Seven Quebecers will take part in the Junior Team Canada selection camp in preparation for the World Junior Hockey Championship, Hockey Canada announced on Wednesday morning.
A total of 35 players have been invited to the camp which will take place in the west of the country, and from this group, 25 will be selected to represent the country at this prestigious tournament.
They are defender Lukas Cormier and forwards Xavier Bourgault, Mavrik Bourque, Elliot Desnoyers, William Dufour, Hendrix Lapierre and Joshua Roy.
In total, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will have eight representatives, since Zach Dean, of the Gatineau Olympiques, joins this group.
Among the great forgotten of this camp is Miguel Tourigny, of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, who is 11th in scoring among the CHL defensemen with 16 goals so far this season.
The Montreal Canadiens will not be outdone as two of his recent draft picks will participate in the competition. They are defenseman Kaiden Guhle and Roy. Guhle was part of ECJ which lost 2-0 to the United States in the World Juniors final in Edmonton last year.
Guhle was traded by the Prince Albert Raiders to the Edmonton Oil Kings hours after his selection was announced, in return for forward Carson Latimer, defenseman Eric Johnston and a first-round pick. in the WHL draft in 2021 and 2023, a conditional third-round pick in 2025 and sixth-round pick in 2022.
ECJ also indicated that three goalies are already guaranteed to be part of the squad for the tournament. They are Dylan Garand and Sebastian Cossa of the Western Junior Hockey League (WHL) and Brett Brochu of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OHL).
A new head coach
The Canadian squad will be led by former Ottawa Senators head coach Dave Cameron, who took advantage of André Tourigny’s appointment with the Arizona Coyotes earlier this year to succeed him.
Cameron will be supported by the return of Michael Dyck as assistant, by the addition of Louis Robitaille and Dennis Williams as assistants, as well as Olivier Michaud as consultant for goaltenders.
“I think we’ll have a great team, and my experience in this tournament tells me you have to be able to win in a lot of different ways. Sometimes everything will be in our favor, and sometimes we will have to keep our focus even if we are lagging behind. The special teams will win games, our goalkeepers will win games, so I believe this formation will give us the best chances of winning, ”Cameron said at a press briefing.
Canada will play a series of pre-season games against Switzerland on Dec. 19, Sweden on Dec. 20 and Russia on Dec. 22.
The World Juniors Hockey will then be held in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta. It kicks off on December 26 and ends with the gold medal game which will be played on January 5, 2022.
Canada opens its tournament on December 26 against the Czech Republic, before facing Austria on the 28th, Germany on the 29th, and Finland on the 31st.