This morning
Hockey Canada announced the 36 players they are inviting to it's training camp starting ten days from now in Regina.
The list, which can be found
here, includes 7 returning players from last year's squad that claimed a record tying 5th straight gold medal for Canada.
The
OHL leads the way with 12 players on the list, while the
WHL and
QMJHL each have 10. There are 3
NCAA players and apparently the
St. Louis Blues will loan
Alex Pietrangelo to the squad.
14 of the 36 players invited are first round picks, and the
LA Kings top all
NHL clubs with 5 prospects on the squad, while the
Edmonton Oilers are 2nd with three.
There are four 2010 draft eligible players attending camp. Recently
I threw out some names that I thought would get consideration, and Hockey Canada agreed with 4 of my choices. The one that didn't get an invite is
Prince George forward
Brett Connolly(pictured) who has missed much of this season with hip injury.
He did return in time to play
Russia in the
Super Series, and does have 4 points in the two games he played during the month of November. Oddly enough that's 3 more points than
Sudbury's John McFarland had during the month. After notching 20 points in 12 games to start the year,
McFarland put up just one in 10 November games. Unless he makes the jump to the NHL next year,
Connolly will have another chance at Canada's team next year, as will goaltender
Calvin Pickard who was edged out by
Calgary's Martin Jones for one 4 pipemen spots.
Head coach
Willie Desjardins told me today that
Connolly's lack of playing time played a big role in him being left off the roster. "I was really impressed with him, he's a smart player, and you can just tell he's a real good player. Last year when they came into
Medicine Hat and he was 16, and was with
Dana Tyrell, the two of them put on a great show."
Ok, so here are the thoughts of TPS. The first thing that jumped out in
Guy's mind was the absence of
Boston Bruins first round pick and
Denver Pioneer forward
Joe Colborne. The former
Camrose Kodiak had a 31 point campaign as a freshman last year and has 11 points in 12 games this year. By all reports his broken finger has healed as Jumbo Joe has 6 points in his last 4 games. What makes me scratch my head on this is that
Harvard's Louis Leblanc did get an invite.
Colborne plays a much tougher schedule with
Denver than the
Canadiens draft pick does with
Harvard. He's a year older, and 5 inches taller. If you track these guys statistically,
Leblanc has 9 points in 8 games this year, while he had 59 points in 60 games last year with
Omaha of the
USHL.
Colborne meanwhile in his final season with
Camrose had 90 points in 55 games and was named the Canadian Junior 'A' player of the year.
Along with
Leblanc,
Denver blueliner
Patrick Wiercioch, and
Minnesota Duluth rearguard
Dylan Olsen (who was listed as playing with
Camrose) made the grade from the college ranks. Ironically both have a connection to
Colborne.
Wiercioch plays with him now in
Denver, while
Olsen skated with him in
Camrose.
What I love about
Canada's potential blueline is the beef. 5 guys tip the Toledos at over 200 pounds -
Jared Cowen being the biggest at 226 lbs - and 4 more are a cheeseburger away from joining them. There are also 7 dmen that are 6.02 or taller with
Cowen and
Wiercioch being the sky scrapers at 6.05. But being big is only beneficial if you're mobile, and
Canada has plenty of that as well. Starting with returnees
Ryan Ellis and
Alex Pietrangelo. Newcomer
Travis Hamonic of
Moose Jaw combines both. It'll be interesting to see if 2010 prospect
Brandon Gormley can outshine the likes of
Nicolas Deslauriers from
Rouyn-Noranda, Marco Scandella of Val d'Or or
Shawn Lalonde for a roster spot.
Of course there are a few guys I'm surprised that didn't make the cut.
Michael Stone of
Calgary leads all
WHL dmen in goals with 13, he's also 6.04 and 217 pounds. Right behind him in points is
Vancouver's Kevin Connauton and then
Saskatoon's Stefan Elliot who will miss out on playing in his home arena.
Elliot to me is a wonderful player, great skater and has played near flawless hockey when I've watched him. One of his greatest skills is getting the puck through from the point.
"In different ways guys we left off the roster will be better than some players we have on the roster," said
Desjardins on his way back to
Medicine Hat this afternoon, "but with a team you need different role players, you need different types of players."
Tyler Cuma is also an interesting absentee.
Cuma was injured at last year's camp, where most thought he would have made the team. He also played with most of this group a the
Ivan Hlinka and
2008 U18 World Championship, however a slow start for the
Minnesota Wild first rounder likely did him in. But alas, the group
Hockey Canada has assembled is pretty impressive.
Up front if
Brampton's Cody Hodgson is healthy enough to play he should be named captain and will likely form the basis of Canada's top line with
Regina forward
Jordan Eberle. Who will be the lucky left winger on that line?
Rouyn-Noranda's Philippe Cornet might be a candidate. His 45 points in 30 games puts him 2nd in QMJHL scoring, and his
Huskies Head Coach
Andre Torigny is an assistant with
Team Canada.
Cornet also brings with him chemistry with
Eberle. It started at the
Ivan Hlinka tournament in 2007, continued in the
2008 Top Prospects game, then carried over to the past 2
NHL training camps, as both players are prospects of the
Oilers.
"It was interesting because I talked to
Eberle today and he talked about Cornet and what a great camp he had with the Oilers and what a real good player he is, so those are certainly things we'll be taking into consideration when it comes down to making our lines" said
Desjardins who admits to already thinking about combinations.
Speaking of possible trios, if you watched the
Subway Super Series on Rogers Sportsnet, you would have witnessed the "C" line when the
QMJHL took on the
Russians.
Phillipe Cornet, Patrice Cormier and
Jordan Caron combined for 5 points in 2 games. The three players all played in
Rimouski last year and could get a look see from
Desjardins when camp begins. When the series shifted to
Ontario, the
Spitfires combo went to work.
Taylor Hall, Greg Nemisz and
Adam Henrique skated together.
Whatever the line combinations,
Canada will have plenty of fire power to choose from with the likes of
Wheat King duo
Brayden Schenn and
Scott Glennie, along with
London's Nazem Kadri. One player who definitely used the
Super Series as a springboard is
Luke Adam of
Cape Breton. The forward notched 5 points in 2 games, to go along with his 44 in 29 games during the regular season. He also brings nice size at 6.02 and 200 lbs.
Adam might be a nice role player who can chip in offensively the way
Brett Sonne and Jamie Benn played last year. Another guy who fits that bill is
Cody Eakin of
Swift Current. Eakin brings 25 goals in 29 games to the table and has a nice all around game.
Guy and I both agree that the netminding tandem will likely be
Montreal's Jake Allen as the #1, with
Matt Hackett from
Plymouth as the back up.
As mentioned many times before, we can always second guess who
Canada does and doesn't invite, but when it comes down to it, the job that
Al Murray and his staff do is pretty impressive. If you don't believe me, maybe 5 straight gold medals would convince you. What were you surprised with from the roster?
"I've said it before but why is it Canada never has a goalie that steals the show? We are horrible at picking goalies for this team."
