Hockey Canada Finalizes 2024 World Junior Championship Roster
Team Canada made its final cuts and announced the group of players who will represent the country in Sweden for the 2024 World Junior Championship. Tony Ferrari has the details.
The final cuts were made as Team Canada's world juniors selection camp took place over the last few days, including two games against the U Sports All-Stars.
The 23-man roster will head overseas to Sweden and compete in the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship and look to defend the gold medal with just one returning player, Owen Beck, featured in The Hockey News' World Juniors magazine issue out now.
Team Canada's final cuts include forwards Markus Vidicek, Jagger Firkus (Seattle), Paul Ludwinski (Chicago) and Denver Barkey (Philadelphia), defensemen Michael Buchinger (St. Louis) and Ty Nelson (Seattle), as well as goaltender Domenic DiVincentiis (Winnipeg).
With four forwards cut from the team, it leaves them 12 at the moment. There is hope remaining that one of Zach Benson (BUF) or Matthew Poitras (BOS) could be loaned out before the roster freeze, although it remains unlikely. The team can add one of the cut forwards if it doesn’t get an NHLer as it hopes.
Macklin Celebrini is the lone 2024 NHL draft-eligible player on the roster, and he could play a fairly large role. He was one of the better players in selection camp and looked strong in the games against the U Sports squad. The projected first overall pick is currently third in NCAA scoring with 25 points in 15 games.
The roster features 10 former first-round picks – four defenders and six forwards – on top of Celebrini. The roster is heavy on 2004-born talent, as has typically been the case for Canada. They have two 2005-born blueliners and four 2005-born forwards, with just a lone 2005-born netminder.
Jordan Dumais left the final U Sports game with a hip flexor issue, but the coaching staff led by Alan Letang noted they had seen enough from him in camp and throughout the QMJHL season – they wanted to protect him from injuring his hip any further. Dumais comfortably leads the QMJHL in points per game and sits one point back of the league lead at 47 in just 21 games.
The final roster representing Canada in Gothenburg, Sweden, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2024, is as follows:
Forwards
Owen Allard
Owen Beck (returning player)
Macklin Celebrini
Easton Cowan
Nate Danielson
Jordan Dumais
Conor Geekie
Fraser Minten
Carson Rehkopf
Matthew Savoie
Matthew Wood
Brayden Yager
Defensemen
Oliver Bonk
Jake Furlong
Maveric Lamoureux
Tristan Luneau
Denton Mateychuk
Tanner Molendyk
Noah Warren
Goaltenders
Scott Ratzlaff
Mathis Rousseau
Samuel St-Hilaire