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Well here they are. The kids who will have the 30+ million people watching their every move for the next 3 weeks.


Goaltenders:
Jordan Binnington (Owen Sound Attack)
Jake Paterson (Saginaw Spirit)
Malcolm Subban (Belleville Bulls)

Defencemen:
Dougie Hamilton (Niagara IceDogs)
Scott Harrington (London Knights)
Ryan Murphy (Kitchener Rangers)
Xavier Ouellet (Blainville-Boisbriand Armada)
Griffin Reinhart (Edmonton Oil Kings)
Morgan Rielly (Moose Jaw Warriors)
Tyler Wotherspoon (Portland Winterhawks)

Forwards:
Anthony Camara (Barrie Colts)
Phillip Danault (Victoriaville Tigres)
Jonathan Drouin (Halifax Mooseheads)
Jonathan Huberdeau (Saint John Sea Dogs)
Charles Hudon (Chicoutimi Sagueneens)
Boone Jenner (Oshawa Generals)
JC Lipon (Kamloops Blazers)
Nathan MacKinnon (Halifax Mooseheads)
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Oklahoma City Barons/Red Deer Rebels)*
Ty Rattie (Portland Winterhawks)
Brett Ritchie (Niagara IceDogs)
Mark Scheifele (Barrie Colts)
Ryan Strome (Niagara IceDogs)

Not the team I would have sent, but let's hope it does the trick.

I have two areas for concern going in…


1- Is the goaltending good enough?

Of the four goalies at camp, none really stood out. The play was shaky and they need to be better (with the exception of Jake Paterson). Subban has the track record and he is my number one right now (pretty much by default). Despite his struggles at camp, Subban has been one of the best junior aged goalies for the past year and a half. Paterson is my back up. He was the best goalie at camp and to me he has earned the right to play in at least one game. Binnington, I keep him as far away for the ice as possible. He was struggling going into camp (8 goals in 2 games, getting the hook in one) and he looked pretty iffy at best at camp.

The selection of three OHL goalies also has me questioning the politics involved in selecting the team. You mean to tell me that there isn't one goalie from the QMJHL or the WHL that was better than this shaky crew? Canada really needs to start developing goalies better.

2- Where is the grit?

Is it just me, or is this one of the most ungrity teams that Canada has ever sent? Up front, Jenner, Camara and Ritchie are the only guys I'd consider big, physical players. On the Back end Wotherspoon and maybe Harrington are the only two that should strike fear in the opposition.

It seems to me, that when Canada dominated this tournament they pretty much beat teams in to submission by hitting them every second. I'm not sure this team can do that. Although, this team is as skilled as any team in the tournament, so hopefully they will showcase that.


Corrado

Played his ass off and I have yet to see or hear a post camp prognosticator/expert/person that didn't have him on the team. It's been reported that he didn't really make a mistake in any of the three games and was one of the better defenceman at camp. It really sucks when your draft spot influences whether or not you make a team (reality is only 4 of the players were selected after the 2nd round- including Lipon).

Corrado will learn from this and will have to settle for being in the mix for the 2018 Olympic team. There is a long list of great defencemen who never played in the World Juniors, Corrado will just have to work hard and get on that list.


Good you Q

And it is great to see the QMJHL have six players to the team. I can't remember the last time there were as many players from the Q on team Canada as there are from the Dub. That is a great accomplishment and I am looking forward to seeing the five high flying forwards rack up points.


That’s a wrap.

Ian

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