Gabriel Wsół is a 14-year-old boy who is 5’8″ tall and has scored 144 points this season playing in two different Swiss youth groups. Poland has picked him for the U18 Worlds D1A team, and people in the hockey community are starting to notice him.
He was born on July 18, 2011, in Nowy Targ, Poland, and he will be the youngest player at the tournament in Krynica-Zdrój by a lot.
In just this season, Wsół has scored 80 points in 28 games with EHC Basel’s U16 team in the U16-Elit league, which is the best development league in Switzerland for that age group.
After that, he moved up to EHC Basel’s U18 team and scored 64 points in 21 games at the U18-Top level. He achieved this in the same season but in a different age group, still getting great results.
Before getting the national team call, he also scored 3 points in 2 games with SC Bern Future’s U18 team in the U18-Elit league.
That totals to 147 points in 51 games across three different teams, at three levels of competition, in just one year.
Wsół’s numbers in Switzerland already seem exceptional for his generation. When we look further back, the entire picture becomes more interesting. Throughout his time playing in the Swiss U16-Elit league, he has scored 192 points in 69 games. This means he averages 2.78 points per game over three seasons.
For the Swiss U18-Top league, he has 75 points in 28 games, which equals an average of 2.68 points per game.
Is it fair to compare him to the next Connor McDavid? Maybe not just yet. When McDavid was 14, he was already dominating the GTHL, making scouts very interested. But it’s still worth discussing his scoring rate.
What makes Wsół standout is his ability to keep scoring consistently at different levels. He’s not just putting up big numbers against players his own age. Every time he moves up a level, he continues to get the same impressive results.
He comes from a family that loves hockey. His brothers, Patryk and Bartlomiej Wsol, also play, so it’s clear that hockey is a big part of their home life.
The test match before the tournament against Ukraine gave the coaches in Poland a good chance to see how well he played. He managed to score even though the team lost 2-4. You wouldn’t worry too much about that score when your 14-year-old is able to score a goal.
During the 2022-23 season in Poland’s U16 league, he already showed his talent: he got 65 points in 21 games and added 11 more points in 5 playoff matches. People thought moving to Switzerland would slow him down.
But it didn’t happen.
The chance to select players in the NHL Draft for the class of 2029 is about to begin. Talent scouts will have about three years to see how he performs against tougher players, plays a full U18 schedule at a high level, and begins to travel across the ocean for tournaments.
Currently, he is a 14-year-old who is competing in games with players two years older than him in a country that doesn’t usually produce many top draft picks. This combination of traits is rare.
The main question now is whether his success will continue as the competition gets closer to his level. So far, everything indicates that he is ready to deal with whatever comes next.
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