TORONTO, Ont. and MONTREAL, Que. – With Canada’s National Junior Team Sport Chek Selection Camp rolling to a close with an 8-0 win over the Czech Republic, Hockey Canada has named the 22 players who will represent the country at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.
The only two invites to camp from the NCAA ranks, Boston University’s Dante Fabbro and North Dakota’s Tyson Jost, are both former Penticton Vees standouts and will each represent Canada for the sixth time. Both players wore the Maple Leaf at the World U17 event in 2014, both played in two World Junior A Challenge (WJAC) tournaments for Canada with Jost leading the team in scoring both years including last year’s gold-medal-winning entry. Also, they played for Canada’s U18 team in the 2015 Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament and they were teammates at the U18 Championships this past spring in North Dakota where Jost broke Connor McDavid’s previous Canadian scoring record as he posted 15 points in seven games.
Fabbro is the second defenceman from Boston University to make the WJC roster in as many years after Brandon Hickey played last year. Fabbro has three goals and three assists as a freshman blueliner and is one of four Terriers freshman that are first-round NHL draft picks. In the BCHL with the Penticton Vees over two seasons, the Coquitlam, B.C. product registered 18 goals and 82 assists for 100 points in 91 games. He was a BCHL All-Rookie team member in 2015 and a First-Team All Star and BCHL Top Defenceman in 2016. He was selected 17th overall by the Nashville Predators at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
Jost is second in scoring for the Fighting Hawks with 7-11-18 in 17 games so far. Last season, in addition to gold medals at the Hlinka tournament and the WJAC, Jost won the Vern Dye Memorial Trophy as the BCHL’s MVP and he also took home the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) RBC Player of the Year Award. He recorded 65 goals and 84 assists for 149 points in 97 games over two seasons in Penticton. Jos was also a BCHL all-rookie team member in 2015 and a First-Team All-Star last season. He was selected 10th overall by the Colorado Avalanche at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
Jost and Fabbro are the first BCHL graduates to make the WJC team since Ryan Johansen, also a former Vee, played in 2011.
With this year’s Team Canada roster, five players who competed for Canada at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship – Mathew Barzal (Coquitlam, B.C./Seattle, WHL), Thomas Chabot (Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, Que./Saint John, QMJHL), Julien Gauthier (Pointe-aux-Trembles, Que./Val-d’Or, QMJHL), Mitchell Stephens (Peterborough, Ont./Saginaw, OHL), and Dylan Strome (Mississauga, Ont./Erie, OHL) – will don the Team Canada crest for the holiday tournament. The full roster is as follows:
- Goaltenders Carter Hart (Sherwoord Park, Alta./Everett, WHL), Connor Ingram (Imperial, Sask./Kamloops, WHL);
- Defencemen Jake Bean (Calgary/Calgary, WHL), Kale Clague (Lloydminster, Alta./Brandon, WHL), Dante Fabbro (Coquitlam, B.C./Boston University, HE), Noah Juulsen (Abbotsford, B.C./Everett, WHL), Jérémy Lauzon (Val-d’Or, Que./Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL), Philippe Myers (Moncton, N.B./Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL); and
- Forwards Anthony Cirelli (Woodbrige, Ont./Oshawa, OHL), Dillon Dubé (Cochrane, Alta./Kelowna, WHL), Pierre-Luc Dubois (Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Que./Cape Breton, QMJHL), Mathieu Joseph (Chambly, Que./Saint John, QMJHL), Tyson Jost (Kelowna, B.C./U. of North Dakota, NCHC), Michael McLeod (Mississauga, Ont./Mississauga, OHL), Taylor Raddysh (Caledon, Ont./Erie, OHL), Nicolas Roy (Amos, Que./Chicoutimi, QMJHL), Blake Speers (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont./Sault Ste. Marie, OHL).
“We’ve had a great selection camp, and I can see this group of players really beginning to work together and getting better every day,” said Dominique Ducharme, head coach, Canada’s National Junior Team. “It’s never easy to make the difficult decisions of releasing players, and that’s a testament to Canada’s depth of talent. Kris, Tim and I are looking forward to continuing to work with these players to fine-tune our game and be ready when we start the tournament on Boxing Day.”
The 2017 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship runs December 26 to January 5 and is co-hosted by Montreal and Toronto.
For more information on the event, visit www.HockeyCanada.ca
