Team Canada's John Tavares scored 91 goals at the midget level in 2004-05, which prompted the OHL to make an exception to draft him into major junior when he was 14.Team Canada's John Tavares scored 91 goals at the midget level in 2004-05, which prompted the OHL to make an exception to draft him into major junior when he was 14. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)

John Tavares says it was a coincidence that he nailed Victor Hedman on his first shift with Canada's national junior hockey team.

"I was just finishing my check," said Tavares.

But what made the chance meeting by the two teenagers in a Canada-Sweden exhibition game last week at Toronto's Air Canada Centre all the more interesting was how Tavares and Hedman have been linked for more than a year.

Tavares, who plays for Oshawa of the Ontario Hockey League, and Hedman, who skates for MoDo of Sweden's Elite League, are the consensus top picks for the 2009 NHL draft. Unless something unexpected happens, one of them will be picked first and the other will go second.

And when the hockey world turns its attention to the world junior championship in Ottawa later this week, Tavares and Hedman aim to play key roles for Canada and Sweden respectively in the pressure-packed tournament. Canada is gunning for its fifth straight championship and Sweden wants to avenge an overtime loss in the gold medal game held last year in the Czech Republic.

It's not often the two top prospects in their draft year have prominent roles at the world junior championship, and NHL scouts will scrutinize their every move and shift.

"There are some things you like about both players and there are some things that are concerns," said Chicago Blackhawks assistant GM Rick Dudley. "And if they allay your fears [at the '09 tournament] it could go a long way [in determining the pick].

"If Tavares does what he is capable of, then he will be the highest pick. But by the same token, Hedman has many, many attributes."

Scoring prodigy

The six-foot, 200-pound Tavares has become almost a household name in Canadian hockey circles since he burst onto the scene a few years ago.

Tavares scored 91 goals at the midget level in 2004-05, which prompted the OHL to make an exception to draft him into major junior when he was 14. He was the Canadian Hockey League's rookie of the year in 2006 when he was 15. In his second year in major junior in 2006-07, he broke Wayne Gretzky's OHL record for goals as a 16-year-old, scoring 72 in 67 games.

Tavares's numbers dropped last season. He scored 40 goals, which was five fewer than he scored in his first season in Oshawa as a 15-year-old, but he did add 78 assists to his offensive numbers.

He had 25 goals and 52 points in 31 games before leaving Oshawa for the national junior team training camp earlier this month.

"From the blue-line in, there are very few people who process the game offensively like he does," said Dudley.

Big defensive prospect

Hedman is a six-foot-six, 220-pound defenceman who has been compared with Chris Pronger of the Anaheim Ducks. Peter Forsberg recently said that Hedman is the best defenceman to come out of Sweden since Nik Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings.

Hedman honed his skills in the same hockey development program that produced Forsberg, Daniel and Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks and Markus Naslund of the New York Rangers.

"He is a big rangy defenceman that will only get better. The big guys that size, they have a tendency to improve more than smaller players," said Dudley. "He will probably get better and better."

Despite the hype about the Tavares-Hedman showdown, they both say the world junior championship is not about them.

"I am here to help my team win the gold medal and not play one-on-one battles with Tavares,'' said Hedman.

Tavares feels the hoopla is just part of the game.

"People always build up things and certain players," he said. "My focus is on playing for Canada and doing what I have to do to help my team win and be successful."

Whatever happens in the national capital, people should not read too much into who wins and who loses, who gets more goals or points and who has a better plus-minus rating. One tournament does not make or break a season.

Both Tavares and Hedman scored in Canada's 4-2 triumph at the ACC. But depending on what happens in Ottawa, given how Canada and Sweden are in opposite pools, Friday's game could turn out to be the last time these players face each other until their careers collide in the NHL.