Bigras among cuts by Team Canada
Canada’s world-junior journey will continue without Chris Bigras, who was among the first round of cuts despite being on last year’s team.
Bigras, fellow defenceman Travis Sanheim and forwards Nick Baptiste, Morgan Klimchuk and Remi Elie were released Sunday evening after a selection camp that included two exhibition games against local university all-stars. Canada’s roster stands at 25 players with main camp set to open Monday in St. Catharines, Ont.
The message from Benoit Groulx and his coaching staff to those players was that this is a deep, difficult group to crack.
“We think that the players we decided to keep are in our plans, and I thought also there was a separation between those guys and the players we kept,” Groulx said. “That’s the reason why we decided to let them go.”
Bigras was the biggest surprise because he played all seven games in last year’s tournament and, as a returning player, figured to have a spot. Instead, the 19-year-old Colorado Avalanche prospect will go back to the Ontario Hockey League’s Owen Sound Attack.
“Obviously not the outcome I was looking for,” said Bigras, who’s from Elmvale, Ont. “Can’t dwell on it right now.”
Groulx was an assistant coach last year in Malmo, Sweden, and understood it was “devastating” to Bigras to get cut this year. But it was his judgment that the eight defencemen Canada kept — Darnell Nurse, Josh Morrissey, Madison Bowey, Joe Hicketts, Shea Theodore, Haydn Fleury, Samuel Morin and Dillon Heatherington — were “ahead” of Bigras.
“It’s not about (what we didn’t see) from him,” Groulx said. “I think it’s about the other defencemen we have. We think that the eight guys we decided to keep are just better than him right now.”
Better than Sanheim, too. The raw Philadelphia Flyers firstround pick goes back to the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League hoping he can do better in this spot a year from now.