Team Canada's Alexis Joseph dominates at Hlinka-Gretzky Cup with size and skill at centre

Alexis Joseph, Team Canada's top centre at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, is the poster boy for what scouts prize: a tall centre with soft hands and a smooth engine.

At close to 6-foot-5 and 201 pounds, the Quebec-born Joseph — one of Canada's assistant captains — set up the first goal by Brock England in Monday night's 7-3 blowout win over Switzerland. TSN scout Craig Button drew a bold comparison: "Joseph reminds me so much of Evgeni Malkin at the same age."

"Centres of Joseph's size are hard to obtain," Button said. "He can beat you with his scoring and his playmaking, a well-balanced player. He's smooth. When you've got that level of skill and you're smooth, it's almost effortless the way he takes hold of a game and makes things happen."

Joseph, who turned 17 in June, has 60 points in 54 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League games in his first year with the Saint John Sea Dogs, averaging close to 20 minutes a game. He credits Nate MacKinnon as a role model — despite differing styles — but also looks to Crosby and McDavid. "I like the way he plays," Joseph said of MacKinnon. "And, of course, there's Crosby and McDavid. I look at them and try to be like them, too."

Joseph didn't inherit his height from his parents — his father is 5-foot-11 and his mother 5-foot-5. "I don't know where it's come from, maybe an uncle? I dunno," he said.

He benefitted from his first year in the Maritimes beyond just ice time. "I worked on my English. It was pretty bad, actually, but I worked on it every day. I appreciated being in Saint John, being with my billet family," he said.

Canada's two youngest players, 16-year-olds Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue, led the way in the dominant Swiss win. Pue, a winger with a sharp release, ripped five goals in the first 15 minutes as the home team struck early and often.