WHLers storm on to Canada’s world junior team roster

Guhle, Schneider and WHL alum Dach to chase gold medal

Kaiden Guhle in action for the Raiders last season.

In world juniors that will be like no other, fans of the WHL will have lots of reasons to watch Canada chase a second straight gold medal.

On Friday, Hockey Canada announced its 25-player roster for the world junior tournament, which will run in a hub city bubble format from Dec.25 to Jan. 5, 2021 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alta. Teams are slated to arrive in Edmonton on Sunday and quarantine for five days before beginning practices on Dec. 18.

The hub city bubble format is being used due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

Team Canada is wrapping up selection camp activities in Red Deer, Alta. The Canadian team roster that will play in Edmonton contains nine current WHL players and one WHL alum, who was loaned to the Canadian side by an NHL team.

Kirby Dach, who is a centre with the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, was the WHL alum that was loaned to Team Canada. Dach was a star with the Saskatoon Blades from 2016 to 2019 before being selected in the first round and third overall by the Blackhawks in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.

The 19-year-old Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., product appeared in 64 regular season games with the Blackhawks last season posting eight goals, 15 assists and a minus-one rating in the plus-minus department.  

Kirby Dach in action for the Blades in 2018-19.

Dach, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 200 pounds, suited up for nine post-season games with the Blackhawks recording one goal, five assists and a plus-three rating.

Due to the NHL playoffs being conducted in a hub city format, Dach is the only player on the Canadian roster who has experience with what his team is going to deal with. The Blackhawks played all of their games in the last NHL post-season in Edmonton.

Defenceman Bowen Byram of the Vancouver Giants and centre Dylan Cozens from the Lethbridge Hurricanes are part of the group of six returnees from Canada’s gold medal winning entry at the last world juniors, which were held in Ostrava in the Czech Republic. Both are in their 19-year-old junior seasons.

Byram, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 197 pounds, appeared in 50 regular season games with the Giants last season posting 14 goals, 38 assists and a plus-19 rating. Cozens, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 198 pounds, suited up for 51 regular season games with the Hurricanes last season recording 38 goals, 47 assists and a plus-23 rating.

Braden Schneider in action for the Wheat Kings last season.

Kaiden Guhle, who is an 18-year-old defenceman for the Prince Albert Raiders, is one of the many newcomers to the Canadian side. He appeared in 64 regular season games last season posting 11 goals, 29 assists and a plus-23 rating.

Guhle, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 209 pounds, has past international experience playing in Hockey Canada’s program. 

He was a captain for Canada Red at the 2018 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, where he picked up three assists in six games. That event was held in Quispamsis and Saint John, New Brunswick.

He was an alternate captain for Canada’s silver medal winning team at the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, where he posted one assist in five games. That event was played in Breclav in the Czech Republic and Piestany in Slovakia.

Joining Guhle on the back end is Prince Albert product Braden Schneider, who is 19-year-old defenceman with the Brandon Wheat Kings. Schneider, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 207 pounds, appeared in 60 regular season games with the Wheat Kings last season recording seven goals, 35 assists and a plus-nine rating.

Kaedan Korczak in action for the Rockets last season.

Also suiting up on the blue-line is Yorkton, Sask., product Kaedan Korczak, who is a 19-year-old defenceman with the Kelowna Rockets. 

Korczak, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 192 pounds, suited up for 60 regular season games for the Rockets last season posting 11 goals, 38 assists and a plus-seven rating.

Saskatoon product Connor Zary, who stands 6-feet and weighs 177 pounds, is the final player with Saskatchewan ties to earn a spot on Canada’s roster. 

Zary, who is a 19-year-old centre with the Kamloops Blazers, appeared in 57 regular season games last season recording 38 goals, 48 assists and a plus-30 rating.

Rounding out the WHL player representation on the Team Canada roster is 19-year-old centre Peyton Krebs of the Winnipeg Ice, 18-year-old goaltender Dylan Garand of the Blazers and 19-year-old netminder Taylor Gauthier of the Prince George Cougars.

Blades head coach Mitch Love, Blades assistant coach Tyler Dietrich and Giants head coach Michael Dyck will all serve as assistant coaches for Canada. Moose Jaw Warriors general manager Alan Millar is part of Team Canada’s management group.

Connor Zary in action for the Blazers last season.

Calgary Hitmen assistant and goaltending coach Jason LaBarbera is the goaltending coach for Canada. Edmonton Oil Kings head athletic therapist Brian Cheeseman is a therapist for the Canadian side.

In these crazy times, Friday’s roster announcement for Team Canada was an upbeat day for Canadian fans who follow world juniors. No matter what wrenches get thrown into the event from the COVID-19 front, Canadians will tune into world juniors in droves, especially when Canada is playing.

With numerous parts of Canada observing stricter lockdown measures through the Christmas season, world juniors should have quite the captive audience.

If Canada repeats as a gold medal winner, you can expect an outpouring from joy from Canadian fans on Jan. 5, 2021. For fans of the WHL, a Canadian gold medal win at this would junior tournament will feel that much more sweet.

NHL all about speculation, other notes

A Brayden Point card.

If you follow all the speculation that is swirling around the NHL right now, you would probably not get anything else done your day-to-day life.

As the days of December 2020 drift away, it becomes more obvious that the NHL isn’t going to begin its upcoming season on its original targeted start date of Jan. 1, 2021. The continuing surge of new COVID-19 cases in Canada and the United States will likely see certain to that.

With the initial rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines to come in a limited form, the world in North America is still several months away from returning to normal.

It was announced on Friday the closer of the border between Canada and the United States for all non-essential travel currently goes to Jan. 21, 2021.

Most areas of Canada are observing stricter restrictions and lockdowns to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Some areas of the United States have brought in stricter COVID-19 restrictions too.

If Canadian NHL teams were supposed to hold training camps to prepare for a Jan. 1, 2021 start, players from outside the country would already have to be arriving in Canadian cities to quarantine for 14 days.

So far, the NHL hasn’t officially announced any new plans. That has lead to lots of speculation.

So what might the upcoming NHL season look like?

On Tuesday, Frank Seravalli of TSN said that outlet’s sources have said the NHL’s targeted start date is now Jan. 13, 2021 with a 56-game regular season. The start date and regular season length haven’t been confirmed, but they seem to be reasonable expectations.

On Tuesday during an online interview with The Maccabi USA Sports Show, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said realignment would likely be necessary because of travel restrictions between Canada and the United States.

“There are a lot of things we have to do to return to play,” said Bettman. “For us to return to play, we’re not going to play 82 games, obviously, and we have travel issues because of the restrictions at the border between Canada and the U.S.

“You can’t go back and forth, so we’re actually going to have to realign. If everything stays the way it is, we’re probably going to have to have a Canadian division and realign in the U.S., and we’re trying to focus on dealing with all of those challenges.”

The nugget of a Canadian division has many NHL fans in Canada in an excited frenzy.

It wasn’t that long ago when the Tampa Bay Lightning captured their second Stanley Cup title with a 2-0 Game 6 championship series win over the Dallas Stars in the hub city of Edmonton on Sept. 28. That contest officially concluded the 2019-20 NHL campaign that had a wrench thrown into it due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sports media outlets in Canada can have a field day with all the speculation. The crew at The Rod Pedersen Show in Regina, Sask., must loved the fact they have this as one of many subjects to endlessly talk about.

 NHL fans might be best to take a “they will play when they play” approach. They should avoid spending too much time dwelling on all the possibilities.

• On Wednesday, I went live with a new piece on the Howe Happening blog, which supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I wrote an introductory piece to the sport of Nordic skiing thanks to the help of the Saskatoon Nordic Ski Club. That piece can be found by clicking right here.
• On Wednesday, I put together a post of the coolest and sweetest photos of construction projects taking played at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex taken by operations manager Johnny Marciniuk. Marciniuk can take the bulk of the credit for the work there. That post can be found by clicking right here.
• On Thursday, Planet S Magazine announced its results in its annual “Best of Saskatoon” contest. People can vote for the city’s best in various categories. Pat McKay of CTV Saskatoon was voted Best Sports Reporter. It was a cool nod as McKay has been a general assignment news reporter who does some sports stories since returning to CTV Saskatoon early in the year from CTV Winnipeg as a sports reporter. Due to the restructuring of CTV across Canada, that media outlet has very few just dedicated sports reporters. Before leaving for a short stint in Winnipeg, McKay had a great run as a sports reporter at CTV Saskatoon, when there was a dedicated sports reporter spot there. Knowing the public has fond memories of McKay’s work as a sports reporter, could CTV Saskatoon bring back that type of dedicated position for him? As the old cliché goes, this might be a case of giving viewers what they want. They have spoken with their votes.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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After Stanley Cup high by Lightning, where does the NHL go from here?

Look of 2020-21 campaign has no certainty

A Brayden Point card.

In the current day, it seems like the great feeling of experiencing the NHL’s top annual moment was fleeting.

On Monday, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup for the second time in team history blanking the Dallas Stars 2-0 in Game 6 of the NHL championship series to take the best-of-seven set 4-2.

When Lightning captain Steven Stamkos raised the Stanley Cup after his team posed for a group picture with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, you could see in Stamkos’s eyes and his reaction in that moment at Rogers Place in Edmonton was an ultimate dream comes true.

As the Stanley Cup was passed amongst the members of the Lightning team include standout players like Victor Hedman, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy and head coach Jon Cooper, the joy of holding up the historical professional hockey prize was as pure, natural and euphoric as it could get.

There were good tingles when you saw role players like Tyler Johnson, Anthony Cirelli, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn enjoy the rewards for doing their party to help the Lightning reach the NHL’s peak. 

A Victor Hedman card.

On the Saskatchewan front, Saskatoon product Luke Schenn and Shaunavon product Brayden Coburn realized the top moment of their lengthy NHL careers with their first Stanley Cup win.

While it was still obvious the world was in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as no fans were in attendance and only team family members that lived in Canada were in the building, the night belonged to the Lightning. They soaked in a treasured moment in time they rightly deserved.

For a period of two months beginning on August 1, NHL fans both hardcore and casual got to watch the television broadcasts extended 24-team post-season play out in the hub cities of Toronto and Edmonton. When it was time to hold the conference championship series, all the action was condensed into Edmonton.

Even if your favourite team lost out, fans had to admit it was comforting having the NHL on television on pretty much a nightly basis. Watching games helped get the mind off of the troubles the world was going through even for a short time.

An Alex Killorn card.

Still, even as quickly as the day after the Stanley Cup final ended, the question that inevitably ran through the head was “what happens now?”

First up, the NHL Entry Draft will be held this coming Tuesday and Wednesday via video conference call from the NHL Network Studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. Free agency will open on Friday, Oct. 9 at 12 p.m. eastern time.

After that, things get murky. The NHL has not announced a start date for the upcoming 2020-21 regular season.

Speculation has ranged from December 1, to the middle and later part of that month and possibly early in January 2021. Actually, everything with regards what the 2020-21 NHL campaign could look like is all speculation at this point.

In an interview with SiriusXM NHL Network Radio on this past Wednesday night, Bettman said he was unsure what the next NHL season will look like.

“I don’t know what we are going to do yet, but we are focusing on what the issues are,” said Bettman on the broadcast. “When we know more how about those issues get resolved or are left unresolved, we’ll be in a better position to announce what are plans are and what the contingencies are.

A Tyler Johnson card.

“That exercise is going to require a few more weeks, but we are intent on playing the 2020/21 season. My goal would be to play a full season, a regular season and then go into normal playoffs. While that is our goal and our objective and I think we can do that, we need a little more time to work on the planning.

“That is something that we are going to be doing in conjunction with the players again.”

At the start of the Stanley Cup final, Bettman said attendance impacts 50 per cent of NHL revenues. Unlike a circuit like the NFL that has all its costs covered due to its television contract, the NHL needs some fans in the stands.

Outside of a few spots in the United States, mass gatherings are still not permitted in most NHL markets including all seven teams located in Canada. The border between Canada and the United States is still closed to non-essential travel and odds are high that likely won’t change until well into 2021.

During the SiriusXM NHL Network Radio interview, Bettman said there are a lot factors that are out of the NHL’s control, but he would like to get fans back inside rinks around the league.

A Nikita Kucherov card.

“We don’t know what the world is going to be like,” said Bettman. “When will our buildings as a result be open like they used to be?

“The fact is our players and our game gets an incredible energy from our sold out buildings every night. It is part of what makes NHL hockey the best in person sporting experience. We miss our fans terribly.”

It should be noted that all the buildings in the NHL aren’t sold out on a nightly basis, but attendance for the league before the 2019-20 regular season was paused on March 12 was healthy. The fans do create a good atmosphere inside NHL buildings.

Still, the biggest question is how long will the wait be before the next meaningful NHL game is played?

Could a lengthy amount of time pass before the NHL hits the ice again?

When the league does return to action, what is it going to look like?

Will the teams in Canada just be playing each other with the same happening in the United States?

A Steven Stamkos card.

After the NHL Draft ends, the league will be venturing into an unknown. It is an unknown that is already being thought of as the NHL regular season usually begins around the time the upcoming NHL Entry Draft is slated to be held.

The Lightning, who have talent all over the place, will likely become more and more thankful they reached their potential with their current generation as the days pass. As it is expected the salary cap won’t grow and could possibly shrink, the Lightning will be hard pressed to keep their roster together.

While there was security knowing games were happening on pretty much a nightly basis during the 2020 NHL post-season, the off-season the NHL is in feels a little ominous and scary.

That ominous and scary feeling likely won’t totally go away until the COVID-19 pandemic is declared over.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.