Team Canada has named its captain and alternates ahead of the World Juniors. 2020 Montreal Canadiens draft pick Kaiden Guhle will serve as team captain, while Jake Neighbours and Cole Perfetti will act as alternates for this year’s tournament.
In 7 games at the World Juniors last year, Guhle and Perfetti had 2G, 1A, and 2G, 4A respectively. Their previous WJC experience proved to be a major factor in choosing this year’s leadership group.
The Edmonton Oil Kings will be well represented for the host Canadian side. The WHL club has 4 players donning the maple leaf on Boxing Day including Guhle, Neighbours, forward Dylan Guenther and goaltender Sebastian Cossa. All four players are expected to play prominent roles for Canada at the annual holiday classic.
Canada opens up the tournament against the Czech Republic on December 26th. The home side is currently -3.5 goal favourites with a -3333 money line in their tournament opener at the MyBookie sports book. Overall they’re currently the tournament favourite coming in at 3 to 1 odds at many sportsbooks, with USA (+450), Russia (+700), Finland (+800) and Sweden (+800) rounding out the top 5.
The Canadians are looking to rebound after last year’s heartbreaking 2-0 loss to the US in the gold medal game. After reeling off 5 straight gold medals from 2005-2009, Canada has only 3 golds in the subsequent 12 tournaments as the rest of the world appears to have caught up developmentally in the international game.
Finland vs. Germany kicks the tournament off on boxing day with a 2pm ET puck drop.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner