Why Team Canada cut camp down to 25 players

Team Canada has until Dec. 25 to get from from 25 to 22 players, thus bringing an end to the early-morning procession of future NHLers with tear-streaked teenage faces being paraded in front of the media when the final cuts are made.

In terms of keeping the horse in front of the cart, eschewing the traditional 40-player camp for a compact group is purely a hockey decision. It does somewhat reflect on how big the world junior championship has become in Canada. It was one thing for released players to face a small media throng 10 or 15 years ago. It's quite another to face a throng of reporters a young athlete isn't used to facing, aside from on his NHL draft day.

It's a business deal, but Hockey Canada appears to be mindful that it could come off as cold.

"That's certainly something that the management group has discussed," Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada senior director of men’s national teams and hockey operations, said on a Monday conference call. "Since Day 1 of [Kelowna Rockets general manager] Bruce Hamilton being involved in this process [as part of the Program of Excellence management group], he's always been very concerned and put a lot of thought into how we're going to release players and making sure we do that properly. That certainly is a consideration. But at the end of the day it's a decision made by our coaches, managements and scouts that these are the best players that give us the best opportunity to be successful."

Moreover, the evaluation period has been tweaked over the past couple of seasons. Hockey Canada, perhaps better late than never, has begun playing outside competition during the August development camp. It staged the Canada-Russia Challenge in 2012 to help fundraise for the family members of players and team staff who perished in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster one year earlier. This summer, it augmented its camp in Blainville-Boisbriand, Que., by taking a squad down to Lake Placid, N.Y., to face Finland, Sweden and Team USA.

There comes a point when there is enough info to make an education decision. Watching players in league competition and during the six-game Subway Super Series gave the Hockey Canada hierarchy enough confidence to whittle down its preliminary roster to 15 forwards, eight defencemen and two goalies.

"When we left that camp, it set us up to get to where we wanted to go as far as a plan and evaluating players," coach Brent Sutter said. "To be honest, we really didn't come to a decision on that until after the Subway series and getting the reports from [Hockey Canada head scout] Ryan [Jankowski] and Bruce [Hamilton] and everyone they'd used through the networks on the scouting side of it. Then it became more defined and more clear that this was the position that we wanted to go to. At that point in time, it set us up to do that and our policy committee supported it."

Sutter also noted there is no final decision on whether Canada will get down to its final 22 in advance of the International Ice Hockey Federation's deadline on Christmas Day, the eve of the tournament. It's a "moving target" regarding which defenceman and two forwards will not be in red and white come Dec. 26 against Germany in Malmo, Sweden. The club is set on the traditional 13-forward, seven-defenceman setup even though Edmonton Oil Kings star Griffin Reinhart is not eligible to play until the Dec. 31 game vs. the Americans.

The move is in keeping with several changes to Hockey Canada's junior men's program. For instance, it is set to begin entering three teams chosen at large in the world under-17 challenge, rather than five regional squads.

Truth be known, the selection camp may have become perfunctory, not that anyone would admit it often served to confirm choices made ahead of time. Jankowski expressed optimism that the smaller camp might help build a more cohesive squad for the WJC, which is a short 10-day tournament.

"It takes away a lot of the uncertainty for both the players and the management group and the coaches," Jankowski said. "You also want to evaluate over a longer term rather than over a shorter term. We put the effort in from the start of the season in Lake Placid, to see the players play. It was very difficult to get down to these numbers and find the best available players to represent us."

Canada took 37 players to camp before the 2013 world junior in Ufa, Russia, where it fourth-place finish snapped a 14-year medal run.

The proof of whether the change worked will be signified by what colour medal Team Canada has around its necks on Jan. 5. That will never change in this country.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.