DiPietro tops Canada’s list of world junior cuts
Goalie hopes team wins gold despite surprise move, writes Michael Traikos.
ST. CATHARINE S, ONT. Michael DiPietro was not expecting this.
Fighting back tears, the Vancouver Canucks goalie prospect looked blindsided moments after being told he was one of five final cuts — defencemen Mario Ferraro (San Jose) and Josh Mahura (Anaheim) and forwards Tanner Kaspick (St. Louis) and Nick Suzuki ( Vegas) were the others — from Canada’s world hockey junior team.
“This is definitely something I’m not used to,” said DiPietro, who led the Windsor Spitfires to a Memorial Cup championship this past spring. “You try to weather the storm. It’s not something that you expect coming to camp, but I respect their decision and I wish them all the best.
“I told them that they’re going to win gold and that they don’t look good with silver around their necks anyway.”
In some ways, the decision to cut DiPietro was in keeping with most of Canada’s decisions.
From not inviting a forward with NHL experience (Owen Tippett) to cutting a sixth-overall pick (Cody Glass), it’s clear that this team isn’t concerned with making the popular choices. Rather Hockey Canada is trying to make the right choices.
“It’s not about what they are going to become in the NHL,” head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “Some guys are picked early and they got great potential, but where are they right now? It’s not where they are going to be in two years, three years, that’s the thing. At that age, especially 18 years old, a year makes a big difference.”
While there is just one top-10 draft pick and no draft-eligible players on Team Canada’s roster, what Canada lacks in big-name potential it more than makes up for in experience.
Of the 22 players, only three are younger than 19 and seven (forwards Dillon Dube, Michael McLeod and Taylor Raddysh, defencemen Jake Bean, Kale Clague, Dante Fabbro and goalie Carter Hart) are returning from the team that lost to the U.S. in last year’s championship final.
That should give Canada a more physical edge, especially for a team on the relatively small side with nine of 22 players sixfoot or shorter.
“It’s not by design,” Ducharme said. “We really went with what we saw on the ice and what we felt was the 22 best players … experience, like I said before, you can’t buy. And having those guys that went (through) different things — some of them were at the tournament last year and others went through other situations like playoffs — whatever it is, it always helps.”
Canada, which plays two exhibition games next week, begins the tournament in Buffalo on Dec. 26 with a game against Finland.
Here is the 22-man roster:
Goalies: Hart (Philadelphia), Colton Point (Dallas)
Defence: Bean (Carolina), Clague (Los Angeles), Fabbro (Nashville), Cal Foote (Tampa Bay), Cale Makar (Colorado), Victor Mete (Montreal), Conor Timmins (Colorado)
Forwards: Drake Batherson (Ottawa), Maxime Comtois (Anaheim), Dube (Calgary), Alex Formenton (Ottawa), Jonah Gadjovich ( Vancouver), Brett Howden (Tampa Bay), Boris Katchouk (Tampa Bay), Jordan Kyrou (St. Louis), McLeod (New Jersey), Raddysh (Tampa Bay), Sam Steel (Anaheim), Tyler Steenbergen (Arizona), Robert Thomas (St. Louis)
TOP LINE BREWING
Team Canada merely picked its final roster on Friday, but forward line combinations — and chemistry — appear to be already forming.
Expect Steel and Kyrou, who have been inseparable since they were put together during the summer camp, to start the tournament on the top line. The dynamic forwards combined for a goal and assist Friday in a 5-2 win against Denmark, but could have had plenty more based on the chances they generated.
“At first, it just happened because we were trying things and then we saw this summer that they had chemistry,” Ducharme said. “We played them together here and we’ll see in the next few days what will happen.”
Steel, whom the Anaheim Ducks selected 30th overall in the 2016 draft, was named the Western Hockey League’s player of the year after scoring 50 goals as part of 131 points last season. Kyrou, a second-round pick of the St. Louis Blues last year, is leading the Ontario Hockey League in scoring with 58 points, including a league-high 39 assists, in 30 games.
According to Steel, it’s the duo’s unselfishness that makes them a perfect fit.
“We both love to score goals, too, but I think we’re both the type of player where if the other guy is in a better position to score, we’ll dish it off,” Steel said. “That’s the type of player I like playing with.”
DANTE DOIN’ JUST FINE
Fabbro, who missed the first two games of the selection camp with a bone bruise, was in the lineup against the Danes. And though he hobbled off the ice midway through the third period, the Nashville Predators defensive prospect said it was more of a precaution than something to be worried about.
“It was good,” he said of how he felt. “Later on in the game I think I felt (it) maybe more cardiowise and where my contusion is. Other than that, I thought the guys did a good job helping me out there and getting me back in the swing of things.”
TIME TO BOND
With the roster now finalized, Ducharme said the focus is now on building a team.
It’s not something that will happen overnight. But with the first game 10 days away, it’s essential the 22 players quickly come together and start playing as one.
“It’s huge,” Ducharme said of bringing the players together as one cohesive unit.
“Not only friendships and building a group — that’s certainly part of it — but it’s chemistry on ice, the way we want to be playing, systems.”