Hockey Canada looking forward to Superstar Team if Lockout continues -NHL Special
Looking towards benefitting off the lockout, Hockey Canada is hoping that the deadlock continues until their needs of having top level players on the national level team are over. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is one of the big names Hockey Canada’s chief scout, Kevin
Predergast, is looking forward to having on board, but there is still no certainty.
Talking to the Edmonton Journal, the upcoming days will decide whether they have an A grade team or B, with most of the big names going to train in the National Hockey League (NHL) camps, leaving them with those who are left out by the team.
“Our worst-case scenario is we name our Dec. 3 training camp roster, then the lockout ends and the kids go NHL camps rather to our camp, which starts Dec. 10. What do we do then? Each NHL team has submitted two names to us of kids that’ll go to NHL camps
if the lockout ends,” Prendergast said.
The world championship are set to be held in the Russian city, Ufa, and will definitely be a spectacular event and with Canada being termed to be one of the most challenging teams to beat, people associated with the squad like Predergast are hoping to make
an A list line-up.
“The biggest thing is whether the NHL’s back,” said Prendergast. “If they aren’t back, we have a grade A world team. If there’s NHL games again, we have basically a B team.
There are a number of youngsters that the scout is looking to bring on board for the challenge including some very familiar names like Dougie Hamilton of the Boston Bruins, Ryan Murray, Griffin Reinhart and Mark Scheifele.
Along with the uncertainty of the lockout lasting that long for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to be available, the youngsters availability still has to be determined. He is playing with the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League (AHL) at the moment and
might not make the move, but Hockey Canada is hoping to get an answer soon and take off.
Hockey Canada is scheduled to be in Ufa by the end of December and preparing is the only thing on their mind right now.
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