Hockey Canada announced its 25 man roster for it evaluation camp that begins December 12th and Jackets prospects Josh Anderson and Kerby Rychel were invited. Kerby took part in the summer evaluation camp while Josh has somewhat come out of nowhere to make the camp roster. One Jackets prospect that went to the summer camp but was not invited was defenseman Dillon Heatherington but multiple people I asked believe Dillon will have a better chance at next year’s team.
Back to Kerby and Josh. Kerby earned praise from Team Canada coach Brent Sutter “He brings elements to the game we really like” including his “Junkyard Dog Mentality” Also adding “He’s a hardworking guy, finishes checks and has decent skills. One thing I like is he can finish.” As for Josh he’s pretty unique. He lacks the high draft pick pedigree of the rest of Canada’s forwards – he’s one of only four players drafted outside the first three rounds. Josh was undrafted in the OHL and walked on with the Knights the season he was drafted by Columbus and is now one of the Knights top forwards. Josh appeared on Hockey Canada’s radar for his strong play in the SUBWAY Super Series with the team’s staff saying that Josh and d-man Chris Bigras “can help our team” and that’s what got them to camp.
Regarding where each of them may fit in, here’s a video with Bob McKenzie talking about Josh at the Super Series and what his role would be with Team Canada. Kerby’s role on Team Canada is hard to judge – he could fit anywhere on the squad scoring/setting up goals on the top six or being physical and grinding it out in the bottom six, where as Josh will be a bottom six/physical presence.
Other Jacket prospects that could be taking part in the World Junior Championships are Alexander Wennberg, Oscar Dansk and Daniel Zaar on Sweden (Wennberg and Oscar I believe are locks while Daniel will have to impress Sweden’s brass). Marko Dano for Slovakia, and folks, I’ll tell you if you wanna see why the Jackets drafted Dano 27th overall watch/DVR a Slovakia game. Dano is a fourth liner who could be the focal point for the Slovak’s offense after leading the team in scoring in last year’s tournament. Markus Soberg will play for Norway’s entry this season more than likely being a top line forward because well… its Norway. Also, Oliver Bjorkstrand will take part in the U20 World Junior Championships Division 1 Group A that starts December 12th playing with Denmark. I expect Oliver to be a top player for Denmark if not the top player in the tournament. This tournament is to decide who will move up to play in next year’s tournament – thus being the punching bag. The other countries in this tournament are Austria, Belarus, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia (regular murderer’s row huh).
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