Hockey Canada officials warned there would be no “freebies” for returning players at the selection camp for the 2025 junior championship in Ottawa. They were true to their word as former B.C. Hockey League Victoria Grizzlies star forward Matthew Wood of Nanaimo was not named to the 25-player roster announced Friday.
Not that Wood, the current eighth-leading scorer in the NCAA and selected 15th overall in the first round of the 2023 NHL draft by the Nashville Predators, could be considered a so-called “freebie” by any stretch.
Wood was among the seven players invited to the camp from the Canadian team that placed fifth at the 2024 world juniors in Sweden. Of those, Brayden Yager, Oliver Bonk, Easton Cowan, Tanner Molendyk and Carson Rehkopf made the team again. Wood, the six-foot-four power forward who plays for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers of the NCAA Big Ten, and goaltender Scott Ratzlaff of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds did not.
Wood previously told the Times Colonist he knows Canada underachieved in the 2024 tournament and that the team was “pretty upset last year and didn’t do as well as we wanted” and there was a sense of unfinished business for 2025.
“When you live through a fifth-place finish for Canada, and you have an opportunity to come back, and right that and right that in Canada, it’s a great opportunity and they [returnees] realize that,” said Hockey Canada VP Scott Salmond, in a media scrum.
Wood, however, won’t get that chance beginning Boxing Day in Ottawa against Finland.
“We have assembled a competitive and talented roster that will give us the best opportunity to win a gold medal on home ice … there were many difficult decisions to make at selection camp,” Peter Anholt, U-20 program lead for Hockey Canada said in a statement.
The last Island-associated players to win medals with Canada at the world juniors were goaltender Dylan Garand of Langford, gold medallist in 2022 and silver medallist in 2021, and former Grizzlies captain Alex Newhook, silver medallist in 2021. Island players or players from Island teams to win world junior gold medals include Garand, Kent Manderville, Mark Morrison, Paul Cyr, Jamie Benn and Joe Hicketts. Other world junior medallists for Canada from the Island or Island teams include Tyson Barrie, Brett Connolly, Matt Pettinger, Curt Fraser, Gary Lupul, Mel Bridgman and Rick Lapointe.
