Connor Bedard sees the encore every time he comes home.
His gold medal from the last World Junior Hockey Championship – a tournament that was moved to the summer and barely took place due to COVID-19 – hangs in the bedroom of the 17-year-old phenom. year.
And the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft wants more.
“It’s like, when you win, it lasts 10 minutes,” Bedard said. “You still want that right now.”
Another opportunity is just around the corner.
Bedard is the headliner of a star-studded Canadian roster that will be looking to secure the nation’s 20th-place finish on the podium at the event that will open Boxing Day in Halifax and Moncton, New Brunswick.
Along with the North Vancouver, B.C. product already compared to Connor McDavid and other franchise-changing talent, Canada has a trio of NHL players on loan to the national team in Shane Wright, Dylan Guenther and Brandt Clarke.
“The world junior championships are something you grew up watching as a kid and dreamed of playing in,” said Wright, a center selected No. 4 overall by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 draft. A huge honour.”
“We don’t want to push ourselves too hard,” added Guenther, an Arizona Coyotes forward. “A last chance to win a world junior championship is special.”
Bedard said Canada’s roster will feature “a bit of everything.”
“Any time you put together a team across Canada, it’s going to be pretty good,” he said. “We have a lot of size, we have speed, skill. It’s huge to get these guys back (from the NHL).
“They are all impact players in the best league in the world.”
Adam Fantilli — also in the conversation atop the upcoming NHL Draft — was impressed with the top-to-bottom roster.
“The best players in the country in one place,” he said. “Great to see what everyone can do.”
Canada opens the tournament on Monday against Czechia, the country commonly known as the Czech Republic, as part of a group playing at the Scotiabank Center in Halifax that includes Sweden, Germany and Austria.
The other side of the bracket is set for Moncton’s Avenir Center and will feature the United States, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Latvia.
Similar to August’s reimagined event in Edmonton, Russia is banned due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The 2023 tournament was originally scheduled for the Russian cities of Novosibirsk and Omsk before being moved to North America.
Canada, who are the favourites, also enter with the pressure of a home crowd and exorbitant expectations.
“A privilege,” said head coach Dennis Williams. “You want to be put in those positions. We have to make sure our players are able to be uncomfortable – be comfortable being uncomfortable in those situations.”
Canadian winger Brennan Othmann said the group would be able to attack in different ways.
“Our full back is mean, tough and tough, and our forwards are capable, big and strong,” he said. “You are going to have an incredible team from Canada coming your way.”
“I see a lot of talent,” added Clarke, a Los Angeles Kings defenseman ready for his first World Junior Championships. “And there are guys who can play lower in the lineup, who can hold their own, who can win puck battles that are really tough to play against.”
Hockey Canada director of player personnel Alan Millar said there’s no question skills are at the heart of building the roster.
“But at the same time, we want to have weight across our lineup,” he said. “We want to play fast, we want to play hard and we want to compete and put the teams on their heels.”
The tournament also comes at a time when the national sports organization is undergoing significant change following a disastrous 2022 of ugly headlines related to its handling of sexual assault allegations and victim payouts.
Hockey Canada has a new Board of Directors and is expected to have a new CEO in the new year.
The players and coaching staff at the World Junior Championships have no connection to the scandals, but they will still wear the logo – and know there will be plenty of scrutiny.
“We want to make sure we stay focused on how we do things on and off the ice,” Willliams said. “We want to minimize all distractions, whether it’s pressure or anything on the outside.
“Our guys are coming in excited, our guys are coming in determined.”
And gold – like every other international tournament in which Canada competes – is on their minds.
“All the returning guys really want that,” Bedard said of the eight returning players from the country this summer.
“And for the guys who are new, that’s something we want to give them.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on December 23, 2022
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