Team Canada released 13 players from their tryout camp this morning, bringing them down to the 22 players that will represent the Canadians at the World Junior Tournament later this month.
Of the two college players in camp, Colorado College's Jaden Schwartz was selected to the team. Schwartz was considered a lock as a returning player, and is considered one of the front-runners to be captain of Canada's team. Michigan's Phil DiGiuseppe was one of the the 13 players released this morning. He put out an impressive performance and likely helped his NHL Draft stock, but he came into camp as an extreme long shot to make the team, so it's not really a huge surprise to see him cut.
Here are the players selected:
Goalie: Mark Visentin, Scott Wedgewood
Defense: Brandon Gormley, Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Murray, Mark Pysyk, Scott Harrington, Jamie Oleksiak, Nathan Beaulieu
Forward: Mark Scheifele, Ryan Strome, Michael Bournival, Boone Jenner, Devante Smith-Pelly, Brett Connolly, Brendan Gallagher, Mark Stone, Jaden Schwartz, Jonathan Huberdeau, Quinton Howden, Freddie Hamilton, Tanner Pearson
Definitely a strong team, as always. Some people have cited goal-scoring as a bit of a concern, especially after leaving off players like Tyler Toffoli or DiGiuseppe, but there were similar concerns about last year's Canada team, and that certainly seemed to be no problem for them.