Most of the world's best U18 talent is currently in Zug and Lucerne, Switzerland for that age category's World Championship. The rosters of most of the European teams are full of prospects that have qualified for the CHL, including many players who actually played in the CHL this past season. 

by Derek O'Brien

With most European leagues now finished and the few remaining in their finals, the attention of hockey fans is now shifting to the international game. Many World Championships at various levels are already underway, with the big one coming up soon in the Czech Republic in May. Another elite-level IIHF tournament got underway on Thursday, as Zug and Lucerne, Switzerland are hosting the U18 World Championship. This championship is quite intersting to fans of CHL clubs, as they feature who will become the future players and even future stars of their professional clubs. In many cases, these players are already on professional rosters and competed in Champions Hockey League games this past season.

Not surprisingly, the countries that have the most CHL representation are the ones that have the most CHL club teams – Sweden and Finland both have eight clubs in Europe's top club hockey competition and the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland all have six, meaning that these U18 national teams are chock-full of players developed by CHL clubs.

The Slovakian roster also has six players – two developed by perennial national powerhouse Kosice including defenceman Erik Cernak, three from Czech CHL clubs and one from Lulea, that northern magnet of Central European talent. Latvia also has a couple of CHL players – Richard Puide in Zurich and Rudolfs Balcers, who plays for the junior club of the Stavanger Oilers, the Norwegian champs.

As has been the case in the last several years, the most notable prospects are coming from Sweden, and several players on this Swedish team were prominent members of their club's A-teams this past season. The most notable name is probably Farjestad Karstad's Oliver Kylington, who, before his 18th birthday, already has two pro seasons under his belt! He actually played in the AHL All-Star Game and the SHL Finals when he was 16 and, at one point, was the top-ranked European prospect for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. However, an injury caused him to miss the World Junior Championship and limited him to only 17 SHL games this past season. He did play in all six of Farjestad's CHL Group B contests.

"I don't feel the pressure," Kylington told Championshockeyleague.net last August, when asked about all the eyes that are on him when he plays. "I'm trying not to think about the scouts watching. I'm just trying to focus on my game, because that's the only thing I have control over."

Other projected first-rounders from CHL clubs that are at this year's U18 Worlds are all Swedes – Kylington's Farjestad teammate Joel Eriksson Ek, Frolunda Gothenburg's Jacob Larsson and Linkoping defenceman Gabriel Carlsson. 

In addition to Swedish talent factories such as Farjestad, Frolunda, Linkoping, Lulea and HV71 Jonkoping, another notable club from up north is Karpat Oulu, the Finnish champs that have placed six players at this year's U18 championship – Czech forward Radek Koblizek and five Finns, most notably Sebastian Aho and Jesse Puljujarvi, who both played for the club that made the CHL semi-finals. Tappara Tampere's Patrik Laine also played in three CHL games, scoring a goal.

"It felt great to score in the CHL," Laine said after the goal back in October. "I love scoring goals like that and I'm happy the puck went past the goalie for once. I didn't even notice I scored at first!"

Notable clubs from Central Europe that are putting a lot of players into the tournament are German clubs Adler Mannheim and Eisbaren Berlin, Czech clubs Sparta Prague and Ocelari Trinec – the latter includingright winger Lukas Jasek – ZSC Lions Zurich and EV Zug, the former sporting centre Denis Malgin and the latter co-hosting the event, so many fans will be able to watch some of their own home-grown players. 

Another intersting story is Red Bull Salzburg. Austria isn't in the elite U18 championship, but the reigning Austrian champions who have put three players on the German U18 squad. It is the philosophy of the club's development program that having top-level talent from outside Austria raises the overall quality of Austrian hockey.

"To become better, you have to be with better players," said Matt Deschamps, head of the club's youth development program. "As a club, we're trying to create a system where the players coming out of Salzburg are flourishing, wherever those players happen to be from originally."

Of the 10 countries partaking in this year's U18 World Championship, players that are originally from seven of those countries are representing their respective national teams. Below is a list of those teams and players.

CZECH REPUBLIC – Goal: Adam Bryzgala (Sparta). Defence: Marian Adamek, Lukas Doudera (Trinec), Vojtech Budik, Ondrej Vala (both Pardubice), Petr Kalina (Sparta), Martin Weinhold (Vitkovice). Forward: Lukas Jasek (Trinec), Radek Koblizek (Karpat), Denis Kusy, Michal Spacek (both Pardubice), Ondrej Prochazka, Martin Svoboda (both Sparta).

FINLAND – Goal: Christian Heljanko (HIFK), Veini Vehvilainen (JYP). Defence: Otto Leskinen (KalPa), Matias Rahikainen, Veeti Vainio (both Espoo), Juho Rautanen (HIFK), Tarmo Reunanen (TPS), Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi (Karpat). Forward: Sebastian Aho, Jimi Nylund, Jesse Puljujarvi, Arttu Ruotsalainen (all Karpat), Kasper Bjorkqvist, Joonas Niemela, Teemu Vayrynen (all Espoo), Erich Embrich, Sami Tavernier (both HIFK), Patrik Laine (Tappara), Julius Nattinen (JYP), Topi Piipponen (KalPa).

GERMANY – Goal: Mirko Pantkowski (Mannheim). Defence: Maximilian Adam (Berlin), Maximilian Glassl, Johannes Huss (both Salzburg), Phillipp Halbauer, Lukas Kalble, Marvin Neher, Tobias Schmitz (all Mannheim). Forward: Tim Bernhardt, Yannick Drews, Valentin Kopp, Julian Napravnik (all Mannheim), Valentin Busch, Christoph Korner, Niklas Postel (all Salzburg), Lois Spitzner (Berlin). 

LATVIA – Forward: Rudolfs Balcers (Stavanger), Rihards Puide (Zurich). 

SLOVAKIA – Defence: Michal Roman (Trinec), Patrik Kolesar (Kosice). Forward: Radovan Bondra (Kosice), Matej Murin (Trinec), Samuel Solensky (Liberec), Filip Lestan (Lulea).

SWEDEN – Goal: Adam Werner (Farjestad). Defence: Alexander Younan (HV71), Oliver Kylington (Farjestad), Jacob Larsson (Frolunda), Gabriel Carlsson (Linkoping). Forward: John Dahlstrom (Frolunda), Filip Ahl (HV71), Rasmus Asplund, Joel Eriksson Ek (both Farjestad), Jonathan Davidsson (Djurgarden), Sebastian Ohlsson, Linus Lindstrom (both Skelleftea).

SWITZERLAND – Goal: Daniel Muff (Zug), Tim Guggisberg (Zurich), Joren van Pottelberghe (Linkoping). Defence: Livio Sadler (Zug), Jona Siegenthaler, Roger Karrer (both Zurich). Forward: Dominik Volenjnicek, Calvin Thurkauf, Sandro Forrer (all Zug), Auguste Impose (Geneve-Servette), Denis Malgin, Marco Miranda, Dominik Diem, Raphael Prassl (all Zurich), Nico Hischier (Bern), Nathan Marachon (Fribourg-Gotteron).