This morning, Team Canada announced their U20 World Junior Championship Selection Camp roster. These are the players that will be vying for a spot to represent Canada. Two Lightning prospects, center Brayden Point and winger Mitchell Stephens, have been named to the roster.
Last year, Brayden Point made Team Canada as the last forward on the U20 squad and had also played in 2013-14 on the U18 team. He played sparingly up until the end of the tournament when an injury pushed him into more ice time. He ended up with 2 goals and 2 assists in 7 games while Team Canada won the gold medal.
This year, Point was off to a blazing start that has been slowed the past couple of weeks by a shoulder injury (which he returned to practice from yesterdayt). He has 18 goals and 25 assists in 19 games with the Moose Jaw Warrios in the WHL., Point should be in contention to be the team’s number one center and potentially the team captain. Assuming his shoulder injury heals in time, he is a lock to be on the squad as one of the more experienced and offensively talented centers available to Team Canada.
Mitchell Stephens on the other hand is facing an uphill climb, as well as a broken foot, to make the team. He has not returned to play yet for the Sagniaw Spirit of the OHL. Assuming he’s healthy by the time camp opens, he’ll have some rust to knock off and will be competing with a lot of very skilled forwards to make the roster. If he does, he’ll likely be in a bottom line or extra forward role. That’s not all bad though as it will give him valuable experience playing against some of the best in his age group in the world and will give him a leg up on having a more prominent role on next year’s team.
