Youth was served at the 2016 IIHF Men's World Championship as some of the youngest players at the annual international tournament were its best.

Canada won the gold medal for the second straight season after a tremendous goal from last year's No. 1 overall pick Connor McDavid and an empty-netter just ahead of the final buzzer. Additionally, 18-year-old Patrik Laine of Finland was named the MVP of the tournament, a month before he is expected to go either first or second in the NHL Entry Draft. It is believed that he is the youngest player ever to claim the World Championship's top individual honors.

Canada's gold medal win came at the expense of Laine's Finnish club which had gone undefeated up until that point in the tournament. McDavid's first-period tally would have been enough, but Matt Duchene added the empty-netter with 0.8 seconds remaining on the clock, forcing Canada to have two championship celebrations instead of one.

Here's a look at the nice goal McDavid scored after a hard cut to the net:

Meanwhile, Russia throttled the young United States team 7-2 to win the bronze medal, preventing the Americans from their first back-to-back medals at the Worlds since 1949 and 1950.

Team USA had one of its youngest rosters ever with an average age of 23. The group was headlined by Auston Matthews, who had been the presumptive No. 1 pick for June's draft until Laine's late-season push. Matthews tied for the team lead with nine points including six goals.

Since this isn't a best-on-best tournament, it's not much of a measuring stick for the countries, but Canada's depth has been on display in the last two years. This year, they took a team with an average age of 24 and managed to nearly run the table, with that loss to Finland in the prelims as their only blemish.

Getting back to the youth, however, this tournament was unlike many previous World Championships when it came to the effectiveness of teenage players.

Three of the youngest guys in the tournament were among their teams' best players, including McDavid and the top two draft prospects for this year, Laine and Matthews. Laine led all three with 12 points in the tournament.

The 18-year-old scoring sensation, who was also MVP of the Finnish league playoffs, shattered the record for goals and points by a player in his U18 season at this tournament. The previous high for points by a U18 was set by Jaroslav Drobny, who had six points for what was then Czechoslovakia in 1939. It's quite an accomplishment for Laine, who skated alongside Florida Panthers forwards Aleksander Barkov and Jussi Jokinen for much of the tournament.

Meanwhile, McDavid and Matthews each finished with nine points. That puts both tied for sixth all-time in points by players in their U19 seasons at this tournament. If you put Laine in that category, the only player that out-produced him as a teenager at the World Championship was , who had 16 points in nine games for Canada in his U19 year. (all via eliteprospects.com's World Championship database)

Additionally, Matthews' nine points ties him with New York Rangers great Brian Leetch, for most points by an American teenager at the World Championship. Leetch also had nine points in 10 games back in 1987.

Among the other impressive accomplishments of youngsters in the tournament, McDavid became the youngest player ever to win gold at the U18 World Championship, World Junior Championship and Men's World Championship. His golds came in all three by the time he was 19. Meanwhile, Canada teammate Sam Reinhart, normally of the Buffalo Sabres, became the second youngest ever at age 20. The previous youngest, according to the IIHF, was a pair of 24-year-old Russian players in 2008, one of whom is Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin .

What makes the accomplishments of these three players so impressive is that this tournament is typically going to benefit older, more experienced players. It can also be difficult for younger players to produce on the big ice as so many of the teams at this tournament can clog up the offensive zone extremely effectively.

It's going to be interesting to see how what happened at the World Championship will change, if at all, what teams are thinking about the top two picks in the 2016 draft. The buzz about Laine potentially surpassing Matthews on draft boards has been growing. The big difference between the two is Matthews is a natural center, which is more highly valued, while Laine is a winger. However, Laine's goal scoring may offset the positional argument.

That's not to say there won't still be a long debate. The Toronto Maple Leafs have a tough decision ahead. Matthews and Laine are very different players, but both can provide a high level of value. In a lot of ways, the Winnipeg Jets are in a better position by picking second. If these two players are as close as it appears they are in talent and upside, the Maple Leafs are going to take the decision-making process out of Winnipeg's hands.

However, after all of the hype surrounding McDavid and Jack Eichel last draft year, it looks like we have another year where there are two (possibly three when you include Jesse Puljujarvi, another Finnish star) franchise-altering prospects in the 2016 Draft.

Getting a chance to see Laine and Matthews on this stage, where they're playing with and against NHL players, is pretty revealing. It may not have suggested which of the two should go first overall, but it pretty much confirms that both should be more than ready to make the jump to the NHL this season and be projected to produce as rookies.

It was another great year for teams to be terrible in the NHL. These guys are going to be a lot of fun for their new teams.

Other odds and ends from the 2016 Men's World Championship:

  • Anaheim Ducks forward Corey Perry became the 27th member of the IIHF's prestigious "Triple Gold Club." That group includes players that have won at least one gold medal at the World Championship, one Olympic gold and the Stanley Cup.
  • The tournament's best position players as selected by the directorate were Laine at Forward, Finland's Mikko Koskinen was best goaltender and Florida Panthers rookie Michael Matheson, who spent a lot of this season in the American Hockey League, was named best defenseman.
  • The Tournament All-Star Team as slected by the media included Laine, who was voted MVP as noted above. Joining him were Koskinen, Matheson, recent Maple Leafs signee Nikita Zaitsev and Vadim Shipachyov (the tournament's leading scorer).
  • Chicago Blackhawks rookie and Calder Trophy candidate Artemi Panarin helped Russia earn the bronze medal and finished second among all players with 15 points.
  • Detroit Red Wings rookie Dylan Larking finished tied with Matthews for Team USA's scoring lead with nine points. Fellow Red Wing Gustav Nyquist tied Laine for the tournament's goal-scoring lead with seven goals while representing Sweden. Additionally, Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk finished second in the tournament with 10 assists while captaining Russia.
  • Edmonton Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, who earned the shutout in the gold-medal game and saved Canada from a U.S. comeback in the semifinals, finished the tournament with a .940 save percentage and four shutouts.
  • The 2017 World Championship will be jointly held by Paris, France and Cologne, Germany next spring. Meanwhile, the next major international event on the calendar is the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Final rosters for that tournament, which will take place in September in Toronto, are expected to be in this week.
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Canada took their second straight gold medal at the IIHF Men's World Championship. USATSI