The World Junior Summer Showcase is an idle summer exhibition among four U20 national teams. No trophy or title is on the line, and summer play always needs to be taken in context.

It also means a lot, though. For the nations—the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland—it marks the culmination of summer work as they begin their quest to claim the 2026 World Junior Championship. For the players, it is a last chance to leave an impression on team management before dispersing to their various club teams for fall play.

For fans, the World Junior Summer Showcase is an oasis in a 45-day hockey desert between July 1 and the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in mid-August. It is a sneak peek at the teams and players who will take center stage come December. It is also an opportunity to get a glimpse at an elite grouping of NHL prospects together on a level playing field—including some newly drafted players that fans may have never seen play live before.

We tracked the event with an eye on the Seattle Kraken prospects participating—goalie Kim Saarinen for Finland, defenseman Blake Fiddler for the United States, and forwards Berkly Catton, Jake O’Brien, and Ollie Josephson for Canada. How did they look and what do their World Juniors prospects looks like? Let’s dig in with some quick takeaways and game video to bring you up to speed.

Team Finland

Finland won four of the five games it played and exceeded expectations more than any other team. If you were stacking the countries by total talent, Finland would be fourth—even with some other teams sitting many returning players. Yet, Finland topped the United States in two of three contests and beat Canada and Sweden in their only meetings. Aatos Koivu (2024 third-round pick, Montreal) led the event scoring with six goals.

Kraken forward prospect and Everett Silvertip Julius Miettinen did not participate in the World Junior Summer Showcase for Finland, though he was on Finland’s summer camp list. It’s unclear if he was held out with an injury or because his spot at the tournament is secure. Either way, the 2024 second-rounder’s spot is most certainly secure as a top-six piece for Finland—with some suggesting he could be set for top-line responsibilities in December.

Kim Saarinen | G | 19 years old | Seattle Kraken 2024 third-round pick

Saarinen earned a spot on last year’s World Juniors team after a strong fall in club play. Though he didn’t crack the lineup at last year’s event, he continued to burnish his track record with even better club play down the stretch—finishing third overall in Liiga, Finland’s top professional league, in save percentage.

This work earned Saarinen the first start for Team Finland at the World Junior Summer Showcase against a United States split-squad unit that included Blake Fiddler. Unfortunately for Saarinen, he was the last line of defense behind what was easily Finland’s worst 30 minutes of the Showcase through the first half of that game. The United States piled up dangerous chances, with Saarinen performing admirably to keep Finland afloat.

Team USA White could easily have had 4 or 5 goals in the 1st period of Game 1 vs. Finland at the World Junior Summer Showcase. #SeaKraken goalie Kim Saarinen gave up only one and it was on a perfectly-executed, dead-red 2-on-0 where he had no chance. Many other grade A saves ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/M6T6PEvuwU

— Deep Sea Hockey (@DeepSeaHockey) July 27, 2025

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough for Finland that day, though Saarinen’s final stat line of 20 saves on 24 shots hardly does justice to how well he played. Only one of those goals was on less than a “high-danger” shot, and he turned away at least six or seven other point-blank looks.

He earned one more start in the tournament—against Team Canada—and he looked even better, turning away 30 of 33 shots on goal and earning the win. Again, Canada could easily have had a few more but for Saarinen’s relatively strong work.

Unfortunately for Saarinen, the goalie he sat behind at last year’s World Juniors, Petteri Rimpinen, is also eligible to return for this year’s event—and Rimpinen was arguably even better at the Showcase. Rimpinen also had two starts, beating the United States on a 16-of-19 performance and then beating rival Sweden in a 27-of-28 performance in the final game of the event for Finland.

Projection: Saarinen is on Team Finland’s roster for the WJC. He remains behind Rimpinen on the Team Finland depth chart, however. The gap is not so wide as to be insurmountable if Saarinen outplays Rimpinen this fall in Liiga. I’d also expect Saarinen to get at least one start in pool play this year, even if Rimpinen remains entrenched as the primary starter and performs well.

Team USA

Team USA graduated an immensely talented class of players last year, including Gabe Perreault, Ryan Leonard, and Zeev Buium—not to mention Will Smith, who stuck in the NHL with San Jose and didn’t go to the 2025 World Juniors. This year’s roster is still talented enough to compete into the medal rounds, led by holdover James Hagens, but it will need to do more with less—and successfully integrate a new coaching staff—if it is going to celebrate a third consecutive World Junior Championship on home ice this winter.

The showcase was a warning sign that things aren’t going to come as easily this time. After a split-squad victory over Finland on the first day of the event, Team USA dropped all six of the other games it played.

Blake Fiddler | D | 18 years old | Seattle Kraken 2025 second-round pick

Team USA got a close look at the underage Fiddler, deploying him in four games—two split-squad games to begin and then two of the team’s three full-roster games. Fiddler’s usage, however, suggested he’s at best a bubble projection for the World Juniors roster. Fiddler skated mostly in a third-pair role, with backup usage on the penalty kill.

Despite the limited role, Fiddler brought a solid version of his current game to the Showcase. He activated frequently and was unafraid to carry the puck up the ice and even deep into the opposing zone. He has good offensive instincts to create space and opportunities for his teammates—though he would often push the play a stride or two too far and turn the puck over before his team could capitalize on his earlier good work.

His confidence on the attack is innate and a good foundation for his offensive profile moving forward. Though he didn’t score in this event, and his junior production has not been overwhelming to date, I suspect the point totals could take a step forward this year as the results catch up with the on-ice work.

He’s at his best defensively when he’s diagnosing the play in front of him and being aggressive. He had a few physical blue line denials that were pro-caliber plays. He also missed a couple denial attempts, leaving his team at an odd-numbered disadvantage, but I think it’s good he’s trying for these kind of plays and testing his limits.

Projection: He’s on the outside looking in right now. If he can take a step forward either offensively or defensively this fall, he could make it tough for Team USA to exclude him from the World Juniors roster. His combination of talent and size is rare.

Team Canada

Canada will once again approach the World Junior Championship with more talent than any other team. Can a new coaching staff find the answers necessary to return Canada to top of the podium?

The Showcase was a disappointing first step. While Team Canada was dealing with many injuries and sat most of its returning players after one internal scrimmage and one game against Finland, it still had enough to win any time it stepped on the ice. Even so, Canada prevailed only once. Goaltending continues to be a question mark, though Joshua Ravensbergen flashed some strong play at times.

Berkly Catton | C | 19 years old | Seattle Kraken 2024 first-round pick

Catton will be a key cog for Canada this winter in Minnesota (unless he ends up playing the full season with the Kraken, and they choose not to have him go to the WJC). He’ll be a featured playmaker both at 5-on-5 and on Canada’s top power-play unit. He could even wear the “C” for Canada.

Likely for this reason, Catton didn’t see much ice time at the Showcase, only playing in Canada’s internal scrimmage. He was listed to play against Finland but later removed from the lineup. I haven’t seen any reporting indicating Catton was scratched with an injury, so for now, we will just assume Canada’s brass had simply “seen enough” from Catton.

Catton displayed his trademark skills in the Team Canada scrimmage. Whenever he was out there, he was transporting pucks into the zone, creating space, and setting up his teammates. Unfortunately, the chemistry wasn’t quite there with his linemates yet, and the advantages he won didn’t turn into much.

Projection: Catton’s on the team. It’s on Team Canada to put him in a position where he can leverage his talents to drive play. (I’ll give it a 2.5 percent chance he sticks with Seattle and the team decides not to allow him to go to the World Juniors.)

Jake O’Brien | C | 18 years old | Seattle Kraken 2025 first-round pick

O’Brien was solid but relatively quiet through most of the showcase. Canada used him in a third-line center role with very little power-play exposure. O’Brien brings enough all-around skill to be a net positive in this diminished role, but you’re not going to get the best version of the player if you’re leaving his power-play skills on the bench.

Throughout the tournament, O’Brien did a good job driving the play up ice, transporting the puck with agility, puck handling, and vision. The lack of a high-end speed element was notable against this elevated competition. If he can unlock a bit more explosion in his stride, he could be a handful in transition.

In the offensive zone, O’Brien has the creativity, vision, and skill to make high-danger plays whenever the puck is on his stick. While he can create advantages working east to west, the thing I like the most about his offensive play is that he is always moving toward the net, as if by force of gravity. He piles up points by constantly going to the dangerous areas. He’s going to need to add bulk to make that play style work at the professional level, but the baseline is there.

In the last 30 minutes of the Showcase, O’Brien finally found space to put his offensive toolkit to work. First, he evaded a defender in the slot, delayed, and found a teammate, Malcolm Spence, for a tap-in goal.

#SeaKraken prospect Jake O’Brien (#17) with the stick handling, patience and precision pass from the slot to find teammate Malcolm Spence for the tap in.

Canada leads the United States 2-0 through two periods in the capstone rivalry game at the 2025 World Junior Summer Showcase. pic.twitter.com/8p4TJZ6HKg

— Deep Sea Hockey (@DeepSeaHockey) August 2, 2025

Later, he worked a give-and-go sequence with Marek Vanacker to perfection before burying the shot for his first and only goal of the event.

#SeaKraken prospect Jake O’Brien adds a goal in the dying moments of the last game of the 2025 World Junior Summer Showcase against Team USA on a sweet give-and-go sequence. O’Brien’s passing and finishing skill both on display. pic.twitter.com/Oursp0e5GR

— Deep Sea Hockey (@DeepSeaHockey) August 2, 2025

Defensively, O’Brien is willing to get low and hit his landmarks as a center, which a great start. His stick stays active. He can get caught puck watching a bit too much sometimes, and he needs a bit more strength to hold up in critical areas. But the foundation is there.

Projection: On the outside. By the last game of the tournament, O’Brien was being deployed in a third-line role with no special teams responsibilities. Once the returning and injured players are layered back into the lineup, that usage suggests to me that O’Brien may be squeezed out. O’Brien may need a strong fall or other injuries to make the team in December. The second half of the Showcase finale against Team USA was a good first step.

Ollie Josephson | C | 19 years old | Seattle Kraken 2024 fourth-round pick

Josephson’s name wasn’t reported among the likely invitees to Team Canada camp a few weeks ago. Even so, after several forward injuries mounted, Josephson ultimately won an invite and played a steady fourth-line and penalty-kill role across several showcase games.

Josephson can transport the puck through the neutral zone when called upon, but he was at his best hounding opponents on the forecheck and creating pressure at the top of the defensive structure on the penalty kill. It’s clear you can rely on Josephson to do the little things right defensively, but he didn’t have the opportunity to show much offensively in his limited role.

Projection: On the outside. Josephson is the type of player you could have imagined a previous Team Canada regime taking to the tournament as a fourth-liner. Indeed, it’s not difficult to envision him providing a solid 10 or so minutes per game in a forechecking and penalty-killing role. That said, I doubt Team Canada will go that way after taking so much criticism in recent years for leaving high-end talent off the roster. Choosing Josephson (over a player like O’Brien, for example) would be “more of the same” from a team that is likely looking for a new narrative and new results this year.

Parting thoughts as we look ahead to the 2026 World Juniors

In addition to Julius Miettinen, I suspect we’ll see one more player at the 2026 World Juniors who didn’t participate in the Showcase: defenseman Jakub Fibigr. The 2025 seventh-round pick made Team Czechia last year as an underager. While his club play in the OHL plateaued a bit last season, he continued as a stalwart performer for Czechia in international events, and I’d expect that to continue later this year.

I suspect Team Canada considered Nathan Villeneuve as a candidate for a depth role audition this summer, but the team went with Josephson (and others) instead. This does not fully eliminate Villeneuve as a candidate. Carson Rehkopf is an example of a player who didn’t participate in summer camp before earning a spot for Canada at the 2024 World Juniors. But it does put Villeneuve well behind the eight ball—which is too bad because it’s easy to envision Villeneuve as a forechecking terror on the world stage.

Curtis Isacke

Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.