How a World Junior opportunity with Canada will help Shane Wright, Brandt Clarke and Dylan Guenther

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Talk about a stacked group.

Over the past two days, the Canadian national U-20 team has added Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright, Arizona Coyotes winger Dylan Guenther and Los Angeles Kings defender Brandt Clarke to their roster ahead of selection camp this weekend in Moncton. For a group that already had Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Logan Stankoven and Olen Zellweger, the rich are getting even richer now.

It’s a huge boost for the Canadians, who look to go back-to-back on home ice after winning gold in Edmonton over the summer. We’ve returned to the traditional world junior timeframe, meaning legitimate NHLers are back in the frame.

Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston won’t be heading over, and it seems unlikely that Anaheim’s Mason McTavish or Columbus’ Cole Sillinger will go, either. But for the three getting sent to Eastern Canada for the next few weeks, the opportunity makes sense.

For Wright, the decision to go back was obvious. The Seattle Kraken have been rolling along quite nicely with the group they have, and there was no room for Wright consistently. His conditioning stint with the Coachella Valley Firebirds was a success, and he scored in his return against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, but that didn’t do anything to change the game plan. It was clear about five games into the season that sending Wright to the WJC was the way to go, and he’ll almost certainly center Canada’s top line.

He’ll be joined by his 2021 U-18 World Championship linemate in Guenther, who has spent the entire season with the Coyotes up until now. He was a healthy scratch early on during his Coyotes tenure, and other than a handful of games in which he eclipsed the 15-minute mark, he’s mainly been a depth scoring option for Arizona in his first pro season. He’s been excellent with Canada previously and was one of the most dominant players in all of junior hockey last year. Add in his 21 games of NHL experience and this will be a huge opportunity for Guenther, who should return to the Coyotes once the tournament ends.

Clarke was a bit of a surprise to make the Kings out of training camp, but it became clear based on his early usage that the team viewed his time working with the coaching staff to be more valuable than beating up on the OHL. He had two assists in nine games with the Kings before getting a five-game conditioning stint in the AHL, where he eventually scored his first pro hockey goal. His relationship with Hockey Canada is a bit more interesting: he was excellent at the U-17 World Challenge in 2019 and was one of the team’s most important players on the 2021 U-18 squad, but wasn’t invited to the WJC camp last year and didn’t play on the summer team, either. Given his NHL experience, there was no excuse the team could hide behind now – and, really, given his play pre-camp last year, Clarke should have been there, too.

I’ve written about Canada’s immense depth already, with names like Connor Bedard, Logan Stankoven and Adam Fantilli already penciled in. With the trio of NHLers, the gold medal favorites have bolstered their group even further, and the pre-tournament momentum is soaring.

I’ve also written about how vital ice time is for young players, like with Vancouver’s Vasily Podkolzin and Minnesota’s Marco Rossi. Both were considered top prospects for their respective teams, but both found struggles in their early NHL careers. That added responsibility and ice time can go a long way for a young player, and while the WJC is a week and a half long, I still think those attributes can apply to Wright, Guenther and Clarke.

Wright and Guenther should end up on the top line, reuniting the pair after a successful U-18 showing nearly two years ago. They just instantly clicked, despite Wright not playing competitive hockey before the spring. Wright proved in the AHL he can perform against quality competition, and Guenther has been an active NHLer since Day 1 this year. That experience should give them an edge when suiting up against mainly junior-quality competition in Halifax.

This all comes down to playing time. It’s one thing to get nightly reps in against quality competition, like Guenther. But for Wright and Clarke, who spent more time watching than actually playing, the plot was clearly lost. Good, successful environments are so important for players in the early stages of development, and winning gold at the World Junior Championship is one of the greatest achievements for any U-20 player. For Clarke and Guenther, it’s their last chance. For Wright, it SHOULD be his last opportunity.

So much of a young player’s development is mental. If a top prospect has spent their entire life being a top player, and suddenly they’re at the bottom of the food chain, it’s tough, and understandable. When the results aren’t clicking, it can get to you. Just look how much better Wright looked in his return earlier this week – he scored and had another two high-danger opportunities, chances he wasn’t getting early on.

This is a hard reset for all three prospects and a chance to enter the second half high on adrenaline. Representing your country on the national stage at home is a tremendous honor, and winning gold is a dream come true. They’ll also get a chance to be teenagers again while surrounded by other teenagers, allowing them to stay loose and have fun.

The teams will need to decide how to handle their top young stars after the fact, but this was the right decision by all involved.

How a World Junior opportunity with Canada will help Shane Wright, Brandt Clarke and Dylan Guenther

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