Hockey Canada announces roster for 2022 World Junior Championship

Hockey Canada has unveiled their roster for the upcoming 2022 U20 World Junior Championship in Edmonton, Canada this summer.

The team will be bring the following group with them to Edmonton: forwards Connor Bedard, Will Cuylle, Elliot Desnoyers, William Dufour, Tyson Foerster, Nathan Gaucher, Ridly Greig, Kent Johnson, Riley Kidney, Mason McTavish, Zack Ostapchuk, Brennan Othmann, Joshua Roy, and Logan Stankoven; defensemen Lukas Cormier, Daemon Hunt, Carson Lambos, Ryan O’Rourke, Donovan Sebrango, Ronan Seeley, Jack Thompson, and Olen Zellweger; and goalies Brett Brochu, Sebastian Cossa, and Dylan Garand.

There are several players not in the rescheduled tournament that were in the original tournament in December, all of them players affiliated with NHL teams who likely want to focus on making their respective teams out of camp. The players not returning are Xavier Bourgault, Mavrik Bourque, Dylan Guenther, Kaiden Guhle, Jake Neighbours, Cole Perfetti, Owen Power, Justin Sourdif, and Shane Wright.

There are currently no announcements regarding captaincies for the team. The captain and two assistant captains in the original tournament are not on the new roster, with Guhle wearing the ‘C’, and Perfetti and Neighbours wearing the ‘A’s.

The tournament is taking place in the summer this year due to a COVID-19 outbreak occurring during the original tournament in December 2022, cancelling multiple games. All games and statistics from the December tournament will be disregarded, and the August tournament will start from scratch, running from August 9 to August 20.

Another notable difference for this rescheduled tournament is that Russia will not be participating, as the team was suspended from international play by the IIHF as the Russians continue their attacks on Ukraine. Belarus would have been the original replacement, as they were the winners of the Division I tournament, but with that country participating in the attacks on the side of the Russians, they were also suspended from international play. Latvia, the Division I runner-up, will be in the tournament in Russia’s place.