Selecting talent for Canada’s junior hockey team ‘a real challenge’

LANGLEY, B.C. Tim Hunter knows he’s got some tough decisions looming on the horizon.

The head coach of Canada’s junior national team will soon have to invite dozens of the country’s most talented young hockey players to selection camp.

Then he’ll have to whittle the group down to a final squad to play in this year’s IIHF world juniors championship, which starts in Vancouver and Victoria on Dec. 26.

“You want competition at positions and you want lots of players that you have to make decisions on,” Hunter said.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun and it’s going to be a real challenge.”

Choosing who will go to camp got tougher this week as Hunter coached a team made up of the Western Hockey League’s best in a pair of games against the Russian junior team as part of the Canadian Hockey League’s annual Canada Russia series.

Canada won the first match up 2-1 in Kamloops, B.C., on Monday, then dropped the second bout 3-1 in Langley, B.C., the next night.

Some lesser-known names stepped up in both games, Hunter said.

“There are the guys that are the star players that are under the radar to start with, but then you take guys like Brett Leason as an example, who’s come on the radar because of his play in the early season,” Hunter said, referring to a 19year-old right winger for the Prince Albert Raiders.

“He’s a good player and we like a lot of things about his game.”

Leason has 39 points in 17 games this season and leads the WHL with 17 goals.