Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

Your roster for Canada at the World Juniors?


Recommended Posts

A lot of people not putting Petan in. 120 points last year to lead the WHL as a 17 year old, and is pretty much built for the ice surface and style of play.

AGREE...Petan has just too much talent, too be left off. Still maturing,yet. Mcdavid has to be considered, with the same reasoning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rychel - Monahan - Drouin

Shinkaruk - McDavid - Reinhart

Domi - Horvat - Mantha

Gauthier - Laughton - Gaunce

Petan

Pouliot - Dumba

Morrissey - Pulock

Finn - Severson

Matheson

Paterson

Fucale

I think that MacKinnon, Griffin Reinhart, Tom Wilson and Morgan Reilly will be in the NHL and playing roles too important to their respective teams to be allowed to play. I think Drouin is a special case because of Steve Yzerman's relationship with Hockey Canada and the fact his presence isn't as important to his team as his colleagues are to theirs.

I also concur with Plum, McDavid is being overlooked because of his age. This kid is a phenom and not only belongs on the team, but should be given a key role on it.

This will be one of the smaller Canadian teams iced in this tourney, so the fourth line I expect to be big and aggressive (and skilled of course) to keep the Europeans on their toes. Gaunce isn't a homer throw-in as there are very few players with his size and skill to fill the role although I imagine we will see some right-handed bruisers get invites in the Fall to create more competition considering the gridlock at certain positions (namely center and left-wing).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rychel - Monahan - Drouin

Shinkaruk - McDavid - Reinhart

Domi - Horvat - Mantha

Gauthier - Laughton - Gaunce

Petan

Pouliot - Dumba

Morrissey - Pulock

Finn - Severson

Matheson

Paterson

Fucale

I think that MacKinnon, Griffin Reinhart, Tom Wilson and Morgan Reilly will be in the NHL and playing roles too important to their respective teams to be allowed to play. I think Drouin is a special case because of Steve Yzerman's relationship with Hockey Canada and the fact his presence isn't as important to his team as his colleagues are to theirs.

I also concur with Plum, McDavid is being overlooked because of his age. This kid is a phenom and not only belongs on the team, but should be given a key role on it.

This will be one of the smaller Canadian teams iced in this tourney, so the fourth line I expect to be big and aggressive (and skilled of course) to keep the Europeans on their toes. Gaunce isn't a homer throw-in as there are very few players with his size and skill to fill the role although I imagine we will see some right-handed bruisers get invites in the Fall to create more competition considering the gridlock at certain positions (namely center and left-wing).

Again, McDavid isn't being overlooked, everybody knows how skilled he is and how good he's going to be, but history tells us he likely isn't going to make it because they aren't going to push out a 19 year old in his last chance to play for a 16 year old. I first heard about Crosby when he was 12, he was the next Gretzky, and yet he didn't play in the Juniors when he was 16. McDavid isn't even supposed to be the next Crosby, so why do you think he'll get an opportunity that Crosby didn't?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again, McDavid isn't being overlooked, everybody knows how skilled he is and how good he's going to be, but history tells us he likely isn't going to make it because they aren't going to push out a 19 year old in his last chance to play for a 16 year old. I first heard about Crosby when he was 12, he was the next Gretzky, and yet he didn't play in the Juniors when he was 16. McDavid isn't even supposed to be the next Crosby, so why do you think he'll get an opportunity that Crosby didn't?

Lol, I'm just a fan of his dude. The rosters composed are total larks in "guessing games" like these. I want to see him on the team but it is no skin off my back if he doesn't make it. Cheer up, it's all in good fun!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again, McDavid isn't being overlooked, everybody knows how skilled he is and how good he's going to be, but history tells us he likely isn't going to make it because they aren't going to push out a 19 year old in his last chance to play for a 16 year old. I first heard about Crosby when he was 12, he was the next Gretzky, and yet he didn't play in the Juniors when he was 16. McDavid isn't even supposed to be the next Crosby, so why do you think he'll get an opportunity that Crosby didn't?

Spezza and Bouwmeester both made the team at 16 IIRC

And this years forward crop is a bit weaker than usual so McDavid may be able to get in

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again, McDavid isn't being overlooked, everybody knows how skilled he is and how good he's going to be, but history tells us he likely isn't going to make it because they aren't going to push out a 19 year old in his last chance to play for a 16 year old. I first heard about Crosby when he was 12, he was the next Gretzky, and yet he didn't play in the Juniors when he was 16. McDavid isn't even supposed to be the next Crosby, so why do you think he'll get an opportunity that Crosby didn't?

Just so you know, I read an article today that said Crosby did in fact play the U-20 WJC as a sixteen year old so your argument is now incredibly invalid. Even Brent Sutter said he would be shocked if McDavid doesn't make the team. So.......ya.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Canada returns to Sutter seeking WJC success

Friday, 08.02.2013 / 9:00 AM / Prospects

By Adam Kimelman - NHL.com Deputy Managing Editor

After a third straight third-place finish at the IIHF World Junior Championship in 2004, it marked seven years Canada had gone without a gold medal at the elite under-20 international tournament. For the 2005 WJC, Hockey Canada chose Brent Sutter as coach. The subsequent changes Sutter helped bring about led to a run of five straight gold medals.

Now, mired in another slump -- no gold since 2009; no medal of any kind last year, the first time that happened since 1998 -- Hockey Canada has turned back to Sutter for the 2014 World Juniors, to be held Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2014, in Malmo, Sweden.

Sutter again has brought his own thoughts to the process of building the national junior team, starting with a trip to Lake Placid, N.Y., to take part in USA Hockey's National Junior Evaluation Camp. Canada will spend Aug. 4-5 working at the Montreal Canadiens' practice facility in Brossard, Quebec, then travel to Lake Placid, where 32 players will practice and play exhibition games Aug. 6-10 against teams from the United States, Finland and Sweden.

It's a drastic change from previous years, when Hockey Canada would bring in two teams worth of players and have them battle head-to-head. "The whole concept is different," Sutter told NHL.com. "This concept is totally different than what was accustomed to. Instead of doing an evaluation camp of 44 or whatever players they've done in the past and playing against each other, now you take your [32] guys and you go in there and you go in as one team. You have an opportunity to evaluate everyone within a team concept, where everyone is together, everyone is a group. You go in there, represent your country. It's summer exhibition games, but very meaningful games as far as players showcasing themselves and seeing where you're at and what you have.

"It doesn't matter if it's the true tournament or an exhibition, whenever you play another country, games are certainly more intense. We want to be an intense team, we want to be a team that's well-prepared, we want to be a quick team. This is going to give us an idea of what we have."

Sutter has one player from last year making the trip to Lake Placid: goaltender Jake Paterson, who was the third goalie on the team that finished fourth in Ufa, Russia; he never got into a game. Four other returnees will skate the first two days in Brossard: forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, and defensemen Griffin Reinhart and Morgan Rielly.

Sutter said the lack of returning players isn't something that affects him, citing his past experience of winning gold medals at the 2005 and 2006 World Juniors with groups that had different levels of experience. "The 2005 team, we had 13 returning players from 2004 when they won the silver medal," he said of a roster that included Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards and Dion Phaneuf. "You're sitting there and saying what fits best with those 13 key guys. … In 2006 we had a completely new group. We had 21 new players, so you really had to evaluate what you had. The only returning guy was Cam Barker."

Paterson, a Detroit Red Wings draft pick, is one of three goalies who will travel to Lake Placid, along with Winnipeg Jets prospect Eric Comrie and Montreal Canadiens draft pick Zachary Fucale.However, an invitation to the summer camp in no way means any of the three has locked down a trip to Sweden."You hope that two of those three guys will step up, but they've got to have real good first halves of the year," Sutter said of the upcoming season. "I don't want us to be selecting our goaltenders in August. What happens if they falter and don't play well in the first half of the year? … These three guys are now in the starting blocks, but they have to run the race until December. They can't fail to run that. That's my mindset in selecting goaltenders."He then cited another example from his past: "The goalies that came to camp in August [prior to the 2005 and 2006 tournaments], none of them were on our team in December."

The same goes for players at other positions.

"When everyone leaves here, they're going to understand that if they're going to play on the team what their role is going to be," Sutter said. "So when they go back, some of them are going to play much larger roles than they may if they're playing on the World Junior team, but we've got to be able to see, when we're evaluating them, when we're going through this process, that they're able to handle playing in those roles on the team.

"There's guys that are going to play on the third and fourth lines that are going to have to be checkers and good penalty killers, guys who on their club team might have played 20, 25 minutes a night, playing every power play, but on the World Junior team they might not be playing on the power play, they might be penalty killers. So you've got to find the right mix."

Included in that mix could be the two youngest players at the camp: Kootenay Ice center Sam Reinhart (17) and Erie Otters center Connor McDavid (16). Reinhart is expected to be the first pick of the 2014 NHL Draft after an outstanding season in the WHL then captaining Canada to the gold medal at the 2013 IIHF World Under-18 Championship. McDavid, who made his debut in the Ontario Hockey League last season after being granted exceptional-player status from Hockey Canada, is expected to be the first pick at the 2015 NHL Draft. He's bidding to be the first 16-year-old to play on Canada's World Junior team since Crosby in 2004.

"These two players are elite-level players," Sutter said. "Where they fit in or what happens through it all is yet to be determined. These kids as young players, they're elite players. … It's an elite tournament, and players like that, they come and they play well in it. I'm not too worried about that at all. "To be quite honest, I'd be shocked if neither one of them was on the team just because of their skill sets and how good they are."

How good Canada is at the 2014 World Junior Championship remains to be seen, but Sutter is hopeful the changes that have come along with his return bring about past success. "It's great to have change, as long as the change is for the right reasons," Sutter said. "… There's so much talk around the players and the staff and the team all the time about that end result, and that's what we have to get some of that focus off and focus in on the day-to-day things and what we're about and form our identity. That's what from Aug. 4 to Aug. 10 is going to be about. What are we going to be, how are we going to play, what type of players do we want to play with and how do we want to play."

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=679317

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just so you know, I read an article today that said Crosby did in fact play the U-20 WJC as a sixteen year old so your argument is now incredibly invalid. Even Brent Sutter said he would be shocked if McDavid doesn't make the team. So.......ya.

McDavid should make it easily if guys like MacKinnon, Drouin, Monahan, Rychel etc. make their NHL teams. I have a feeling Gaunce, Horvat and Shinkaruk will all make the team. Still kind of surprised that Subban didn't get invited.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lol, I'm just a fan of his dude. The rosters composed are total larks in "guessing games" like these. I want to see him on the team but it is no skin off my back if he doesn't make it. Cheer up, it's all in good fun!

Apologies, I didn't re-read what I wrote and reading it now I can see how I may have come across as a little dickish. Not my intentions, just meant to be a friendly debate!

Just so you know, I read an article today that said Crosby did in fact play the U-20 WJC as a sixteen year old so your argument is now incredibly invalid. Even Brent Sutter said he would be shocked if McDavid doesn't make the team. So.......ya.

I had just done a quick skim through the rosters and hadn't seen him in 2004, so I stand corrected. However it should be noted that he was used on the 4th line that whole tournament and didn't have a notable showing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was lucky enough to be in Brossard today and I attended the practice. I watched both sessions (it was broken into two, but the goalies participated in both sessions). I could go on about this and that as it was very interesting to watch, but I`ll just make a few comments about the Canucks prospects. First, it is clear that Shinkaruk wants to make this team, badly. His compete level even during seemingly meaningless drills (if there is such a thing at a selection camp at this level) is very high. He had a couple battles in front of the net with Dumba that, if it were a WHL game, would likely have led to altercations no doubt. Horvat is quiet good. Watching him (my first time since he plays in the OHL), I get the sense that he`s such a smoother skater, with great hockey-sense that he can make things look easier than they are. Interestingly, Horvat played the entire practice at left wing so that might put out any thoughts of him making the team as a center as some people here are speculating. On the contrary, Gaunce didn`t look that good out there. He was playing his natural center position, but they took his line-mates and put them into the other session so he was easy to spot out there being the only skater wearing blue. He was out of sorts during some of the drills and put his head up in the air with furstration on more than one occasion (not a good thing for the coaches to be seeing I imagine). Sutter spoke to him one-on-one a few times - no idea about what though? A couple last notes, Mackinnon is the real deal, and McDavid is scarrry good for his age. I`ve seen Petan play a lot in the dub, but man this guy is a shrimp - I know what he has done in Portland and it`s impressive, but I just can`t imagine him doing that against elite level competition at his size level when most everyone at the tournament will be as good as him but with 6 inches and 25lbs advantages over the guy. Again, it was a very interesting practice, both sessions had high tempo`s and the skaters were definitely not holding back - every shot was meant to score. I`m going to try to go back tomorrow if I can and will post again if I do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just so you know, I read an article today that said Crosby did in fact play the U-20 WJC as a sixteen year old so your argument is now incredibly invalid. Even Brent Sutter said he would be shocked if McDavid doesn't make the team. So.......ya.

I think Crosby played on a line with Bergeron and Perry that year

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...