At the end of July, there is the World Junior Summer Showcase. The best underage prospects in the world come together to showcase their abilities in front of the committees that will be selecting the final teams in the winter.
During the showcase, there will be practices and games between Canada, the United States, Finland, and Sweden. It will begin on July 25th in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Three Chicago Blackhawks prospects were invited. Anton Frondell will go for Sweden, AJ Spellacy will be there for the United States, and Sacha Boisvert will arrive for Canada.
All three of these players are in Chicago’s plan for the future, albeit in different roles. Each of them is talented enough to warrant an invite to this tournament.
Anton Frondell is a lock for Team Sweden if the Blackhawks allow him. If he makes the NHL team out of camp, that may hinder his chances of actually going. However, the Blackhawks may be wise to let him go, even if he is on the NHL roster by the end of December.
Sacha Boisvert is transferring from North Dakota to Boston University. He will have all of the freedom to represent Canada as he's a year away from pro hockey, but the problem for him is Canada's depth. The pool of talented players that they have to choose from is large.
Boisvert's path to Team Canada is the team needing a two-way guy to be their every-situation third-line center. They need forwards that can defend, kill penalties, and provide some offense in the meantime. All of these attributes are in Boisvert's toolbox.
AJ Spellacy may have a hard time making Team USA, which has won the last two Gold Medals at the World Junior Championships. Based on his invite to camp, however, you'd think that the folks in charge of putting the final team together saw something in his game that they liked last season.
Spellacy had an outstanding camp/preseason with Chicago last fall, but they decided not to have him make the jump to pro hockey quite yet. Now, he seems fit to make that transition. The skill that Spellacy brings may entice USA Hockey to consider him, especially if he has a strong summer showing.
Chicago's prospect farm is deep. It's one of the best in the National Hockey League. An organization in this spot will have participants in the post-holiday tournament. This is just a preview of what's to come for these outstanding young players.
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