Jake Sanderson and Kaiden Guhle named captains for USA and Canada World Junior teams

The World Juniors are right around the corner.

Over the past few weeks, countries have been announcing the teams that will represent them at the upcoming WJC tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer.

On Monday, Canada announced that Kaiden Guhle will be the team’s captain, while the United States named Jake Sanderson as their captain on Tuesday.

Sanderson was selected No. 5 overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 2020 Draft. He currently has 19 points in 15 games in his sophomore season for the University of North Dakota. This will be Sanderson’s second WJC, after he won gold with the United States last winter.

Guhle was taken No. 16 overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2020. He was recently traded from the Prince Albert Raiders to the Edmonton Oil Kings as part of their run for the Memorial Cup. Guhle represented Canada at last year’s tournament.

Another interesting angle at this year’s WJC will be players auditioning to represent their countries at the Olympics. With NHL players pulling out, the door has been opened for prospects to play in Beijing. In 2018, prospects such as Troy Terry and Jordan Greenway represented the United States in PyeongChang.