Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Fraser Minten named captain of Canada’s 2024 world junior team
Hockey Canada has announced that Toronto Maple Leafs prospect and Saskatoon Blades forward Fraser Minten has been named captain for Canada’s 2024 World Junior Championship effort in Sweden.
Owen Beck (Montreal Canadiens), Maveric Lamoureux (Arizona Coyotes), Matthew Poitras (Boston Bruins) and Matthew Savoie (Buffalo Sabres) will serve as alternate captains.
Of the five players wearing letters, only Lamoureux has yet to play an NHL game thus far. Minten played the first four games of the regular season with Toronto after getting drafted in the second round back in 2022.
This is Minten’s first time representing Canada internationally. He previously served as captain of the Kamloops Blazers for seven games before getting traded to Saskatoon in late November. Minten had a strong pre-tournament showing with Canada, scoring three goals and five points in three contests as Canada skated to a 2-0-1 record.
Beck is the lone returning player on Canada this year, having joined the squad during the playoff round back in January once Colton Dach went down with an injury. Lamoureux is the tallest player in the tournament at 6-foot-7, and will represent Canada for the first time. Savoie, meanwhile, played for Canada at the 2019 U-17 World Hockey Challenge and against at the Yuth Olympic Games in 2020, taking home bronze. Savoie made his NHL debut with the Buffalo Sabres back in November before getting loaned back to the WHL.
Poitras is the lone player on the roster to have been directly loaned from an NHL club. Poitras has never played for Canada in international competition, but has spent the year playing a middle-six role with the Bruins after getting drafted back in 2022.
Canada will kick off the tournament with a game against Finland on Dec. 26 at 8:30 AM ET. Canada is hoping to win gold for the third time in a row after sweeping the past two Canadian-hosted events in Edmonton and Halifax. They won the last time the tournament was hosted in Europe back in 2020 when Czechia had control.