Quarter-final action at the 2026 World Juniors gets underway on Friday and TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button has picked his best performers in the tournament so far, based on their round-robin play.
Watch World Junior quarter-finals action LIVE starting at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT with Sweden vs. Latvia, followed by Czechia vs. Switzerland at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT, United States vs. Finland at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT and Canada vs. Slovakia at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT on TSN and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App.
Button selected one goaltender, two defencemen and three forwards from both groups that have impressed him the most heading into the quarter-finals.
Group A
Goalie: Christian Kirsch (Switzerland)
Defence: Alfons Freij (Sweden), Chase Reid (USA)
Forwards: Tomas Chrenko (Slovakia), Will Zellers (USA), Anton Frondell (Sweden)
In Group A, Button has selected Switzerland’s Christian Kirsch as his top goaltender.
Kirsch comes out of the round robin as the tournament’s top goaltender statistically after putting up a .950 save percentage and 1.01 goals-against average in his two games played.
In his first game on Dec. 27 against the United States, Kirsch stopped 18 of 20 shots in a 2-1 loss. He also stopped all 20 shots he faced against Germany as the Swiss got the 4-0 win.
On defence, Sweden’s Alfons Freij and Chase Reid of the United States emerged as the top blueliners for Button.
Freij has five assists in four games as Sweden went undefeated in the round robin to set up a quarter-final matchup with Latvia. A second-round pick by the Winnipeg Jets in 2024, Freij is averaging 18:23 of ice time, third among all Swedish defenders.
“Alfons Freij has been outstanding on the blueline,” said Button. “The blueline has been good for [Sweden] but he has been a real significant catalyst for so many things that they do, offensively, defensively, power play, penalty killing.”
Reid, one of several 2026 draft-eligible players skating in the tournament, has two goals and four points for the Americans after the round robin.
Button’s top three forwards in Group A are Slovakia’s Tomas Chrenko, American Will Zellers and Sweden’s Anton Frondell.
Chrenko finished the round robin as the tournament’s leading scorer (eight points) as his five goals officially put him ahead of the likes of Canadians Michael Hage, Gavin McKenna and Zayne Parekh.
Chrenko paced the Slovaks past Germany with a hat trick in a 4-1 win and had a big game against the United States where he had two goals and an assist in a 6-5 loss.
“He gives me Kyle Connor vibes,” said Button. “He’s a real slick offensive player. An excellent sense of space, outstanding hands, outstanding release. He’s a first rounder all day long.”
Zellers is tied with Chrenko for the tournament goal-scoring lead with five goals as he led the Americans in points with seven.
“On a team that doesn’t have the same offensive firepower as they’ve had in the past, the last two years, specifically, Will has been their offensive catalyst,” said Button. “He has been so good.”
Zellers has been clutch, scoring the game-winning goals against the Swiss and Slovaks in the round robin.
Frondell had three goals and two assists in four round-robin games as Sweden went undefeated. He scored the tournament’s opening goal on the power play against Slovakia in a 3-2 win and had two goals in an 8-1 victory over the Germans.
Group B
Goalie: Nils Maurins (Latvia)
Defence: Zayne Parekh (Canada), Alberts Smits (Latvia)
Forwards: Brady Martin (Canada), Vaclav Nestrasil (Czechia), Michael Hage (Canada)
In Group B, Button chose Latvia’s Nils Maurins as the top goaltender after he backstopped them to the quarter-finals.
Maurins helped get Latvia to overtime against Canada in the team’s opening game and despite the 2-1 loss, Maurins stopped 36 of 38 shots he faced. He also backstopped them to a 6-3 win over Denmark and made 25 saves in a 4-2 loss to Czechia.
Button has Canada’s Parekh and Latvia’s Alberts Smits has his top defencemen from the group.
Parekh is the tournament’s top-scoring defenceman with four goals and eight points and has been a big part of Canada’s offence.
“His offensive abilities are just so dynamic, it’s unbelievable,” said Button. “I think one of the most impressive things for me is he hasn’t come in and dipped his toe in the water. He’s played with his usual swagger.”
Smits, another 2026 draft-eligible player, has been a rock on the blueline for the Latvians.
“The guy is a stud on the blueline for Latvia,” said Button. “He controls so much of the play.”
The 18-year-old has been averaging 24:09 of ice time through the first four games to top Latvia, well ahead of teammate Oliver Murnieks, who is second on the team in ice time at 19:36. Smits has a goal and three assists.
Button’s top three forwards in Group B are Canada’s Brady Martin and Michael Hage as well as Czechia’s Vaclav Nestrasil.
Martin has three goals and seven points through the first four games while skating on a line with Hage and McKenna.
“He’s been Canada’s best player, full stop,” said Button of Martin. “He’s been a factor in every regard when he’s been on the ice for Canada.”
Hage has also been an offensive catalyst for Canada with two goals and eight points. His biggest moment of the tournament so far was scoring the game-winning goal against Latvia on the power play in overtime.
Nestrasil has been one of Czechia’s offensive catalysts with two goals and six points.
He had two assists in the opening game against Canada and is coming off a two-point performance against Latvia as the Czechs will square off with Switzerland in the quarter-finals.
