Kaiden Guhle had the captain’s “C” embroidered on his sweater with the big maple leaf as a logo. At 19, he was scheduled to act as the leader of the Canadian team at the World Junior Championships in his hometown of Edmonton.
• Read also: Bad news for one of the best prospects in the draft
• Read also: Russians kicked out of Calgary flight
Guhle experienced the feeling of stepping on the ice at Rogers Place as Team Canada captain. But the experience did not last long. Two small matches. A 6-3 win over the Czech Republic and another 11-2 win over Austria.
On December 29, Luc Tardif, the new president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, decided to cancel the tournament. The Omicron wave took this holiday tradition away.
Almost a week later, Guhle is still struggling with the shock, but he’s also keeping a step back.
“Yes, it still hurts,” Guhle said in a telephone interview to the Newspaper. I look at the dates and I think to myself that we have to play the semi-finals on January 4th and the final on January 5th. It’s still very much in my head. I find it sad, but there is nothing we can do. This is the reality nowadays, the pandemic is doing a lot of damage. “
“I never thought of this possibility of seeing the tournament being canceled,” he continued. I thought we were going to play the tournament, like last year. We had opened the tournament, we had played matches. But in our world today, you can’t predict too many things. Organizers chose to cancel the tournament for the safety of players, staff and those who gravitated around the tournament. It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of life. ”
An honor
Captain of the Prince Albert Raiders in the Western Junior League before moving to the Edmonton Oil Kings in early December, Guhle found the “C” on his jersey at the World Juniors.
“It was really special. There were several good candidates to carry this letter, but they trusted me. I was happy to see that the coaches, led by Dave Cameron, saw me as the leader of this team. There have been great captains in the history of the Canadian team. I wore the “C” with immense pride. “
Guhle was following in the footsteps of Kyle Chipchura, the last hope of the CH who had played the role of captain with Canada. Chipchura, a first-round pick in 2004, received the honor in 2006. Although he did not have a glorious career in the NHL, the center from Alberta still played nearly 500 games (482 ).
Since 2000, there haven’t been a ton of big names that have acted as captain. Most notorious are Kristopher Letang (2007), Ryan Ellis (2011), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2013) and Brayden Point (2016).
Hope for a recovery
Guhle, a 6-foot-2, 201-lb left-handed defenseman, was making his second World Juniors appearance. For this next edition in Edmonton, he wanted to banish the loss to Trevor Zegras, Spencer Knight and the United States in the gold medal match from his memory.
“I think it’s even more difficult to accept the cancellation of the tournament,” he said. In Canada, you don’t win the silver medal. We didn’t have the medal color we wanted at the end of last year’s World Cup. I remember the feeling that came over me after the defeat in the final against the United States (2-0). For this year, I wanted to redeem myself. I had one more motivation, I wanted to finish the job. But we failed to complete the tournament. It hurts.”
Guhle will however retain a grain of hope.
“I would like us to restart the tournament. When the Canadian team leaders broke the bad news to us, they were quick to say there was a possibility of resuming the tournament, possibly in the summer. That would be great. I keep that in mind. I would like to find my teammates for the World Cup. And it would be hotter in Edmonton this summer. ”
A word about Connor Bedard
In two games, Guhle had an assist and had a +5 rating. Connor Bedard, slated to be the top-class in the 2023 NHL Draft, scored the tournament with four goals against weak Austria.
“Connor is a generational talent, a unique and special player,” said Guhle. Off the ice he’s a great guy too. He was quite discreet. He has all the tools to be a great player in the NHL. I can’t wait to see him next year at this tournament or even better this summer for the tournament to resume. ”