Maple Leafs prospects Minten, Cowan earn spots on Canada's world junior team

Hockey Canada knows what it’s getting in Fraser Minten.

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And Canada’s team brass has a good idea of what Easton Cowan will provide at the 2024 world junior hockey Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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The two Maple Leafs prospects will help represent the nation at the tournament beginning on Dec. 26, when Canada plays Finland in its opener.

Canada named its 22-player roster on Wednesday and management is holding out hope that two players in the National Hockey League — forwards Matt Poitras of the Boston Bruins and Zach Benson of the Buffalo Sabres — will be made available.

Minten didn’t dress in a couple of selection camp games this week in Oakville against an all-star team of university players, a sure sign that he was a lock to make the team. Not so for fellow forward Cowan, who played in both games at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex but didn’t overly impress.

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With final cuts being debated on Wednesday afternoon, it sounded like there was much discussion regarding Cowan. Hockey Canada executive Scott Salmond put in calls to the Leafs and London Knights general manager Mark Hunter to get some final thoughts on Cowan before decisions were made.

Leafs general manager Brad Treliving was among the observers for the game on Wednesday.

“We know what Easton can bring,” Salmond said. “The term 200-foot player is probably a little overused, but he is at his best when he is playing that game.

“With this group, he doesn’t have to bring offence all the time. He needs to be on both sides of the puck and play hard. I think he will bring that, and that’s what excites people. He is a competitive kid and that’s what we need from him.”

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And this from Peter Anholt, a member of Canada’s management group: “We need more out of Cowan. We need that compete, we need him just to compete hard, not quite be so fancy, just be a little bit more what he is in London and not worry about being quite so fancy.”

Minten, who made the Leafs out of camp and played in four games before he was sent back to Kamloops of the Western Hockey League (and later traded to Saskatoon), will be among Canada’s leaders at forward and in the dressing room.

“Fraser is such an intellectual player,” Anholt said. “He knows the game, he picks up things quickly, he brings us size, he brings a good shot, he can play different positions, he can play up and down the lineup in different ways.”

NHL Draft Hockey — Easton Cowan puts on a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey after being picked by the team during the first round of the NHL hockey draft Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Minten and Cowan will be the first Leafs prospects to play for Canada at the world junior since 2019, when goalie Ian Scott made the team. Injuries forced Scott to retire in 2022. Neither Minten nor Cowan were made available to media on Wednesday.

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On the whole, it’s a Canada team that will be challenged to win a third consecutive gold medal, with the United States and Sweden the favourites. Only one player on Canada’s roster, forward Owen Beck, was part of the team that won gold last winter in Halifax.

No surprise that forward Macklin Celebrini, a favourite to be the first pick overall in the 2024 NHL draft, made the team. The 17-year-old has 25 points in 15 games for Boston University and was among the standouts at camp.

“It’s a huge honour,” Celebrini said. “Like every kid, it’s their dream (to play for Canada).”

The buzzword as the team arrived for a community event on Wednesday night at Sixteen Mile was “relentless.”

“I think it’s a team,” Salmond said, emphasizing the word. “It’s a really strong group. They will be competitive, tenacious, relentless.

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“Sometimes without those star players, everybody has to do more. We’re a four-line team. We’re going to come at teams in waves and I think our depth can be the difference.”

Canada plays Denmark’s under-25 team in Malmo, Sweden on Dec. 19. That day will serve as the deadline, from Hockey Canada’s standpoint, for Poitras and/or Benson to join the team.

“I have my own opinion on players and what this experience is like for them and how important it is,” Salmond said. “It always comes down to health of teams, it comes down to the contribution that players are making. We are ultimately respectful of those teams and where the players are.”

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Maple Leafs prospects Minten, Cowan earn spots on Canada's world junior team

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