Seth Jones on U.S. World Junior squad: “We’re the best team”

Hot 2013 NHL Draft prospect Seth Jones seems like he’s becoming quite accustomed to generating hype.

The defenseman many believe will be the second pick of the next entry draft told TSN’s Mark Masters that the U. S. World Junior Championships squad is the team to beat on Thursday.

” … I think we’re the best team,” Jones said. “We have a lot of speed up front, we’re great defensively and we have good goaltending so I think we have all the pieces to win the gold medal.”

Masters points out that the United States failed to advance beyond the round robin stage in last year’s tournament, yet perhaps one could justify similar optimism for America’s squad as you would for Russia in the 2014 Olympics: everyone basically starts from Point A again.

Even so, some will say that he’s making bold statements – maybe even providing bulletin board material – but Jones seems nonplussed about such claims.

“That’s just confidence,” Jones said. “We can hang with any team here to be honest with you. There’s not much another team can do to really take us off our game.”

Either way, it’s tough not to love seeing such swagger from the son of former NBA journeyman “Popeye” Jones.