On Monday November 30th, one young man received a phone call every hockey player dreams of; a call from Hockey Canada asking Moose Jaw Warrior Quinton Howden to attend this year’s World Junior camp. Each year around this time, Hockey Canada selects the best of the best Canadian hockey players to battle it out for a roster spot on Canada’s World Junior team. Quinton Howden, draft pick of the Florida Panther’s was lucky enough to be selected.
“I was really excited when I received the call,” commented World Junior hopeful, Quinton Howden. “This has been something that I have dreamt of for a long time and it means I am one step closer to the team I want to make,” he added. Still with a big feat ahead of him, Howden will have to compete amongst Canada’s best players under 20 years old to find a roster spot. “I am really looking forward to camp, my mindset will be just to go in and play my game,” he said. “I am going to work hard and compete as hard as I can to earn myself a spot on the roster,” said Howden.
Howden will be joining players like Swift Current’s Cody Eakin, Regina’s Carter Ashton and many of the WHL, OHL and QMJHL elite players. 17 WHL players are invited to training camp where only a select few will make the final roster that will consist of player’s from the entire CHL.
Last year the tournament was held here in Saskatchewan and you may recall a heart breaking loss to Team USA, who stopped in Moose Jaw to play an exhibition game. Canada will be on their turf in Buffalo, NY for this winter’s annual tournament.
World Junior camp will start on December 11th. The Exhibition game schedule begins on December 20th. Team Canada will play four exhibition games in Ontario (Oshawa, Toronto, Kitchener and St. Catharine’s). All the magic starts on Boxing Day (December 26th) when team Canada will face off against the Russians. The reigning champion USA team will be in pool A and team Canada will be in pool B. Canada will face off with the Czech Republic on Tuesday December 28th, Norway on the 29th and finally Sweden on New Year’s Eve.
Eleven Warriors have represented Canada in this prestigious display of talent and hockey’s elite junior players. Theoren Fleury played for the red and white in 1987 and 1988. Team Canada was disqualified in his first appearance, but took home gold the following year. Mike Keane joined Fleury in 1987 as the two representatives for the tribe. Another Warrior would not break the roster until 1994. Chris Armstrong helped Canada to take home the gold in ‘94. Ryan Smyth followed in Chris’s footsteps; winning the top prize in 1995.
“I was really excited when I received the call,” commented World Junior hopeful, Quinton Howden. “This has been something that I have dreamt of for a long time and it means I am one step closer to the team I want to make,” he added. Still with a big feat ahead of him, Howden will have to compete amongst Canada’s best players under 20 years old to find a roster spot. “I am really looking forward to camp, my mindset will be just to go in and play my game,” he said. “I am going to work hard and compete as hard as I can to earn myself a spot on the roster,” said Howden.
Howden will be joining players like Swift Current’s Cody Eakin, Regina’s Carter Ashton and many of the WHL, OHL and QMJHL elite players. 17 WHL players are invited to training camp where only a select few will make the final roster that will consist of player’s from the entire CHL.
Last year the tournament was held here in Saskatchewan and you may recall a heart breaking loss to Team USA, who stopped in Moose Jaw to play an exhibition game. Canada will be on their turf in Buffalo, NY for this winter’s annual tournament.
World Junior camp will start on December 11th. The Exhibition game schedule begins on December 20th. Team Canada will play four exhibition games in Ontario (Oshawa, Toronto, Kitchener and St. Catharine’s). All the magic starts on Boxing Day (December 26th) when team Canada will face off against the Russians. The reigning champion USA team will be in pool A and team Canada will be in pool B. Canada will face off with the Czech Republic on Tuesday December 28th, Norway on the 29th and finally Sweden on New Year’s Eve.
Eleven Warriors have represented Canada in this prestigious display of talent and hockey’s elite junior players. Theoren Fleury played for the red and white in 1987 and 1988. Team Canada was disqualified in his first appearance, but took home gold the following year. Mike Keane joined Fleury in 1987 as the two representatives for the tribe. Another Warrior would not break the roster until 1994. Chris Armstrong helped Canada to take home the gold in ‘94. Ryan Smyth followed in Chris’s footsteps; winning the top prize in 1995.
Curtis Brown would be the only Warrior in 1996 on Canada’s team. A few years later, in 2000 Jamie Lundmark was part of the bronze medal team. In 2002, both Nathan Paetch and Brian Sutherby took home the silver. Nathan returned to the team in 2003 for a second silver medal. Dustin Boyd put on the maple leaf in 2006. Riley Holzapfel was a member of the team in 2008. Travis Hamonic represented the Warriors in 2009, where team Canada skated to a 2nd place finish.
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We must not forget another Warrior looking to make his countries Under 20 team.... Tony Honejsek. Who is "very excited" at the opportunity.
Tony will join fellow WHLer's:
Marek Hrbas- Edmonton Oil Kings
Roman Horak- Chilliwack Bruins
Robin Soudek- Chilliwack
For the full roster... follow the link http://tsn.ca/World_jrs/feature/?id=34456
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Other WHL players joining their countries team:
USA
Mitch Callahan- Kelowna
Emerson Etem- Medicine Hat
Finland
Rasmus Rissanen- Everett
Germany
Bernhard Keil- Kamloops
Marcel Noebels- Seattle
Norway
Andreas Stene- Kelowna
Russia- No WHL players; a few OHL
Slovakia- No CHL players
Sweden- No WHL players
Switzerland
Dave Sutter- Seattle
Sven Bartschi- Portland
Nino Niederreiter- Portland
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