World Junior A Challenge provides golden opportunity for Tier II players

While Canada’s top under-20 junior players are off to Helsinki to defend their world juniors gold medal over the holiday season, some of the best Tier II juniors around the country are already competing on home ice against international competition.

The 10^th annual World Jr. A Hockey Challenge is taking place in Cobourg and Whitby, Ont., just west of Toronto.. The tournament features some of the world’s best players under 20 years of age who play in the Canadian Junior Hockey League, a step below the Canadian Hockey League.

With Canada’s two squads (Canada East and Canada West) and teams from the United States, Russia, Czech Republic and Switzerland also participating, it’s easy to see why the World Jr. A Challenge is so well regarded by players, scouts and coaches alike. Mario Cicchillo, an assistant coach with Canada East, sees the tournament as a great opportunity both for players who have already secured scholarships and those still looking for a school to recruit them.

“For the guys that don’t have scholarships yet, this tournament is a great opportunity for them,” said Cicchillo, the head coach of the Toronto Jr. Canadiens of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. “Just at the intrasquad games (before the tournament), between NHL, NCAA D1 and D3 schools I would say there were probably 100-plus scouts there to watch.“

Cicchillo pegs forwards Tyler Rollo and Maxime St. Pierre as two players to watch in the tournament, which ends Dec. 19 with the gold medal game in Cobourg. Both players impressed the coaching staff at Canada East’s selection camp and both have had outstanding seasons with their respective club teams. Rollo has 12 goals and 19 assists in just 24 games with the OJHL Oakville Blades while St. Pierre has seven goals and 20 assists in 33 games with the Carleton Place Canadians of the Ottawa-area Central Canada Hockey League.

While many of those names won’t get nearly as much fanfare as world juniors-bound Mitch Marner and Jake Virtanen - who's been with the Vancouver Canucks since the start of the NHL regular season - several of the top guns in the World Jr. A Challenge already have Division I scholarships in the NCAA and some will indeed get selected by NHL teams in the middle rounds of the upcoming entry draft this summer. In fact, the NHL Central Scouting Bureau ranked seven Canadian players participating in the tournament on its list of top prospects published back in September. Centre Tyson Jost and defenceman Dante Fabbro, teammates who play for the BCHL’s Penticton Vees and are with Canada West in the Challenge, are the two highest-rated Canadians on the list. Both have committed to Division I schools for the 2016-17 season already. Canada East on the other hand feature winger Brett Murray and defensemen Owen Grant, who are leaders with Carleton Place.

Individual talent aside, the goal of the tournament is for teammates to gel together quickly and bring home a gold medal. Canada’s entries hope to steal the title away from the defending champion United States this year. Canada East assistant captain Grant Cooper from the CCHL Cornwall Colts is being counted on to help lead the way despite never having played in the tournament before. He considers himself a vocal leader and recognizes the importance of playing as a cohesive unit.

“We just have to be supportive of one another. It’s a quick tournament so we kind of have to put the trust in one another,” Cooper said prior to the start of the tournament. “We need to trust our teammates and trust that the coaching staff picked the right team”.