Otto Salin World Junior Recap + 2025 Look Ahead

A heatbreaking loss for Kings prospect Otto Salin in yesterday morning’s bronze medal game.

Salin and his native Finland led 5-2 late in the second period and held a 5-4 lead inside two minutes to play in regulation, with a place on the podium in sight. In a wild finish, Czechia scored with 1:56 remaining, their first of four goals in a span of just 50 seconds to overturn a one-goal deficit into a three-goal victory, taking the game and the bronze medal by an 8-5 scoreline.

For Salin, it concludes his time with Finland’s under-20 national program, as he finishes his second World Junior Championships. Salin was a part of Finland’s roster a season ago, bowing out in the quarterfinals, before he returned as an alternate captain and Top-4 defenseman on this season’s roster. After a slow start, Salin and his teammates brought some momentum into the knockout rounds, winning their quarterfinal matchup, but a pair of narrow defeats see them go home without hardware.

In the tournament as a whole, Salin played in all seven of his team’s games, collecting one assist. The assist was a big one, though, coming on the game-winning goal in overtime against Slovakia in the quarterfinal victory. Throughout the seven games, Salin averaged just over 19 minutes in total time on ice, coming in with an average of 19:05. Salin’s most intensive games were Finland’s best as a team, logging more than 20 minutes of ice time in each of his team’s three victories, including a team-high 21:19 in Finland’s first win over Latvia and a tournament-high 23:17 in a win over Sweden. Overall, Salin was second on his team amongst defensemen in TOI per/game throughout the tournament.

Salin now returns to Finland with HIFK Helsinki, his club in the SM-Liiga. Salin has featured in 29 games so far this season, with just two defensemen on the squad playing in more. Salin has averaged 15 minutes per game this season, with six assists to his name. As a 19-year-old playing in a top men’s league in Europe, he’s at a good place.

Looking ahead to next season, the Kings figure to have at least one prospect in the mix in goaltender Hamptom Slukynsky. Slukynsky was a participant in Team USA’s summer showcase event and was arguably the best performing goaltender in that camp of the six invited. As an underaged player, playing in the USHL as opposed to the US college ranks, Slukynsky was the number-one goaltender at the World Junior A challenge in December, as opposed to perhaps the third goaltender on the WJC roster. With another season of eligibility, expect to see Slukynsky challenge for a place on next season’s team.

There’s also the case of defenseman Jakub Dvorak, who did not participate in this season’s tournament with Czechia. Dvorak recently moved from playing professionally in Czechia to the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos, making his debut with the junior club this past week. Dvorak has represented his country at the Hlinka/Gretzky Cup, with reports noting that he opted out of this season’s WJC. He would be eligible in 2025, should he be selected for the team.

2023 fifth-round selection Matthew Mania would be eligible for Team Canada, should he be selected. Mania has returned to action with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves, after an injury delayed his start to the season. Mania has 11 points from 15 games played so far this season. With regards to 2023 draft picks Koehn Ziemmer and Ryan Conmy, both have birthdays that will not see them be eligible for the tournament, despite being in their Draft+1 seasons. Both would likely have garnered consideration for Team Canada and Team USA respectively, had they been eligible.

There’s also the 2024 draft class to come, so this list could grow as we get closer to the tournament.