By Glen Erickson /
When Hockey Canada announced the players invited to attend its National Junior Team selection camp in Regina, a total of six names could be traced to the roster that captured the gold medal at the 2009 World Junior Championship in Ottawa.
One man eminently familiar with the slate of invitees is Al Murray, Hockey Canada’s Head Scout for men’s national teams. In an interview with Hockey Now, he confirmed the selection camp roster included an unusually large number of returnees.
“That’s actually more players than we usually return,” Murray said. “So there were fewer spots [available] than usual. Nobody is guaranteed a spot, but there were (at least) 16 spots available, and at all positions.”
With a little help from National Hockey League teams, the 2010 edition of Team Canada might have featured half-a-dozen more blue-chippers that may have combined to produce a veritable juggernaut.
On the other hand, perhaps the absence of defencemen Matt Duchene (Colorado) and Tyler Myers (Buffalo), along with forwards John Tavares (New York Islanders), Evander Kane (Atlanta) and Ryan O’Reilly (Colorado) is simply a clear indication that the developmental approach undertaken by both Hockey Canada and the CHL is accomplishing precisely what it has set out to do.
Murray, who resides in Regina, described the approach taken by Hockey Canada in dealing with WJC-eligible Juniors who crack the lineup with an NHL team.
“We sort of take for granted that they are not going to be available to us and we spend all our time evaluating the guys in Junior and college hockey that we do have access to,” Murray said.
“From the start of the season, we didn’t expect to have any of those players. Our office keeps in constant contact with the NHL teams every couple of weeks just to monitor the progress of those players, but any [players] that we get are a bonus.”
With the announcement in early December that Cody Hodgson would be unable to participate due to a back injury, Murray confirmed that Hockey Canada decided not to add another prospect for the selection camp in Regina.
“Cody hasn’t played this year, but had he been healthy, we expect he would have been another one of those guys who would have made the NHL” Murray said. “So he wasn’t a player we were expecting from the start of the year.”
With the aforementioned group of eligible Juniors in the NHL unavailable, it would seem there are openings for many of the younger Canadian players. However, Murray cautions that at the World Juniors, having 17-year-old players on the Team Canada roster is not a common thing.
“Two years ago, we had John Tavares and Steve Stamkos and they both made it,” Murray said.
“Last year, we had five (17-year-olds) at camp and only Ryan Ellis made it; but due to an injury, Evander Kane made it. This year, we invited three to camp (John McFarland, Tyler Seguin and Brandon Gormley). There aren’t that many young players that are ever on the Junior team. It’s primarily 18- and 19-year-olds.”
And it would seem the work is never done for Murray, who also added that he will not be attending the World Juniors in Saskatchewan. Instead, he will be scouting at the World U-17 Challenge in Timmins, Ont., assessing players for the 2011 National Junior team. |