It’s still looking good for two members of the Prince Albert Raiders to play for Team Canada at the World Juniors for the first time since 2005.
Following a number of cuts on Friday night, goaltender Ian Scott and forward Brett Leason were still on Canada’s roster for this year’s tournament, which will take place in Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. from Dec. 26-Jan. 5.
Goaltender Rejean Beauchemin and forward Jeremy Collition were both part of Canada’s gold medal team 14 years ago, in what is widely considered as the best side that the country has every brought to the tournament.
Joining Scott in between the pipes is Michael DiPietro of the Ottawa 67’s, who beat out Matthew Villalta of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for a spot on the team.
The rest of the roster is as follows:
Forwards
- Jaret Anderson-Dolan (Spokane Chiefs)
- Shane Bowers (Boston Terriers)
- Maxime Comtois (Drummondville Voltigeurs)
- McKenzie Entwistle (Hamilton Bulldogs)
- Morgan Frost (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds)
- Cody Glass (Portland Winterhawks)
- Barrett Hayton (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds)
- Alexis Lafreniere (Rimouski Oceanic)
- Jack Studnicka (Oshawa Generals)
- Nick Suzuki (Owen Sound Attack)
- Owen Tippett (Mississauga Steelheads)
- Joseph Veleno (Drummondville Voltigeurs)
- Gabriel Vilardi (Los Angeles Kings)
Defence
- Evan Bouchard (London Knights)
- Josh Brook (Moose Jaw Warriors)
- Noah Dobson (Acadie-Bathurst Titan)
- Jared McIsaac (Halifax Mooseheads)
- Ian Mitchell (Denver Pioneers)
- Markus Phillips (Owen Sound Attack)
- Ty Smith (Spokane Chiefs)
Blueliners Nicolas Beaudin (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Jacob Bernard-Docker (North Dakota Fighting Hawks) and Pierre-Olivier Joseph (Charlottetown Islanders) were also cut on Friday, along with forwards Issac Ratcliffe (Guelph Storm), Liam Foudy (London Knights).
The statuses for Anderson-Dolan (wrist) and Vilardi (back) are all up in the air and will be decided over the course of the next week, as one more forward will need to be cut by Christmas Day.
London Knights forward Alex Formenton, who was on the team last year, will be unable to take part at the event after suffering a knee injury against the U Sports all-star team Wednesday.
Canada will now gear up for three pre-tournament games, with this first taking place in Victoria on Wednesday against Switzerland.
Their opening round-robin game will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 26 against Denmark.
