Canada West roster announced for World Junior A Challenge

With the World Junior A Challenge (WJAC) just days away and the tryout camps now complete, the roster for Team Canada West has been named.

10   Reilly Funk Forward L 6’3 190 12-23-2000 Portage la Prairie, Man. Portage (MJHL)
11   Alexander Campbell Forward L 5’11 155 02-27-2001 Châteauguay, Que. Victoria (BCHL)
12   Mathieu Gosselin Forward R 5’9 160 05-18-1999 Quebec City, Que. Merritt (BCHL)
15   Dylan Holloway Forward L 6’1 192 09-23-2001 Bragg Creek, Alta. Okotoks (AJHL)
16   Harrison Blaisdell Forward L 5’11 173 03-18-2001 Abbotsford, B.C. Chilliwack (BCHL)
17   Riley Hughes Forward R 6’1 180 06-27-2000 Westwood, Mass. Victoria (BCHL)
18   Massimo Rizzo Forward L 5’10 180 06-13-2001 Burnaby, B.C. Penticton (BCHL)
19   Austin Wong Forward R 5’11 196 10-26-2000 Cochrane, Alta. Okotoks (AJHL)
20   David Silye Forward R 5’11 184 03-02-1999 Arnprior, Ont. Penticton (BCHL)
21   Ethan Leyh Forward L 6’0 187 01-28-2001 Port Moody, B.C. Langley (BCHL)
22   Alex Newhook Forward L 5’11 190 01-28-2001 St. John’s, N.L. Victoria (BCHL)
23   Matt Osadick Forward L 5’11 180 02-08-2000 Grande Pointe, Man. Swan Valley (MJHL)
24   Alex Swetlikoff Forward L 6’3 190 07-06-2001 Kelowna, B.C. Vernon (BCHL)
2   Jérémie Bucheler Defence R 6’4 205 03-31-2000 Saint-Laurent, Que. Victoria (BCHL)
3   Mason Snell Defence L 6’0 195 06-18-2000 Clarington, Ont. Penticton (BCHL)
4   Jack Judson Defence R 6’0 175 02-26-2000 White Rock, B.C. Vernon (BCHL)
5   Luke Bast Defence L 5’9 170 11-20-2000 Red Deer, Alta. Brooks (AJHL)
6   Carter Berger Defence L 6’1 200 09-17-1999 North Vancouver, B.C. Victoria (BCHL)
7   T.J. Lloyd Defence R 5’8 179 11-15-1999 Lloydminster, Alta. Spruce Grove (AJHL)
8   Layton Ahac Defence L 6’3 195 02-22-2001 North Vancouver, B.C. Prince George (BCHL)
#   Player Pos Catches Height Weight DOB Hometown Current Team
1   Matthew Davis Goaltender R 5’11 173 06-16-2001 Calgary, Alta. Spruce Grove (AJHL)
31   Matthew Radomsky Goaltender L 6’2 185 06-21-1999 Winnipeg, Man. Steinbach (MJHL)

The roster of 13 forwards, seven defencemen and two goaltenders is made up of players from the BCHL, AJHL and MJHL. Players from the SJHL and the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) tried out as well but none were able to make the final roster.

The tournament runs from Dec. 9 to 16 in Bonnyville, Alta. This year, the WJAC is a five-team round-robin tournament as opposed to the six-team event with two pools as it had been in years’ past. The other teams competing this year are Canada East, Russsia, the United States and the Czech Republic.

Team Canada West is the defending gold medalist in the WJAC as they prevailed 5-1 over the United States in last year’s event in Truro, N.S.

Some notable names to play in the WJAC over the years include Jacob Bernard-Docker, Brock Boeser, Alexander Burmistrov, Dennis Cholowski, Joe Colborne, Kyle Connor, Grigori Denisenko, Nikolaj Ehlers, Dante Fabbro, Nikita Filatov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Denis Guryanov, Tyson Jost, Dmitri Kulikov, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Elias Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm, Cale Makar, John Moore, Vladislav Namestnikov, Riley Nash, Valeri Nichushkin, Dylan Olsen, David Pastrnak, German Rubtsov, Ilya Samsonov, Jordan Schmaltz, Nick Schmaltz, Jaden Schwartz, Brendan Smith, Andrei Svechnikov, Evgeny Svechnikov, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Turris, Alexander Wennberg, Andrei Vasilevski, Jakub Vrana, Nail Yakupov and Jakub Zboril.