Once Upon A Time At The World Junior Championship: Christian Dvorak

Before he became a Montreal Canadiens following Philip Danault and Jesperi Kotkaniemi's departures in the 2021 off-season, Christian Dvorak was a second-round draft pick for the now defunct Arizona Coyotes.

Dvorak made his mark in the OHL skating on a fantastic line for the Dale Hunter coached London Knights. Flanked by Mitch Marner and Matthew Tkachuk, the center gathered 109 points in 66 games in 2014-15 and another 121 points in 59 games in 2015-16. That season, he was an integral part of the Knights winning the Memorial Cup, but it wasn't his only piece of hardware.

In December 2015 and January 2016 he was part of Team USA at the World Junior Championship in Helsinki, Finland. Competing in Group A alongside Sweden, Canada, Denmark and Switzerland, the Americans were able to secure the second place in their group to move on to the playoffs round.

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In four preliminary round games, Dvorak picked up four points. One in his countries opening game, a 4-2 win over Canada and three when the Americans destroyed Switzerland 10-1.

Fast forward to the quarterfinal, and you'll find Dvorak scored a goal in his country's 7-2 dismantling of the Czech Republic. Then, in a 2-1 semifinal loss to Russia, he was the only American to find the back of the net. Finally, against Sweden in the bronze medal game, he added a pair of assists to his tally, finishing the tournament with eight points in seven games, giving him the 10th place in tournament scoring.

With a tournament that featured the likes of Patrik Laine, Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Zach Werenski, Dvorak didn't find his way onto the tournament's all-star team, but he was still a big contributor in his country coming back to this side of the pond with a medal.

Once he got to the NHL, Dvorak's production was much more modest that it was in junior hockey, without Marner and Tkachuk on his wings, he just couldn't contribute as much offensively and his most productive effort to this day remains a 38-point effort in Arizona during the 2019-20 season.

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Nowadays, the pivot plays a bottom six role in Montreal which seems more suited to his skills. So far this season, he has spent most of his time on the ice with Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher on the Canadiens' third line. He's currently playing the last year of his six-year contract and chances are he won't be back in Montreal next season.

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