Three New Jersey Devils prospects showed up in a Monday morning projection of the 2027 World Junior Championship rosters from The Athletic, and all three landed in roles that tell you plenty about where they stand.
Scott Wheeler, Corey Pronman and Max Bultman - who were all at the 2026 World Junior Summer Showcase - put together projected lineups for the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Czechia. Among the names listed were Alexander Command for Sweden, Matias Vanhanen for Finland and David Rozsival for Czechia.
That makes the Devils one of 15 teams with at least three prospects included in the projections, and one of just three Metropolitan Division clubs in that group, alongside the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders.
Command was slotted as Sweden’s third-line center. That placement fits the way he’s viewed inside a deep Swedish program, where Viggo Bjorck and Theo Stockselius were placed ahead of him because of higher upside and more experience, respectively. Even with that, landing in the lineup at all on a roster this stacked says a lot about what Command brings as a prospect.
Vanhanen drew one of the more important spots on the board, listed as Finland’s top-line left winger. The leading scorer for the Everett Silvertips in 2025-26, he’s expected to be Finland’s most dangerous scorer in the 2027 event. The source material points to him as the most dynamic skater on a thin Finnish roster, with a major role on the power play and a team that may need its goaltending to do a lot of heavy lifting.
Rozsival’s inclusion was the mild surprise of the three, especially for a sixth-round pick, but the projection still paints a clear picture of how he can fit. He was placed on Czechia’s fourth line at right wing, a spot that suits a player with a puck-protecting, defense-first and physical game. He may not be asked to do much offensively, but being projected to make the tournament is still a meaningful nod for New Jersey’s pipeline.
For the Devils, the big takeaway is simple: there should be plenty to watch when the early-January tournament arrives, and two of these prospects are projected to have real roles for their countries. For an organization often described as having a middling prospect pool, that’s a solid outcome.
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