What I saw and heard at Canada’s World Junior camp: Gavin McKenna, the bubble, the NHLers, more
NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario — Canada’s new-look World Junior training camp is well underway. In the coming days, they’ll cut two forwards, one defenseman (two if they get Sam Dickinson from the Sharks) and one goalie before finalizing the roster for the Boxing Day opener against Czechia in Minneapolis.
I’ve spent the last three days at the Gale Centre Arena in Niagara Falls for a series of practices and scrimmages. Here’s what I’m seeing and hearing ahead of their first pre-tournament game against Sweden in Kitchener on Wednesday night.
McKenna looks ready for the moment
Gavin McKenna has looked very, very good this week. He was noticeable on and off the puck in both of the scrimmages. He had it on his stick in the offensive zone a lot in the five-on-five portion, was playing with confidence on the attack, and had two goals and three assists on the power play on Tuesday. He also — and this part is much more important for him these days — tracked, and got up and under sticks, and kept his feet moving off it, emptying the tank on a couple of plays. This is a critical tournament for McKenna to show scouts that he’s still the top player in this draft class, and with two pre-tournament games against challenger Ivar Stenberg, and potentially a third in the tournament, scouts are going to key in on that effort level in particular. It’s their most common source of criticism, and McKenna made clear in his interviews at camp that he’s very much aware of the chatter, and he plans to silence it.
I didn’t like his play in his lone game at the World Junior Summer Showcase this summer, and he didn’t take over his Hlinka or last year’s World Juniors, so it would go a long way if he can rise to the occasion here. His best showing for Hockey Canada was playing opposite Porter Martone during their brilliant U18 worlds in Finland, and that connection skated together for parts of this week. They have the ability to do some real damage at this tournament if they’re paired together.
USA’s pursuit of a first three-peat and Canada’s back-to-back quarterfinals exits are big storylines, but McKenna is the story of this year’s tournament for me.
Latest on the NHLers
Zayne Parekh and Harrison Brunicke started camp with the team, but the Sharks decided to hold Michael Misa, who was coming off an injury and on a conditioning loan in the AHL. Misa is expected to play in one or maybe two of Canada’s three pre-tournament games.
The only remaining question is whether Dickinson will be arriving with him, and whether they’ll be getting Seattle’s Berkly Catton. Canada is hopeful on both, and Catton, who is on IR with the Kraken after blocking a shot off his arm/wrist, is back skating now in a non-contact capacity. If Catton’s healthy in time (which doesn’t seem like a guarantee), I think Team Canada thinks they’re getting him. Dickinson has played in the 14-minute range in the Sharks’ last two games, but picked up an assist in his last game against the Penguins.
It sounds like they’re expecting to confirm the decisions on those two in the next day or two. Getting one or both would really change the look of the lineup and allow everyone to slot into the right spots.
Will the Sharks loan Sam Dickinson to Canada for the tournament? (James Guillory / Imagn Images)
Who’s on the bubble?
My impression entering camp was that up front, the Brantford duo of Blackhawks first-rounder Marek Vanacker and Kraken first-rounder Jake O’Brien were on the bubble. I still think that’s true, but both were noticeable in camp.
I wondered coming into camp about O’Brien’s fit and role on this team, and I’m still unsure about it, but his creativity on the puck is pretty unique among the non-McKenna players in this group, too. He isn’t going to be a checker or PKer in this group, though, and so you’re bringing him as a top-six forward or a 13th/14th. Because Misa is going to play in the top six when he arrives, and because of the trust they have in Cole Beaudoin and Jett Luchanko, the spots down the middle fill up quickly. They have built-in trust with Caleb Desnoyers and Sam O’Reilly, who both play for members of their coaching staff with their club teams, too, and 2025 U18 worlds standouts Brady Martin and Cole Reschny were always going to have a leg up as well. O’Brien, who didn’t stand out at the World Junior Summer Showcase, was on PP2 throughout the week, which is a role he can play if they bring him even if he’s a 13th forward.
Vanacker was hard on pucks, scored and played his style this week, and his fit would be clear: A bottom-six speed-size checker who can chip in around the net.
On the back end, Jackson Smith and Keaton Verhoeff are the most likely to be cut. I’d guess that Smith is more likely the odd-man out (Canada has five lefties and four righties in camp, and so cutting Smith would give the team an even split), but it also sounds like they think Verhoeff has some work to do to polish his game, and he turned over some pucks in the scrimmages this week.
Who is Ethan Mackenzie?
Every year or two, there’s an undrafted player or two who plays their way into the mix for Team Canada at the World Juniors. Two years ago in Gothenburg, it was Owen Allard and starting goalie Mathis Rousseau. The year before that, it was Thomas Milic. Before them, there was famously Joe Hicketts.
This year, Edmonton Oil Kings defenseman Ethan Mackenzie’s excellent first half in the WHL (which has included 10 goals, 31 points and a plus-22 rating in 30 games) has put him in the conversation.
I had a good chat with him on Monday morning, and he’s still flying high. He said he’d never communicated with Hockey Canada until he was told to fill out some precautionary paperwork about a month ago, and he didn’t think he had a chance to make the team until he got a call about a week ago from general manager Al Millar. When Edmonton Oil Kings general manager Kirt Hill called him into his office, he thought he might be getting traded. He laughed about that call because it came after a loss at home in their Teddy Bear Toss game, and he wasn’t allowed to tell his teammates, so he had to pretend to be sad.
He says he had injury troubles in his first two years in the WHL that held him back from showing what he could, but felt he had a good enough year last season to get drafted (32 points in 54 games).
That motivated him to prove to everyone that he was a player this year, and he finally feels like he’s starting to get that recognition now. He had a couple of talks with NHL teams last season, but said they never felt serious. He said this year that there has already been a lot more interest.
I thought he was noticeable this week, too. They put him on PP2 on Day 2 after starting Jackson Smith there, and I thought he broke up a lot of rushes with his stick. And on Tuesday, he skated alongside Parekh, which is definitely noteworthy. His skating is high-end, and he credits skating coaches Lars Hespo and Glenn Carnegie at home in Kelowna for it (his parents own a lawn and landscaping company in nearby Peachland, British Columbia). He also seems to see the ice well and moves pucks effectively, even at this new level for him.
He’s committed to the University of North Dakota and envisions the following role for himself on the team: “I’ll be more of a defender for this team but also have some offensive threat. I can move the puck around, I’m a good skater, and will be a first pass guy. I’ll break the puck up fast and then move it.”
Notebook
Canada tested out Cameron Reid (who broke up a bunch of plays in the scrimmage with his anticipation) and Mackenzie alongside Parekh throughout the week, and Parekh thought he and Reid could have the same impact the Cole Hutson-Zeev Buium pair had for Team USA last year.
Behind the Parekh pair, they’re looking to build more of a shutdown pair around Brunicke, and both Kashawn Aitcheson and Carson Carels got looks there. I’d bet it’s Aitcheson-Brunicke in the end. That’s the role they played at their U18 Worlds in Finland, where both emerged as the tournament went on as go-to players in defensive situations.
That would position Carels to potentially play on the third pairing with Maple Leafs first-rounder Ben Danford (a pairing which I think they’d also trust to play defensive assignments and penalty kill) as well. Both are built strong and sturdy, and I’ve thought they’ve skated well, defended hard, and taken away time and space effectively in camp. Carels has continued to activate when he has the chance to do so, too.
Up front, I wonder if Misa will slot in between McKenna and Martone, though I actually thought Utah’s Cole Beaudoin was effective there to start the week. His bull-in-a-china-shop mentality pushing pucks into the offensive zone and then getting after it on the forecheck, could work off the skill of those two wingers if they decide to go to it or feel like Misa is a better fit on a line with another skill player like Tij Iginla or Michael Hage. I thought it was interesting that they tried Iginla and Hage at both center and the wing. That gives them the flexibility to get those guys into the top six.
I thought Brady Martin looked good in the first-red white scrimmage and on the penalty kill early in camp. His energy and ability to be disruptive were both noticeable, and he was rewarded a little with a promotion on Tuesday to a line with McKenna and Hage. He’s going to be an important identity player for this group, I think, and can play up and down their lineup.
I wondered if Cole Reschny was on the bubble to start camp, and he might still be, but they slotted him on PP1 in the bumper, and he looked really good there.
The cuts at forward, with or without Catton, are going to be difficult.
