You can’t teach size, that’s every hockey scout’s mantra.

Especially if you’re a centre, where scouts are always biggest when it comes to large.

Like in the upcoming NHL draft, the top centres on the prospect board are almost all well over 6 feet tall, like with Team Canada’s Hlinka-Gretzky Cup No. 1 pivot Alexis Joseph, the poster boy for that rationale and one of the team’s assistant captains.

Joseph is close to 6-foot-5 with soft hands and smooth-running engine, a Quebec-born kid the Vancouver Canucks should be considering if they get the first pick and are hot to trot for a centre in 2027. Yes, he needs some work when he doesn’t have the puck, like all teenagers, but Joseph, who set up the first goal by Brock England in Canada’s 7-3 blowout win over Switzerland Monday night, has an abundance of skill in the open ice and in tight quarters.

“Joseph reminds me so much of Evgeni Malkin at the same age,” said TSN’s scout Craig Button, which is a wow statement with the Hall of Famer in waiting Malkin, now 40, being the second overall pick in 2004 behind fellow Russian Alex Ovechkin.

“Centres of Joseph’s size are hard to obtain. 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,” said Button.

While Button says Joseph has some of Malkin in how he plays, Joseph, who grew up outside Montreal, bends more to Nate MacKinnon as a centre role model. Nate’s a snorting bull, unbelievably fast, which doesn’t seem to equate to the smoother, taller Joseph, but he’s picked an MVP to emulate.

“Yeah, he’s fast but I like the way he plays. And, of course, there’s Crosby and McDavid. I look at them and try to be like them, too,” said Joseph, who had 60 points in 54 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League games, averaging close to 20 minutes a game, in his first year of major junior in Saint John. A kid from Lachenaie, founded in 1683, but now part of the city of Terrebonne, a predominantly French-speaking area moving to New Brunswick.

He benefitted from being in the Maritimes last season, not just on the ice, but walking the streets, in the stores, around the dinner table with his billets.

“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.

Has Joseph, who turned 17 in June, finished growing?

“I think so, although maybe not,” said the 201-pound Joseph, who may have stopped growing vertically but could probably put on another 10 pounds at his height, with little trouble.

Joseph didn’t get his height from his parents, like many kids.

“No. My dad’s not tall, 5-foot-11 and my mum’s 5-foot-5. I don’t know where it’s (height) come from, maybe an uncle? I dunno,” said Joseph.

Canada’s two youngest players Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue, only 16, led the way in their easy win against the over-matched Swiss team, with the home team scoring five times in the first 15 minutes.

The winger Pue, who has a release like Utah’s Dylan Guenther, the ex Oil Kings winger, ripped two bullets for first-period goals off feeds from his Regina Pats’ teammate Schultz. They can play in the event next season, too.

England (Seattle Thunderbirds), projected to go somewhere in the first round of the 2027 draft also had two snipes, Camryn Warren (North Bay, OHL), Ryerson Edgar (Niagara, OHL) and Benjamin Veitch (Newfoundland, Quebec Major Junior) had the others. Oil Kings’ Kayden Stroeder set up the Veitch goal.

Centre Jonah Neuenschwander, already playing in the Swiss Elite League, and Sam Neff got two in 40 seconds on Canada goalie Sam Berthiaume in the first six minutes  and Tim Tussel another in the third for the losers.

In other action, Team USA got up 5-1 against Czechia in the first game of the tournament Monday afternoon and hung on to win 6-4, with Spokane Chiefs centre Gavin Burcar getting the bases covered. The California-born forward scored even-strength, once on the power play and another short-handed, the first HT of the tournament.

“First over the boards on the PK, plays a ton 5-on-5, trust him in our own end. He’s got size and speed and versatility. I think he will play up and down the lineup when drafted (NHL),” said USA coach Reid Cashman.

Finland beat Germany 5-2 at Downtown Community Arena in the second game of the first day, coming back from two PP goals down in the first period. Luukas Kokkonen and Max Poikela had a goal and an assist.

This ‘n that: Defenceman Lukas Kachlir, the Oil Kings first pick in the CHL import draft, had two fine goals for the Czechs in their loss to USA. He is signed to play for Bill Tygri Liberec in their Elite League right now but undoubtedly the Oil Kings hope, at 17, he maybe changes his mind and comes over to the WHL team if he’s not getting enough ice-time as a pro… Strange game for Landon DuPont, the best D prospect in the 2027 draft. No points in a game where his Canada team scored seven times…The Swiss goalie Ayden Huet, who got the start in net against Canada, is the son of the former NHLer Cristobal Huet, who played 273 NHL games with Los Angeles, Montreal, Washington and won a Cup ring in Chicago. The son had a rough outing, giving up four goals on nine shots before getting the hook after nine minutes… The son of local product and former NHLer Hnat Domenichelli Alessandro, who played in WHL Portland last season, had two assists for the Swiss team…. Neuenschwander is expected to go very high in the 2027 NHL draft, playing for Biel against men in his home country. Big question: at 14 letters, how do they squeeze Jonah’s whale of a name on a name-bar?… Germany’s top player in the tournament is 5-foot-11, 192-pound centre Max Calce, who got their first goal in the loss to Finland. He played his younger hockey in Mannheim like Leon Draisaitl. He was Max Penkin for years but he’s changed to his mother’s new surname. He will be a first-round pick, a high motor kid like Tim Stutzle in Ottawa. He has put up nice numbers with not a lot of equal skill support… Former NHL winger Niklas Sundstrom’s son Milan, another in a long line of high-end Hlinka centres, is the Swede’s best draft prospect. Strong at both ends of the ice. His offensive skills don’t wow people but he’s very responsible and will certainly go in the top 10-12 in next year’s NHL draft…. Schultz has an A on his jersey, clearly an acknowledgement of not only his leadership at 16 but the fact he’ll be the go-to guy on the 2027 Hlinka squad, and his Regina Pats winger teammate Pue, look like choreographer and finisher. Schultz could be top pick in the 2028 nHL draft because he’s only 16… The Czechia team ripped Canada 6-zip in a pre-tournament game but still took a major hit when their best Hlinka defenceman Matyas Michalek got hurt before the tournament. “He’s a 2010 birthday (only 16 years old) but he’s a stud. He’s 6’4”, a tremendous skater. He gives me Jay Bouwmeester vibes,” said Button… The Czechia team captain Adam Nemec, who will be playing for the Hyman family owned junior team in Brantford this season, reminds Button of Vasily Podkolzin when he was the same age. He had one of the Czech goals against USA. “Plays hard, heavy, in the guts of the action,” he said.