Summer snubs inspire invitees
Raddysh, Steel get late look for world juniors
Didn’t receive an invitation to Canada’s summer development camp? Don’t despair — there’s a chance the party won’t go on without you.
Neither Taylor Raddysh nor Sam Steel were at the summer camp, where Hockey Canada got its first real look at potential players for the winter’s world junior championship.
At the selection camp this week at the Centre d’Excellence Sports Rousseau, the two were among seven players who didn’t participate in the camp in August.
Raddysh and Steel weren’t thrilled to be left out, but both turned the negative around and were leading their respective leagues in scoring when this camp got underway.
Raddysh has 23 goals and 38 assists in 28 games for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. Steel has 21 goals and 27 assists in 23 games for the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats.
“I believe in my ability, so I’m not going to say I’m shocked at what’s going on or that I’m here,” said Steel, who was a 30th-overall draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks in June.
“I was a little disappointed (not to be at the summer camp), and though I didn’t think about it too much, I used it as motivation.”
The six-foot-two, 209-pound Raddysh averaged just over a point a game last season with Erie. He was drafted in the second round, 58th overall, by the Tampa Bay Lightning, and set out during the summer to become an improved skater. That’s what unfolded, and Raddysh then was given greater responsibility by Otters coach Kris Knoblauch.
“Last year, he played on a line with Alex DeBrincat and Dylan (Strome) most of the time, and he was a benefactor of playing with good players,” said Knoblauch, an assistant coach with Canada.
“This year, in leading the OHL in scoring, he’s not just a benefactor — he is a good player.”
Hockey Canada director of player personnel Ryan Jankowski had Raddysh and Steel in mind when the summer camp roster was composed. Jankowski has an auxiliary list of players who didn’t get invited, but have the talent.
“You get off to a good start, you do things right, you’re going to get a look,” Jankowski said.
Neither Steel nor Raddysh intends to let this chance slip by, even though both will be eligible to play for Canada next year.
“It’s a bit of a mix between nerves and confidence,” Steel said of the audition. “It’s not an easy team to make. I definitely have to earn this spot.”