Photo Credit: Canadian Press

By Shane Clausing

a tournament unlike any other

TSN’s Craig Button previews 2021 World Junior Hockey Championship

Dec 24, 2020 | 9:20 AM

For the first time in over a decade, Team Canada will look to win back-to-back gold medals at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship.

This year’s edition of the tournament is taking place in Edmonton, where all ten countries will play their games inside the Rogers Place bubble.

Initially, the tournament this year was to be held in Edmonton and Red Deer, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire tournament was shifted to Edmonton.

In an interview with EverythingGP, TSN’s Director of Scouting Craig Button says this year’s Team Canada has the potential to be one of the best this country has ever seen.

“The team can be terrific. They had six first-round draft picks that were released from the team and another one who is going to be a first-round pick, if not the first overall pick released in Shane Wright. So, the depth of talent Canada had to choose from was unprecedented. They’ve never had this depth of talent.”

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This year’s Canadian team will feature top NHL prospects Kirby Dach, Bowen Byram, Dylan Cozens, and Connor McMichael.

“They all could’ve had a chance to be in the NHL this year. The fact that they’re available to Team Canada certainly boosts the strength of the team,” said Button.

There are 20 first-round draft picks on Team Canada this year. To put that in perspective, the most first-round picks that previously played on a Canadian team at the tournament was 15 back in 2011.

While many will argue that Canada is the best team in this tournament, Button tells EverythingGP that Canadian fans shouldn’t expect the tournament to be a cakewalk.

“Canada’s going to have some real difficult competition, beginning with Russia. I think that Canada and Russia are the two best teams and there’s not much separating them. They (Canada) have the chance to put themselves in the discussion as maybe one of the best teams ever but there’s going to be some good countries that want to get in the way of that.

A big advantage some of the European countries could have on the North American teams is the fact that they have been playing hockey throughout the pandemic and going about their normal hockey season.

Most of the players representing Canada, and to an extent the United States, haven’t been able to play in a competitive game of hockey since the pandemic began in March.

While some of the European countries might have their legs ready for the tournament, Button does not think it will be that big of an advantage.

“Every NHL team played in March and they didn’t play again until the end of July. It might not have been not as crisp as we would’ve liked at the beginning, but it didn’t take long for it to become real crisp and real high quality.”

“If the gold medal game began on December 25, I would say yes, (the Europeans do have an advantage) but the gold medal game isn’t until January 5. Everybody’s going to have one pre-tournament game and then you play in the group play. For the big countries, the key here is to get better over the tournament.”

“Last year, Canada won their first game, lost their second game in the worst loss in their world junior history to Russia and they were 1-1 and the sky was falling. Well, they reeled off five wins in a row and won the gold medal. It’s all about getting your game in order as you move forward.”

Former Grande Prairie Minor Hockey player Kaiden Guhle will make his debut for Canada’s World Junior team. Guhle, a defenceman, was drafted 16^th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in this year’s draft.

Button says Canada’s talent will provide Guhle with the freedom to really showcase his game.

“Kaiden Guhle is an excellent skating defenceman who is competitive. Canada’s defense affords him to play it any way you want. They can play a skilled game, power game, a tight defensive game, and Guhle is going to be a big part of that.”

The full Team Canada roster can be found here

Canada will open up their tournament against Germany on Boxing Day. Their toughest matchup of the round-robin will be against Finland on New Year’s Eve.

All of Canada’s games in the round-robin start at 4:00 p.m. Mountain time.

Canada’s schedule for the round-robin sets up as follows:

December 26 – Germany @ Canada – 4:00 p.m.

December 27 – Slovakia @ Canada – 4:00 p.m.

December 29 – Switzerland @ Canada – 4:00 p.m.

December 31 – Finland @ Canada – 4:00 p.m.