Daily Roundup: Blackhawks loan Kirby Dach to Canada for World Juniors, OHL considering banning bodychecking, and more

Welcome to Daily Faceoff’s daily NHL roundup where we bring you the NHL’s most important news and rumours every day. 

Dach to play at World Juniors

Hockey Canada announced the 46 players who have been invited to attend the World Juniors selection camp in Red Deer in November. Shortly after the announcement, the list became 47 players, as the Chicago Blackhawks announced that they had loaned 2019 third-overall pick Kirby Dach to Team Canada.

With the NHL not expected to start until January, this year’s World Juniors, which will be hosted in a bubble in Edmonton without a live crowd, will be stacked with talent. Beyond Dach, we could also possibly see some recent top picks like Alexias Lafreniere, Jack Hughes, and Kaapo Kakko play for their respective countries.

Six players from last year’s Team Canada will be returning this winter: Quinton Byfield, Bowen Byram, Dylan Cozens, Jamie Drysdale, Connor McMichael, and Dawson Mercer. Beyond Dach, Canada will have a wealth of high-quality talent to pick from, including 2020 first-round picks Seth Jarvis, Dylan Holloway, Cole Perfetti, and Connor Zary.

The youngest player invited to Canada’s selection camp is 2004-born forward, Shane Wright. Wright is coming off of a 66-point season as a 15-year-old with the Kingston Frontneacs and is the early favourite to be the top pick in the 2022 draft.

OHL considers banning bodychecking

The Ontario Hockey League is set to start play on Feb. 4, 2021. But the league is going to look very, very different this year than usual.

According to a report from The Canadian Press, the OHL is planning to boycott bodychecking for the 2021 season in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s minister of sport, confirmed the decision on Friday afternoon, and claimed that the decision was influenced by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, which had several COVID-19 outbreaks on its teams earlier this fall.

According to Darren Dreger of TSN, the OHL has not made an official decision on whether or not bodychecking will be allowed. The league and the Ontario Provincial Government are still ongoing, Dreger says.

If the OHL does indeed ban hitting, it’ll be interesting to see if top prospects look to play their seasons elsewhere. NHL clubs might want their prospects playing in an environment with bodychecking as it’s better for the player’s development into a professional player while top 2021 draft-eligible prospects might also not want to have their draft stock effected by adapting to a very different game.

For a small, skilled forward, this is a great change. For a physical, shutdown defenceman? Not so much.

There will be no Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2021

According to Frank Seravalli, the Hockey Hall of Fame will not induct a class for 2021.

The six members inducted to the Hall of Fame for 2020 — Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa, Kim St-Pierre, Kevin Lowe, Doug Wilson, and Ken Holland — have had their ceremony postponed due to COVID-19. The ceremony for the 2020 class has been shifted to 2021, so the HHoF ultimately opted not to elect another class to avoid overshadowing the six individuals from the 2020 class.

S0me first-time eligible names that will now have to wait a year are Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Henrik Zetterberg, and Rick Nash.