Canada’s junior team sparked by Lightning
BOISBRIAND, QUE. — If the Tampa Bay Lightning want to check out their top prospects, all they need to do is go to the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp in this Montreal suburb.
Six Lightning draftees are among the 31 players gathered at the Centre d’Excellence Sports Rousseau looking to crack the 22man lineup for the world junior championships Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Toronto and Montreal.
“It’s awesome,” said one of the Tampa picks, centre Mitchell Stephens of the Saginaw Spirit Jr. A team in Michigan.
Stephens, one of five players returning from last year’s world junior tournament, is rooming with forward Mathieu Joseph of the Saint John Sea Dogs, another Lightning prospect.
And Stephens was slated to play on a line with left-winger Brett Howden of the Moose Jaw Warriors, another budding Bolt, in an exhibition game Monday against a team of Canadian university players.
Goalie Connor Ingram of the Kamloops Blazers, and forwards Anthony Cirelli of the Oshawa Generals and Taylor Raddysh of the Erie Otters are other Tampa Bay draft picks in camp.
“It’s a credit to the management staff in Tampa Bay for the prospects they’ve put into their system,” said Stephens. “It shows they’re one of the top teams in the league for a reason.”
Ryan Jankowski, Team Canada’s director of player personnel, didn’t purposely seek out Tampa Bay prospects, even if his predecessor, Al Murray, is the Lightning’s head of amateur scouting.
“They’ve had some first and a lot of second round picks the last few years,” said Jankowski. “They’ve drafted Canadians, which certainly helps.
“And I guess we like the same kind of player. Al Murray, who has done this job before, does a great job of scouting and drafting. It’s more than just coincidence. It’s because they’ve drafted really good players.”
Two NHL teams have three players each in camp. The Montreal Canadiens have goalie David McNiven of the Owen Sound Attack and defencemen Noah Juulsen of the Everett Silvertips and Victor Mete of the London Knights; while the Carolina Hurricanes have Calgary Hitmen defenceman Jake Bean and forwards Julien Gauthier of the Val d’Or Foreurs and Nicolas Roy of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.
The Bolts didn’t have a firstround pick in 2015, but they took Stephens 33rd overall, Cirelli 72nd and Joseph 120th that year. In 2016, they got Howden 27th overall, Raddysh 58th and Ingram 88th.
That’s not to mention the European players they got in the same drafts.
Raddysh played for Canada for a time, but then was dropped from the system until he started filling the net for Erie this season and got invited to camp. He arrived as the OHL scoring leader. It helps that he plays with Dylan Strome.