Bulldogs busy, even in off-season
Three Hamilton Bulldogs — two players and one prospect — will have a chance to play for one of Canada’s national teams.
Matthew Strome and Mackenzie Entwistle were both invited this week to Hockey Canada’s under-18 selection camp, while Connor Roberts was asked to the organization’s under-17 development camp.
The tryouts take place in Calgary from July 26 to Aug. 2.
Strome and Entwistle, who are entering their sophomore seasons in Hamilton, are among 44 players — four goalies, 16 defencemen and 24 forwards — invited to the camp from coast to coast. They will be vying for a spot on Canada’s 22man roster for the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup, which takes place in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in mid-August.
The two forwards also competed for their country at last year’s World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Roberts, a 6-foot-3, 204-pound forward who was selected third overall by the Bulldogs in April’s OHL draft, will have an opportunity to follow in their footsteps as one of the 111 teens selected for the under-17 camp. The field will eventually be narrowed to 66 players, who will compete on one of three national teams at this year’s Challenge in Sault Ste. Marie.
Niagara IceDogs defenceman Hayden Davis is also heading to Team Canada’s under-18 tryout. The Hamilton native suited up alongside Strome on one of the under-17 squads last year.
An old connection has led to a new job for Kris Young.
The Binbrook resident and former Bulldogs staffer will be working under bench boss Guy Boucher as the Ottawa Senators’ video coach this season. The two previously worked together in Hamilton, when the Bulldogs were an American Hockey League club.
Young, 40, did double duty during Hamilton’s inaugural Ontario Hockey League campaign as the team’s video coach and marketing director. He was let go in April after less than a year.
“It’s funny how things happen and kind of happen for a reason,” he told The Spectator Tuesday. He also said it’s been a lifelong dream of his to make it to the NHL.
A multimedia expert, Young has won world and Olympic championships as a video coach for Canada’s national women’s hockey team. Prior to that, he won a Calder Cup with the Bulldogs — then Montreal’s AHL affiliate — in
2007 and worked alongside Boucher in 2009-10.
Young, who reached out to Boucher when the Senators announced his hiring in early May, said he was grateful to the Bulldogs — owner Michael Andlauer and president and general manager Steve Staios in particular — for supporting his NHL goals.
He also credited Mel Davidson, general manager for Hockey Canada’s national women’s team programs, for helping prepare him for this role.
“Everything just kind of ended up working,” he said.
The Bulldogs will kick off the 2016-17 season on the road.
On Tuesday, the OHL announced home openers for all 20 teams in the league. Hamilton opens its season in Mississauga on Sept. 23 before heading home to host Kingston at FirstOntario Centre the following night — a Saturday.
The rest of the OHL schedule is expected to be released Wednesday.