Edmonton players withdraw from ill-timed World Junior Tournament

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In December, the Ice Hockey Junior World Championship is a unique experience that young players should not miss.

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Mid-August, right in the middle of the off-season training schedule?

Happen.

As much as they love the tournament and the opportunity to represent Canada, the timing is completely wrong.

That’s why a Canadian team that was rich with local flair has now grown boring after four of the five Edmonton ties — three Oil Kings and Oilers prospect Xavier Bourgault — all opted to skip the World Junior Summer Tournament .

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Oil Kings forwards Jake Neighbors and Dylan Guenther and defenseman Kaiden Guhle were all part of the original Team Canada in December but, like Bourgault, opted to attend the company make-up event scheduled for August 9-20 at Rogers Place to deliver.

Goalie Sebastien Cossa is the only Oil King returning from the December squad.

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“It’s a really tough decision,” said Neighbors, the 26th overall pick in the 2020 draft. “Representing Canada is something you dreamed of as a kid, so it was super difficult to say no. But with the long-term vision of my career and some injuries to contend with, St. Louis and I made the decision that it was best not to participate.”

Bourgault, Edmonton’s first pick (22nd overall) in the 2021 draft, also wants to focus on his offseason training ahead of his first pro season. In August, players need to build strength and muscle and not empty their tanks before training camps even begin.

“I made a decision with the Oilers,” said Bourgault, who believes his time should be better spent in the gym. “I’ve had a pretty long season, was at World Junior Camp for a month in December, had a few injuries mid-season and I just want to take care of my body and be ready to move forward with the Oilers and make sure I’m at it 100 percent so I can fight for a place in the camp.

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“I want to gain some strength, gain some weight, so I think it was the best decision for me. It’s better for me to do this. I wanted to play, but I have to respect my body as I go into my first pro season.”

It’s a long list of players who have opted out. Along with Bourgault, Guenther, Guhle and Neighbors, Mavrik Bourque, Cole Perfetti, Justin Sourdif, Shane Wright and Owen Power, the first draft pick of 2021, opted to focus on off-season training and NHL camps instead.

“Bourgault, Bourque, Sourdif, myself, Guenther, Guhle, we all played at the Memorial Cup at the end of June,” Neighbors said. “So that also plays a role in the decision. When you have such a long season, that time in the gym is really valuable.

“Even if I don’t go to the World Juniors, I’ll only get a month, a month and a half of training this summer. If I had gone to the World Juniors, I could hardly have trained.”

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They are a little surprised that the tournament is taking place at all.

“It’s a bit strange,” Bourgault said. “There are some players who didn’t make it into the team (in December) to have an opportunity to show what they can do, but it’s strange because during practice time you want to build some strength and make sure you’re ready for them Season.”

For Günther, the ninth overall winner in the 2021 draft, his knee injury from the WHL final made the decision for him.

“It was about me trying to get stronger and get back on the ice and I just wasn’t ready to go,” he said, adding that he had to be ready for Arizona Coyotes Camp.

Hosting the games in August is bad timing all round — right in the middle of the off-season and four months ahead of real-world juniors in December.

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“I train with a couple of guys who go to the tournament,” Neighbors said. “They’re upset that I’m not going and I’m upset too, but the only thing we’ve talked about is that it shouldn’t even happen now. It was supposed to happen at Christmas. It is annoying that this was not the case.”

The canceled Christmas tournament was doomed to fail from the start. It didn’t seem like the organizers took the necessary precautions (players didn’t have the protection of a full bladder, they were quarantined in hotels open to the public, so contact in common areas like elevators and lobbies was inevitable) and then the IIHF dropped out at the first sign of trouble.

It left everyone bitter about how it ended.

“We wanted to play,” Neighbors said. “A lot of people were really upset that the tournament was shut down. We put a lot of time into summer camp, coming at Christmas for a full camp and only getting two games before it closes was quite annoying.

Especially if it was her only chance.

“We would have liked to have done that,” said Günther. “We had been going through the COVID thing every two years at that point, so we were ready to go ahead no matter what, but it wasn’t our choice.

“Everything went so fast. One team got a positive result, then another team and the next thing you know it’s shutting down. It was really tragic.”

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