The Canadian junior hockey team’s selection camp roster to be announced Monday was constructed with the NHL lockout in mind. Hockey Canada would have limited the number of players invited to 28 if the NHL lockout was certain to continue into January. Having all of the country’s top 18- and 19-year-old players at camp makes decisions simpler. But the uncertainty over when the lockout will end, and how a sudden conclusion would impact the Canadian team, means between 35 and 40 players will be summoned to selection camp Dec. 10-15 in Calgary. The Canadian team will be named Dec. 13 and departs for pre-competition camp in Finland two days later. The 2013 world junior hockey championship opens Dec. 26 and closes Jan. 5 in Ufa, Russia. The extra players at camp will be insurance, should the NHL lockout end later this month and clubs quickly call their top teenagers to their training camps.
“We’re bringing extra bodies right now,” Hockey Canada head scout Kevin Prendergast says. “We just don’t want to be scrambling on the 15th of December saying we’ve got to get 10 players in here right now.”
The NHL has cancelled its games until Dec. 14. The league and the players’ entered into mediation this week, but no progress was made towards ending the labour impasse.
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