Canadiens on Canada
Habs prospects Roy, Kidney added to world juniors team
Canadiens prospects Joshua Roy and Riley Kidney were among 25 players selected to represent Canada at the rescheduled IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships which begin Aug. 9 in Edmonton and Red Deer.
But defenceman Kaiden Guhle, who was the captain of Team Canada before COVID forced organizers to halt the event over the Christmas holidays, will not participate because he’s recovering from a lower-body injury that kept him off the ice at the Canadiens’ development camp last month.
Roy and Kidney were not on the team that began play in December, but their stock rose with strong performances in the QMJHL last season. Roy, a fifth-round draft pick in 2021, led the league in scoring with 119 points, including 51 goals, with the Sherbrooke Phoenix.
Kidney, a second-round pick in 2021, had 30 goals and 100 points with Acadie-Bathurst.
Guhle isn’t the only player missing from Canada’s December roster.
Also missing are forwards Xavier Bourgault, Mavrik Bourque, Dylan Guenther, Jake Neighbours, Cole Perfetti, Justin Sourdif, Shane Wright and defenceman Owen Power.
Replacing those players will be forwards Roy, Kidney, William Dufour, Tyson Foerster, Nathan Gaucher, Brennan Othmann, Zack Ostapchuk and defencemen Daemon Hunt and Jack Thompson.
Highlighting Canada’s roster will be 17-year-old phenom Connor Bedard, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Kent Johnson and Anaheim Ducks prospect Mason McTavish. Bedard is expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NHL entry draft.
The 19-year-old Johnson played nine games with the Blue Jackets last season after completing his sophomore season at the University of Michigan. He had three points and posted a plus-2 differential.
He also represented Canada at the Beijing Olympics this year. He had eight goals and 29 assists in 32 games at Michigan.
The Swiss-born McTavish started the season with Anaheim and had two goals and an assist in nine games before being returned to junior hockey. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 draft also represented Canada at Beijing.
Prior to the cancellation in December, the then-16-yearold Bedard scored four goals against Austria, becoming only the sixth player to score four goals in a world juniors game. McTavish dominated the first two games of the tournament, scoring three goals and five points in two games, while Johnson also scored a goal in two games.
Canada will be a part of Group A, which also consists of Slovakia, Finland, Czechia, and Latvia. Group B will include the United States, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and Austria.
Russia was not invited to the tournament due to the ongoing war in the Ukraine and was replaced by Latvia.