted himself respectably with a 2.50 GAA and 91.1 save percentage in two starts and the Finns went all the way, edging Russia 2-1 in the gold medal game. It would be the lone IIHF title of Backstrom’s career, but he racked up other honours.
He backstopped Karpat Oulu to consecutive championships (2004, 2005) before being named to two Olympic teams (2006, 2010) and earning silver and bronze medals respectively. The longtime Minnesota Wild netminder also totalled two World Championship bronze medals (2006, 2008) and one silver (2016).
Sergei Bobrovski (Russia: 2008)
Sergei Bobrovski showed flashes of his raw talent during the 2007 Canada/Russia Super Series. But he also struggled overall with a 5.25 GAA and 85.3 save percentage in four defeats as Russia lost the eight-game U20 series with its archrival convincingly, registering just one tie.
So that may partly explain why the Novokuznetsk product’s NHL rights belonged to no one when the 19-year-old led Russia to a bronze medal at the 2008 World Juniors in Czechia.
However, Bobrovski morphed into an NHL superstar with the Columbus Blue Jackets, honing his athletic and technical skills under the tutelage of goalie coach Ian Clark. He won the Vezina Trophy in both 2013 and 2017 and registered a league-high 39 wins with the Florida Panthers last season. Moreover, “Bob” became a go-to in net for Russia in the mid-2010’s, peaking with his Best Goalie performance and gold medal at the 2014 Worlds in Minsk.
Artemi Panarin (Russia: 2011)
At the 2011 World Juniors in Buffalo, captain Vladimir Tarasenko and fellow 2010 first-round pick Yevgeni Kuznetsov were clearly the two most high-profile Russian forwards. They tied for second place in tournament scoring (4+7=11). However, when Russia shocked Canada with five unanswered third-period goals to win the gold medal game 5-3, Artemi Panarin led the way with two of those goals.
The undrafted, Korkino-born dipsy-doodler achieved KHL stardom with SKA St. Petersburg before signing his first NHL contract with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2016. Panarin, who owns Worlds silver (2015) and bronze (2016, 2017) medals, is currently the top offensive performer from that 2011 World Junior team. He had a personal-best 96 points with the New York Rangers, his third NHL club, and has 569 career points.
Philippe Myers (Canada: 2017)
The 2017 World Juniors certainly weren’t picture-perfect for Philippe Myers.
The towering defenceman from the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies was thrilled to get to play with Thomas Chabot on Canada’s top pairing at this home-ice tournament. Unfortunately, Myers saw his tournament end in a 3-1 New Year’s Eve loss to the Americans in Toronto when he was concussed on a high hit by Luke Kunin. Nonetheless, he gained recognition for his role in this silver-medal run.
Today, at age 25, Myers is still seeking to establish himself as an NHL full-timer, with 142 games under his best with the Philadelphia Flyers and Nashville Predators. But he’s added a 2019 Worlds silver medal to his resume. And when the Tampa Bay Lightning acquired Myers last month, clearing cap space by shipping veteran workhorse Ryan McDonagh to Nashville, it showed that the Bolts believe this never-drafted kid can potentially help them make a fourth straight run to the Stanley Cup finals.
Kristian Tanus (Finland: 2020)
Getting respect as a smaller player doesn’t always come easily in this game. Even though Kristian Tanus served as an assistant captain and tied for the team assists lead (six) in Finland’s 2018 U18 Worlds gold-medal victory, no NHL club took a flyer on the 172-cm, 72-kg forward at that year’s draft.
Undaunted, Tanus went out and led Finland with nine points at the 2020 World Juniors in the Czech Republic, showing off his playmaking skills as the Finns came fourth. This year, still just 21, he took another big step forward when he helped Tappara win the Finnish title at Tampere’s Nokia Arena.
Will Tanus ever be mentioned in the same breath as a Dieter Hegen or Artemi Panarin? It’s way too soon to say. But one thing is for sure: being an undrafted World Junior player doesn’t doom you to obscurity.
Want proof? Check out this diverse selection of players who defied the odds and the scouts in one way or another. We’ve listed the years in which each player appeared at the World Juniors in parentheses, as well as their national teams.
Our selection excludes players like Wayne Gretzky, who was never drafted prior to entering the NHL due to the terms of his personal services contract with then-Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, or the Soviet and Czechoslovakian stars who were not selected based on the unlikelihood of getting them to North America in the Iron Curtain political era.
Dieter Hegen (West Germany: 1981)
When West Germany hosted the 1981 World Juniors, expectations were low for the host nation. Udo Kiessling, the first German-born and trained player ever to make the NHL, was still more than a year away from his lone game with the Minnesota North Stars. So it was hardly surprising that no team had drafted Dieter Hegen at the 1980 NHL Draft at the Montreal Forum.
However, the talented 18-year-old left wing from ESV Kaufbeuren raised eyebrows when he led the World Juniors in Fussen with eight goals and one assist. Propelled by Hegen’s prowess, the West Germans tied Finland for the third-most goals at the tournament (29) and pulled off upsets over both the U.S. (4-2) and Canada (7-6). This prompted the Montreal Canadiens to draft him in the third round in 1981 (46th overall).
Although Hegen never made the jump across the Atlantic, he was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame as a five-time Olympian and 13-time World Championship participant.
Brian Rafalski (USA: 1992, 1993)
Do you love watching Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks skate and handle the puck? If so, you might also have been a fan of Brian Rafalski, the fellow American defenceman and three-time Stanley Cup champion to whom Hughes has been compared more than once.
Scouts didn’t recognize Rafalski’s potential. The University of Wisconsin-trained puck-mover was 18 at his first World Juniors in Germany (1992), where he earned a bronze medal, and 19 at his second one in Sweden (1993), where the U.S. settled for fourth place. Rafalski remained undrafted and only got his NHL shot with the New Jersey Devils after tearing up Finland’s SM-Liiga for three seasons with HPK and HIFK.
Rafalski, who won his third and last Cup with Detroit in 2008, also became a three-time U.S. Olympian, reaping silver medals in Salt Lake City (2002) and Vancouver (2010).
Niklas Backstrom (Finland: 1998)
In later years, Niklas Backstrom would struggle to avoid confusion with Nicklas Backstrom, the superstar centre of the Washington Capitals. In 1998, the 19-year-old Finnish goalie was under the radar for a different reason: he was Mika Noronen’s undrafted backup at the World Juniors in his native Helsinki.
Backstrom acquitted himself respectably with a 2.50 GAA and 91.1 save percentage in two starts and the Finns went all the way, edging Russia 2-1 in the gold medal game. It would be the lone IIHF title of Backstrom’s career, but he racked up other honours.
He backstopped Karpat Oulu to consecutive championships (2004, 2005) before being named to two Olympic teams (2006, 2010) and earning silver and bronze medals respectively. The longtime Minnesota Wild netminder also totalled two World Championship bronze medals (2006, 2008) and one silver (2016).
Sergei Bobrovski (Russia: 2008)
Sergei Bobrovski showed flashes of his raw talent during the 2007 Canada/Russia Super Series. But he also struggled overall with a 5.25 GAA and 85.3 save percentage in four defeats as Russia lost the eight-game U20 series with its archrival convincingly, registering just one tie.
So that may partly explain why the Novokuznetsk product’s NHL rights belonged to no one when the 19-year-old led Russia to a bronze medal at the 2008 World Juniors in Czechia.
However, Bobrovski morphed into an NHL superstar with the Columbus Blue Jackets, honing his athletic and technical skills under the tutelage of goalie coach Ian Clark. He won the Vezina Trophy in both 2013 and 2017 and registered a league-high 39 wins with the Florida Panthers last season. Moreover, “Bob” became a go-to in net for Russia in the mid-2010’s, peaking with his Best Goalie performance and gold medal at the 2014 Worlds in Minsk.
Artemi Panarin (Russia: 2011)
At the 2011 World Juniors in Buffalo, captain Vladimir Tarasenko and fellow 2010 first-round pick Yevgeni Kuznetsov were clearly the two most high-profile Russian forwards. They tied for second place in tournament scoring (4+7=11). However, when Russia shocked Canada with five unanswered third-period goals to win the gold medal game 5-3, Artemi Panarin led the way with two of those goals.
The undrafted, Korkino-born dipsy-doodler achieved KHL stardom with SKA St. Petersburg before signing his first NHL contract with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2016. Panarin, who owns Worlds silver (2015) and bronze (2016, 2017) medals, is currently the top offensive performer from that 2011 World Junior team. He had a personal-best 96 points with the New York Rangers, his third NHL club, and has 569 career points.
Philippe Myers (Canada: 2017)
The 2017 World Juniors certainly weren’t picture-perfect for Philippe Myers.
The towering defenceman from the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies was thrilled to get to play with Thomas Chabot on Canada’s top pairing at this home-ice tournament. Unfortunately, Myers saw his tournament end in a 3-1 New Year’s Eve loss to the Americans in Toronto when he was concussed on a high hit by Luke Kunin. Nonetheless, he gained recognition for his role in this silver-medal run.
Today, at age 25, Myers is still seeking to establish himself as an NHL full-timer, with 142 games under his best with the Philadelphia Flyers and Nashville Predators. But he’s added a 2019 Worlds silver medal to his resume. And when the Tampa Bay Lightning acquired Myers last month, clearing cap space by shipping veteran workhorse Ryan McDonagh to Nashville, it showed that the Bolts believe this never-drafted kid can potentially help them make a fourth straight run to the Stanley Cup finals.
Kristian Tanus (Finland: 2020)
Getting respect as a smaller player doesn’t always come easily in this game. Even though Kristian Tanus served as an assistant captain and tied for the team assists lead (six) in Finland’s 2018 U18 Worlds gold-medal victory, no NHL club took a flyer on the 172-cm, 72-kg forward at that year’s draft.
Undaunted, Tanus went out and led Finland with nine points at the 2020 World Juniors in the Czech Republic, showing off his playmaking skills as the Finns came fourth. This year, still just 21, he took another big step forward when he helped Tappara win the Finnish title at Tampere’s Nokia Arena.
Will Tanus ever be mentioned in the same breath as a Dieter Hegen or Artemi Panarin? It’s way too soon to say. But one thing is for sure: being an undrafted World Junior player doesn’t doom you to obscurity.