How the Red Wings prospects fared at the 2026 World Junior Championships

The 2026 World Junior Hockey Championships held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, saw five of the Red Wings top prospects play against the best U-20 prospects in the world. Many of the Red Wings prospects saw lots of ice time and heavy roles for their country, including Eddie Genborg, who was a key contributor on Sweden’s gold medal-winning team.

The forward prospects all play a similar style of game, one that seems to be a favourite of general manager Steve Yzerman. These players play two-way games and like to go into the hard areas to battle for pucks.

Eddie Genborg

18-year-old Eddie Genborg was the Red Wings second-round draft pick in 2025. Genborg is a big body, standing at 6’2”, and was a great net front presence on the second power play unit for Sweden. Genborg started the tournament on the second line with potential top picks for this year's upcoming draft in Ivar Stenberg and Viggo Björck.

Genborg would eventually get moved down to the third line, but here he found much more production. In the semi-final game against Finland, Genborg had his best game of the tournament, scoring a goal and adding an assist in a 4-3 shootout victory. Genborg finished the tournament with three goals, five assists, and eight points, which left him 15th in the tournament in points.

Max Plante

Second round pick in 2024, Max Plante is one of the Red Wings' best prospects and competed in the tournament for Team USA. Coming into the tournament, the 19-year-old was the leading scorer in the NCAA.

Unfortunately for Plante, he was injured in the third game for the United States. Plante played most of his minutes at center, even though he is a natural winger. He scored the first goal of the tournament for the United States, which turned out to be his only goal of the tournament.

Carter Bear

The 13th-overall pick in the 2025 draft was surprisingly the player who got the least amount of playing time for his team. 19-year-old Carter Bear played in the tournament for Team Canada and was either a healthy scratch or the thirteenth forward.

Bear only played about six minutes of ice time for the whole tournament. Even in a short span of ice time, it was clear that Bear played the game that Yzerman looks for. He has a high level of compete and always looks to forecheck and play a two-way game. Bear was very good at getting shots on net in his short time on the ice.

Michal Svrcek

18-year-old Michal Svrcek was the Red Wings' fourth-round pick in 2025 and competed for Team Slovakia. Like the other prospects, Svrcek plays a two-way game, and like Bear, is good at getting shots on net.

Svrcek played a big role for Team Slovakia as he spent most of his time on the first line. His biggest moment of the tournament came against the United States, where he scored a power-play goal to put Slovakia up 4-3. He ended the tournament with one goal, one assist, and two points.

Michal Pradel

18-year-old Michal Pradel was the main goalie for Team Slovakia in the tournament. Pradel had some of the toughest assignments in the tournament, facing both the United States, where he gave up six goals, and Canada, where he got pulled after giving up three goals on nine shots.

Pradel definitely struggled in the tournament, but with a weaker defense against teams like Canada and the United States, it is hard to keep all the shots out of the net. Pradel started five games for Slovakia and finished with a 0.877 save percentage and a 4.11 goals against average. With all the great goalie prospects in the system, it is hard to see a fit for Pradel in the future.

All of these prospects showed great potential in the tournament, and they will now go back to their teams for the home stretch of the season. Some will return to the tournament next year, and hopefully, some will find themselves playing in Grand Rapids or Detroit by next season.