By Matt Reynolds
At 1 pm today, Hockey Canada announced their 25-man selection roster for this year's World Junior Championships in Malmo, Sweden. Of these 25 hopefuls, 2 forwards and 1 defenceman will be cut from the camp.
The big names headlining the selection camp included Jonathan Drouin, Tampa Bay's third overall selection at this year's entry draft, 2014 eligible prospects Aaron Ekblad and Sam Reinhart, and 16 year-old phenom Connor McDavid, who is younger than I am and has been dubbed by many as the next Sidney Crosby. Other notable names included Zach Fucale, a goaltender drafted in the second round by the Montreal Canadiens this year, and returning defenceman Griffin Reinhart, who will have to serve a 3-game suspension he received in last year's tournament for a high stick to the face of an American player. The full list can be seen here.
The one burning question on everyone's mind is, "is this team good enough to capture the gold?"
Team Canada goes into every international hockey tournament with the highest of expectations from their fans, but success has been scarce over the past few years. Team Canada has not won a gold medal since 2009, and last year failed to even win a medal at all for the first time in 14 years. Canada's last 5 World Junior tournaments have been as follows: Gold (2009), 2 Silvers (2010, 2011), Bronze (2012) and fourth place (2013). Many thought that last year was the year to win, since Canada had a star-studded roster thanks to the NHL lockout, which included Edmonton Oilers star Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but the team disappointed many after dealing with goaltending troubles once again.
This year, only 2 goalies were taken for the selection roster, which is half of what was taken last year. This obviously means there will only be 2 goalies on the team, unlike the previous year, where the team carried 3. Jake Paterson, last year's third-string goalie, returns to the team this year alongside Zachary Fucale. Mathew Dumba is the only player currently playing in the NHL to have been selected for the roster, since no teams other than his Minnesota Wild have yet told Hockey Canada that they will allow them to take one of their players for the World Juniors. This includes Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom many thought would be loaned, since he is not playing every game for the boys in blue this year and is still eligible.
This year's team has a lot to live up to. Canadians across the country are getting restless without a gold medal in 5 years and another failure this year will certainly not help. While there are many notable and even household names on the roster, the rest of the players are not ones that we have heard loads of praise for this year or last. Notable names that were left off the roster include Edmonton defense prospect Darnell Nurse, Phoenix Coyotes draft pick Max Domi (son of Tie) and 2014 draft eligibles such as Michael Dal Colle and Sam Bennett.
Although Canada is never really lacking in offense, the last few years there has been one major problem: goaltending. Last year, coach Steve Spott put his faith in Malcolm Subban, who let us down when it mattered most. We also dealt with the inconsistency of backup Jordan Binnington. This year, many expect Zach Fucale to be named the starter. However, seeing how that has worked in the past few years, I believe Brent Sutter (this year's coach) should play both goalies in the preliminary rounds to really see which is the better choice.
Below are the players I think should make the team and the 3 who should get cut.
Goalies
Zach Fucale
Jake Paterson
Defencemen
Mathew Dumba
Chris Bigras
Griffin Reinhart
Aaron Ekblad
Josh Morrisey
Adam Pelech
Derrick Pouliot
Forwards
Jonathan Drouin
Frédérik Gauthier
Félix Girard
Bo Horvat
Charles Hudon
Scott Laughton
Curtis Lazar
Anthony Mantha
Connor McDavid
Nic Petan
Sam Reinhart
Kerby Rychel
Hunter Shinkaruk
Cuts: Damon Severson (D), Josh Anderson, Taylor Leier (F)
