Every December shock and indignation registers when Hockey Canada announces its roster for the World Junior Hockey Championship team. On the one hand, there’s the Who’s He? and on the other there’s the Where Is He? Usually the shock comes a little closer to Christmas but because of a new approach to building the roster there will only be a couple of cuts that coach Brent Sutter will have to make before taking his team to the under-20s in Sweden. Of the question marks, which looms largest?
Some would say that Max Domi’s exclusion from the list of 25 invitees to the selection camp would be near or at the top of the list. Even though some NHL scouts perceived a fall-off in his game at the start of this OHL season, it’s consistent with the hangover many elite juniors suffer after being first-round picks and being sent back to the CHL after their first NHL camps.
I thought Max’s body of work last season would have stood him in good stead. But after the OHL games in the Subway Super Series, I was a little less surprised by Hockey Canada’s decision. Max did not play his best hockey and looked like he was forcing his game. When I tweeted something to this effect after the game — that Max and Connor McDavid didn’t look like they “fit (together) in even-strength situations” — a veteran NHL scout upbraided me, saying that I’d look “foolish with one-game scouting.” I don’t know if it’s a case of me seeing the same thing that Brent Sutter and his staff did or just coincidence. Whatever the case, they won’t fit well together because McDavid is going and Domi’s staying home.
Edmonton fans can’t be heartened by the fact that Hockey Canada is passing up Darnell Nurse, the Soo defenceman who was the Oilers’ seventh overall pick in the draft last June. Some thought that, on merit, he could have started the year with the big club in its top six, but at this point Hockey Canada figures there’s eight better bets than him.
I like Nurse’s game, but I’ll bet he’ll need more time in development than Aaron Ekblad, Barrie’s draft-eligible kid who made the list ahead of him. “A superior compete level,” one NHL scout told me at the Subway Super Series game in Ottawa. Ekblad was certainly in play a lot more than Nurse. Nurse might have tried to make bolder plays than Ekblad but Brent Sutter’s teams at the world juniors weren’t built on fire-starters on the back end.
I don’t think that anyone should be too surprised by the selections of Halifax’s Zach Furcale and Saginaw’s Jake Paterson in goal. What might have surprised, though, is the selection of only those two. At this point no alternate in the case of injury or illness has been designated and Hockey Canada officials say they haven’t given it any significant discussion and suggested that no eligible goaltender has been apprised of his status as the emergency call-up. I know in the past that players have been advised to remain ready to pack their bags at the last minute, up to 12 hours to the dropping of the puck in the opening game, if something came up. Given the way that Canadian goaltenders have (under-)performed at the last four tournaments, a last-minute call-up might: a) be called on to work in elimination games; and b) actually benefit from the rush into action rather than sitting in the program’s bubble for weeks on end.
So often have NHL teams declined to loan out teenagers on their roster to the under-20 program it comes as a shock when one is actually secured. It was a pretty progressive step by the Minnesota Wild to offer defenceman Mathew Dumba. Dumba has played almost 15 minutes a game when he’s made it into the lineup, but he has also been a healthy scratch and appeared in 13 games this year. Which is to say that he’s not quite as critical a piece as Morgan Rielly is to the Maple Leafs or, say, Sean Monahan who’s out of the Flames lineup with injury.
There’s no shortage of those who consider Connor McDavid as so much hype — believe me, I have had to listen to the chorus of them dispute NHL scouts’ assessments of his MVP performance as a double under-ager at this year’s under-18s (better than Crosby’s as an under-ager at the lesser Ivan Hlinka). I suspect that McDavid’s selection to this under-20 team won’t let any air out of the haters and they’ll point out that Sidney Crosby and Jason Spezza were skaters who skated this path before. I suspect he’ll have a bigger role than either Crosby and Spezza, both little used at 16.
Hockey Canada officials I spoke to were quick to keep it in context, noting that the wear and tear of the kid who plays up (or as a 16-year-old in a 19-year-old tournament, way up) can leave him with depleted energy reserves late in the tournament. Though McDavid was sensational at the U-18s, he was definitely stronger in the games leading up to the final than he was in the gold-medal game. It’s going to be interesting to see how Sutter manages McDavid — if it will be a slow build-up in minutes going into the elimination round or if he’ll just open the gate and see how long McDavid can physically stand up.