IN A BREAK FROM tradition, Team Canada hopefuls did not gather on the ice this summer – opting for virtual meetings instead. Most other nations, meanwhile, had at least some competition in the off-season. Whether or not this has any impact on the 2024 World Junior Championship will be hard to quantify, especially since this year’s group will be radically different from the team that won gold in Halifax in 2023.
In fact, Canada may only have one returning player from last year’s squad: center Owen Beck (MTL), who was actually a late injury replacement in 2023. The only other realistic candidate to return is defenseman Kevin Korchinski, but he was playing solid minutes for the Chicago Blackhawks well into late November.
Which all means that Hockey Canada had practically a blank…
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The Hockey News (Digital) - 1 Issue, World Juniors Special 2024