Canada’s world junior gold-medal winners become leaders

As Connor McDavid and Max Domi make the leap to the NHL, Hockey Canada’s world junior summer camp features just five players who won gold last winter in Toronto.

Defenceman Joe Hicketts and forwards Lawson Crouse, Robby Fabbri, Brayden Point and Jake Virtanen share a bond from winning on home ice. Their focus is now on how they spin that forward to pull together a brand new group.

At this camp, they’ve fielded questions from the 30-plus newcomers about what it was like to win.

“The biggest thing that they can share is the experience and what it entailed, how hard it was but how rewarding it was,” coach Dave Lowry said by phone last week. “For the players that haven’t experienced it yet, our expectation is the guys that have gone through the process and won, they share their knowledge.”

The knowledge is something the five returnees are taking to heart as they welcome being part of Lowry’s leadership group for the world juniors. Point, Hicketts, Fabbri and Crouse were among the alternate captains for exhibition games this week, which is what they hoped for and expected.

“Putting those letters on some of the more experienced guys, even if they weren’t captains on their club team, I think they want to start to establish that leadership core for the December camp and pushing into the tournament,” Hicketts said.

Leadership for the returning goldmedal winners means more than just wearing a letter. And each player has a lesson to impart now and in the coming months.

For Hicketts, it’s making the team at long odds after he went undrafted and was not invited to summer camp a year ago. The undersized defenceman earned a contract from the Detroit Red Wings at their development camp and impressed Hockey Canada enough that by December he seemed like a lock for the world juniors.

For Crouse and Virtanen, it’s about accepting smaller roles than they were accustomed to in order to make an impact for Canada.

First-round picks and big point producers, they were relegated to specialized bottom-six spots in Mon- treal and Toronto.

For Fabbri, it’s about dealing with adversity. The St. Louis Blues prospect suffered a high-ankle sprain in the quarter-finals and had to watch as his teammates finished the job to win gold.

For Point, it’s about seizing opportunity. Fabbri’s injury opened a prime spot for the Tampa Bay Lightning prospect who appeared to be a long shot to make the team at the start of camp. Point is already leading by example, as he had two goals and three assists Tuesday against the Czech Republic.