The big news from the world of the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday was the announcement that goaltending prospect Thatcher Demko will be joining Team USA in Russia for next month's IIHF World Championship.
This looks like another good reason why Demko hasn't given the Canucks an immediate answer about whether or not he's turning pro this summer. A World Championships decision was needed immediately—and it's so strange to think that these players are still dealing with classes, especially with exams well underway here at local postsecondary institutions.
If you take a look at the
Boston College academic calendar for the spring semester, you'll see that exam week runs from May 10-17—right in the middle of the tournament.
In 2015, college goaltender Alex Lyon of Yale was part of the Team USA roster, but didn't see any game action; Connor Hellebuyck, then with the AHL's St. John's IceCaps, carried the load after he'd been the college goalie who didn't play one year earlier. This pattern extends all the way back to at least 2007, when Cory Schneider was named to the roster after his junior year at Boston College, but also didn't get into a game.
With New Jersey Devils coach John Hynes at the helm for Team USA, I'd bet that familiarity will dictate that his No. 1 goaltender in Russia will be Schneider's backup in New Jersey, Keith Kinkaid. Montreal's Mike Condon has also been named to the U.S. roster.
So—unlikely that Demko will pass two NHLers on the depth chart unless injuries become an issue. Still, always nice to be asked—and ya never know, right?
Meanwhile...
If you missed it, Demko's dad has been running a countdown on his Twitter account for the last few days. He has retweeted a bunch of material about Thatcher's World Championships selection, but this is where he left us hanging yesterday...
And, just to keep things interesting, one other note on the college goaltending front:
Garteig, of course, is the goalie who outdueled Demko in last week's Frozen Four semifinal as he backstopped Quinnipiac to a 3-2 win over Boston College. He's a 24-year-old senior on a team that has enjoyed a rapid rise to the No. 1 seed in American this season. Garteig finished the year with a 32-4-7 record, with eight shutouts, a .924 save percentage and a 1.91 goals-against average.
By comparison, Demko, who's only 20, was 27-8-4 with 10 shutouts, a .935 save percentage and a 1.88 goals against. Demko's also 6'4", compared to Garteig's 6'1" frame.
Meanwhile, out in the Fraser Valley, there's a big hockey gathering expected tonight as the Chilliwack Chiefs play host to the West Kelowna Warriors in Game 1 of the BCHL Final.
Chiefs coach Jason Tatarnic compares Cholowski favourably to Ben Hutton.
McKeen's Hockey lists Cholowski at No. 27 in its draft rankings. If you haven't taken a look at their list—it's interesting. They've moved Patrik Laine above Auston Matthews into the No. 1 spot, ranked centre Michael McLeod of Mississauga at No. 3, ahead of Jesse Puljujarvi, and given the top defensive position to Olli Juolevi at No. 5, well ahead of Sergachev or Chychrun.
This is the McKeen's scout, explaining why he thinks Laine is so special:
High praise, indeed!
To wrap up today, maybe take a moment to send some good wishes in the direction of Roberto Luongo, who looks like he's in another playoff pickle.
Loo's personal playoff losing streak stretched to seven games last night as the Florida Panthers dropped the first game of their series to the New York Islanders by a score of 5-4, despite outshooting the Islanders 46-26.
Things don't get any easier for Luongo going forward: Game 2 is tonight, so the now 37-year-old will be making back-to-back starts.
Last night, I felt wryly amused to see that things weren't going Luongo's way—again. But we Canucks fans have good reason to cheer for our old pal—salary cap recapture.
If Luongo retires before the end of his backdiving contract, which will finally reach the halfway point of its 12-year term after this season, the Canucks' cap situation will take a much harder hit than the $800,000 that's currently being retained. We need him to draw inspiration from his teammate Jaromir Jagr, who had another great year even though he's now 44.
Of course, Jagr has his own playoff demons to deal with:
In addition to Islanders/Panthers, there are three other games on the playoff schedule tonight: Game 2 of Detroit/Tampa Bay and Chicago/St. Louis and the first game of the Nashville/Anaheim series.
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