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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Are Memorial Cup host Rockets for real?

The Rockets finish up celebrating a goal Friday in Prince Albert.

    So are the Kelowna Rockets a contender or pretender?

    Since the start of the 2000-01 campaign, the Rockets have been one of premier franchises in the WHL. They’ve won the WHL title on four occasions on 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2015.

    The Rockets captured the Memorial Cup as CHL champions hosting the major junior hockey title tournament in 2004. During that 2003-04 campaign, the Rockets topped the WHL standings with a record of 47 wins, 21 losses and four ties.

    They advanced to the WHL Western Conference Championship series falling in a series deciding seventh game to the expansion Everett Silvertips.

Captain Nolan Foote comes up big in clutch moments for the Rockets.

    Kelowna made the Western Conference Championship series for four straight years from 2014 to 2017.

    The Rockets have only missed the playoffs twice since moving from Tacoma, Wash., to Kelowna for the start of the 1995-96 campaign.

    One of those playoff misses came last season, when the Rockets posted a 28-32-6-2 record. They played in a standings tiebreaker game to qualify for the WHL post-season but dropped a 5-1 decision to the Kamloops Blazers in that contest.

    The Rockets will host this season’s Memorial Cup slated to run from May 22 to 31 in the new year.

    Of course, there is always a lot of pressure for the Memorial Cup host to ice a strong squad, so some took notice of the fact the Rockets missed the playoffs last season.

    The Rockets started this season with a 9-8-1-1 record. They are currently riding a three-game winning streak and have seven wins and an extra time setback over their last eight games.

Former NHLer Adam Foote guides the Rockets as head coach.

    They currently boast a 16-8-1-2 record for 35 standings points to sit in a tie for eight to 10^th place in the overall standings with the Spokane Chiefs and Winnipeg Ice. The Rockets have a game in hand on the 16-9-3 Chiefs and two games in hand on the 17-11-1 Ice.

    Objectively at the moment, one would have to say the jury is still out on the Rockets, but they have to be encouraged about the wins they piled up over their last eight games.

    They have rediscovered an old Rockets trait in finding ways to win games. They are starting to string together a number of gutty wins too.

    At the start of their current six-game road trip through the WHL’s East Division, the Rockets showed how opportunistic they can be. 

Kaedan Korczak stars on the Rockets back end.

    They won the first two games of that swing, and they were outplayed in both of those contests.

    On Friday night in Prince Albert, the host Raiders, who are the defending WHL champions, and Rockets were locked in a 1-1 draw going into the final 10 minutes of the third period.

    The Rockets got some breaks on the penalty call front and found themselves scoring the winning goal on a two-man advantage with captain Nolan Foote netting the deciding goal in a 2-1 victory.

    On Saturday in Saskatoon, the host Blades led the Rockets 3-2 with three minutes remaining in the third. Foote fired a shot on goal, and his follow through clipped Blades overage defenceman Scott Walford.

    Walford went down in a heap between the two faceoff circles and visible blood came down on to the ice. The officials elected to let play continue, and Foote set up Trevor Wong for the equalizer that forced a 3-3 tie with 2:52 remaining in the third.

Matthew Wedman was a big trade pick up for the Rockets.

    The game went to a tiebreaking shootout, and Rockets 17-year-old right-winger Ethan Ernst scored the only goal in that draw breaking session. The Rockets took the shootout 1-0 and the contest 4-3.

Foote is legit good, and he will attend the main selection camp for Canada’s world junior team that starts today in Oakville, Ont.

    Yorkton, Sask., product Kaedan Korczak is a great all-around star defenceman, who is showing every night why he was selected in the second round and 41^st overall in last June’s NHL Entry Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights. He has appeared in all of the Rockets 27 regular season games posting three goals, 19 assists and a plus-seven rating in the plus-minus department.

    Overage power forward Matthew Wedman gives the Rockets a much needed a shot of toughness, which goes along with his skill. He arrived in a trade last Thursday with the Seattle Thunderbirds.

Centre Jadon Joseph provides the Rockets with grit.

    Netminder Roman Basran was solid in Friday’s 2-1 victory over the Raiders making 26 saves. He allowed the Rockets to win that game and looks someone you can ride and rely on going into the post-season.

    The Rockets are down some key players too. Czech import forward Pavel Novak sat out the Rockets last eight games due to a league imposed suspension.

    Novak received the suspension for taking a checking from behind major penalty and a game misconduct during a Rockets 5-2 setback to the Blazers in Kamloops on Nov. 11. He drove Blazers forward Kyrell Sopotyk from behind into the boards, and Sopotyk isn’t expected to return action until after Christmas with a separated shoulder.

    Novak is slated to return to the Rockets next game on Tuesday against the Wheat Kings in Brandon.

Roman Basran is rounding into a star goalie.

    Star centre Kyle Topping is expected to be out eight to 14 weeks with a broken ankle and Liam Kindree is slated to be out three to five weeks with a shoulder injury.

    Dillon Hamaliuk missed the Rockets last two game due to illness.

    All four of those players are key contributors to the Rockets offence.

    While the Rockets are stringing together gutty wins right now, they have the potential to win in a more convincing style.

    Former NHL star defensive defenceman Adam Foote is showing to be the right fit as the Rockets head coach coming on board with the team on Oct. 23, 2018. Nolan Foote is the head coach’s son.

    Bruce Hamilton, the Rockets general manager, president, governor and owner, is likely eyeing up some moves to strengthen his team.

As Memorial Cup hosts, the Rockets want to keep their recent roll going.

    Hamilton has built a cult like sense of belonging with the Rockets, and he can be often seen bringing alums down to the dressing room to see the current team on road trips.

    The Rockets did a phenomenal job hosting the Memorial Cup in 2004, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them duplicate that this coming May.

    While the Rockets have had a good run in their last eight games, they still haven’t reached their potential of just winning games in gutty fashion. Considering the team’s pedigree, you have to expect they will get there.

    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.