Ten players on the selection camp roster are five-foot-eleven or shorter, while six-foot-four goaltenders Mackenzie Blackwood and Mason McDonald are the biggest on the team.
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Marner is a lock to make Team Canada, as he’s simply been too good for the OHL this season.
Mitch Marner knows what’s expected of him and his teammates on Canada’s world junior team.
The World Juniors open up on Boxing Day with Canada serving as the defending champ. “It just so happens that some of those guys this year are in the 5’11”-6’0″ range”.
“We have some returning players from last year’s gold medal-winning team, and a lot of worldwide experience with the group as a whole”. “My conversation with Mike Babcock after Sochi was, ‘You can ask guys to work hard, you can teach guys to block shots”. The first-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers has 39 points in 25 games in the Ontario Hockey League so far this season and could turn out to be a key cog for Canada.
“Players are going to conform because they want to play for Canada and they’ve got the jersey on”, said Jankowski. He tried out for the American team and attended the US summer camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. However, last week the International Ice Hockey Federation ruled he was ineligible to play for the USA, leaving Canada as his only option.
Saskatoon native Rourke Chartier has received an invitation to Team Canada’s selection camp in advance of the world junior hockey championship. Dermott is yet to represent Canada in his career, and will be in tough to make the team with Canada’s depth on the backend. Just like he did with the forwards, Jankowski pointed to speed and mobility as being integral to Team Canada blueliners. “They’re going to be able to get the puck to our forwards and go back and get pucks”.
“They’re certainly amongst the elite players on this team and yet it’s not going to be those two guys that win us a gold medal, it’s going to be all 22 players”, said Ryan Jankowski, the team’s director of player personnel.
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Hockey Canada unveiled its list of players invited to the 2015 selection camp on Tuesday morning.
