Canada finalizes roster for world junior hockey championship

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Christmas morning has arrived almost two weeks early for Ottawa 67’s captain Luca Pinelli.

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The 19-year-old winger from Stoney Creek, Ont., was among the 25 players who survived final cuts on Friday, when Canada named its roster for the 2025 world junior hockey championship.

Pinelli, a fourth-round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023, defied the odds if you consider he was the latest player drafted into the National Hockey League among the 19 forwards at this week’s selection camp.

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The 18 others were either chosen in the first, second or third round, with the exception of Porter Martone and Gavin McKenna, both of whom also made the Canadian squad.

Martone, who plays for the Ontario Hockey League’s Brampton Steelheads, is considered a top prospect for the 2025 NHL draft, while the 16-year-old McKenna, a winger with the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers, is being touted as the likely No. 1 choice in 2026.

Pinelli was delivered the good news from the coaching staff when he answered a knock at his hotel room door in the afternoon.

“It felt amazing,” he said a couple of hours later in a penthouse meeting room at the Delta Hotel. “It’s definitely got to be one of the best moments of. my life.”

Now, rather than spending Christmas with family members in southern Ontario, Pinelli will see them in Ottawa when they come here for the tournament.

“I think if it was anywhere it would be great,” he said, “but for it to be in Ottawa, it’s a dream come true. I love this city, so, yeah, it just makes it that much better.”

Pinelli, who has 21 goals and 16 assists in 26 games for the 67’s, entered Friday as the OHL’s fourth leading goal-scorer.

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He was also the co-leader in power-play goals, with 11, in the Canadian Hockey League.

Still, his inclusion on the final roster when, as one insider said, “he wasn’t even on the radar,” qualifies Pinelli as a surprise pick.

Asked what the team management staff liked about Pinelli, Peter Anholt compared him to a “dog on a bone.”

“I think he’s a glue guy,” said Anholt, who doubles as general manager of the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. “He’s that kind of a player. He can play in different situations for us, he can score when he gets a chance. I think just his diversity of how he plays, but, being the glue guy that he can be, especially where he might play in our lineup, I think is really important. I think his character is huge.”

Canadian head coach Dave Cameron, who is also Pinelli’s coach with the 67’s, was excited to deliver the news.

“When you’re able to coach at this level and tell kids that they made the team, it’s always very emotional, very exciting,” Cameron said. “It’s the best part of it. And then, when one of those players is on your team and has tolerated me for three-plus years, it’s a special feeling.

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“His hockey speaks for himself. He’s a special kid in terms of he comes in every day with a smile on his face. He’s a great teammate. He loves hockey.

“He didn’t make this team because of me, and that’s quite clear. He made this team because he’s a helluva player.”

Two players on the 2024 Canadian roster were among the eight released Friday: goalie Scott Ratzlaff and forward Matthew Wood.

Ratzlaff was Pinelli’s roommate during the selection camp, while Wood scored the winning goal, with an assist from Pinelli, in Canada’s 2-1 victory over the U Sports All-Stars Friday at TD Place.

Two other top prospects for next year’s draft did make the team: Mississauga goalie Jack Ivankovic and Erie defenceman Matthew Schaefer.

“I’ve always wanted to be at this tournament,” said Ivankovic, who wasn’t at the summer camp. “I wasn’t too focused on it at the start of the year, and then I just started kind of just playing my game and things kind of worked out.

“I dreamed of this kind of opportunity since I was little, watching this tournament every Christmas. To be here now is definitely special for me.”

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Schaefer, who is a potential first-overall pick in the 2025 NHL draft, said he’ll play this tournament for Otters owner James Waters, who passed away on Friday at the age of 73, and his mother, Jennifer, who died of breast cancer in February.

She was 56.

“She’d always put on the pads and go on rollerblades with me, my brother, she’d be in net. We’d go 1V1,” Schaefer said of his mom. “As a family, we’d always want to watch the world juniors together, and that was a big thing for sure. And she loved hockey.”

In making out its final roster, Canada did release a couple of towering forwards in Wood and Beckett Sennecke, the Oshawa Generals winger who was selected third overall by the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks in June.

“When we were building last year’s team, I think that that was something that we thought was something we really have to be had to be careful of,” Anholt said. “We’re not quite as worried about that with this group.  When we looked at it and the average size of this group it, it ranks up with any of the teams over the years that have that have won medals, so it’s not as big a deal for us.

“I think, I think having (Kanata’s) Cole Beaudoin and his physicality as part of the group, I think is really important, but there’s still a lot of big guys there that can skate and be hard to play against.”

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Asked to compare this group with the Canada team that finished fifth at the worlds last year, Anholt said:

“I think we’re just more prepared.”

After wrapping up the four-day selection camp at TD Place on Friday, the team heads to Petawawa for four days of practice at the Silver Dart Arena starting Sunday.

Team Canada returns to TD Place for pre-tournament games against Switzerland on Thursday and Sweden on Saturday, Dec. 21, then moves to Canadian Tire Centre for a final tuneup against Czechia on Dec. 23.

Canada opens the tournament on Boxing Day against Finland.

TEAM CANADA

(List shows hometown, current team and NHL draft status, including year, round selected and overall choice)

Goalies

Carson Bjarnason, Carberry, Man., Brandon (WHL), Flyers 2023 (2/51)

Carter George, Thunder Bay, Ont., Owen Sound (OHL), Kings 2024 (2/57)

Jack Ivankovic, Mississauga, Ont., Brampton (OHL), 2025 Draft

Defencemen

Beau Akey, Waterloo, Ont., Barrie (OHL), Oilers 2023 (2/56)

Oliver Bonk, Ottawa, Ont., London (OHL), Flyers 2023 (1/22)

Sam Dickinson, Toronto, Ont., London (OHL), Sharks 2024 (1/11)

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Andrew Gibson, LaSalle, Ont., Sault Ste. Marie (OHL), Red Wings 2023 (2/42)

Tanneer Molendyk, McBride, B.C., Saskatoon (WHL), Predators 2023 (1/24)

Sawyer Mynio, Kamloops, B.C., Seattle (WHL), Canucks 2023 (3/89)

Caden Price, Saskatoon, Sask., Kelowna (WHL), Kraken 2023 (3/84)

Matthew Schaefer, Hamilton, Ont., Erie (OHL), 2025 Draft

Forwards

Cole Beaudoin, Kanata, Ont., Barrie (OHL), UHC 2024 (1/24)

Mathieu Cataford, Chateauguay, Que., Rimouski (QMJHL), Golden Knights 2023 (3/77)

Berkly Catton, Saskatoon, Sask., Spokane (WHL), Kraken 2024 (1/8)

Easton Cowan, Mount Brydges, Ont., London (OHL), Maple Leafs 2023 (1/28)

Ethan Gauthier, Drummondville, Que., Drummondville (QMJHL), Lightning 2023 (2/37)

Tanner Howe, Prince Albert, Sask., Calgary (WHL), Penguins 2024 (2/46)

Jett Luchanko, London, Ont., Guelph (OHL), Flyers 2024 (1/13)

Porter Martone, Peterborough, Ont., Brampton (OHL), 2025 Draft

Gavin McKenna, Whitehorse, Yukon, Medicine Hat (WHL) 2026 Draft

Bradly Nadeau, Saint-Francois-de-Madawaska, N.B., Chicago (AHL), Hurricanes 2023 (1/30)

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Luca Pinelli, Stoney Creek, Ont., Ottawa (OHL), Blue Jackets 2023 (4/114)

Carson Rehkopf, Vaughan, Ont., Brampton (OHL), Kraken 2023 (2/50)

Calum Ritchie, Oakville, Ont., Oshawa (OHL), Avalanche 2023 (1/27)

Brayden Yager, Saskatoon, Sask., Lethbridge (WHL), Penguins 2023 (1/14)

RELEASED

Goaltender

Scott Ratzlaff, Irma AB, Seattle (WHL), Sabres 2023 (5/141)

Defencemen

Cameron Allen, Toronto, Ont., Guelph (OHL), Capitals 2023 (5/136)

Zayne Parekh, Nobleton, Ont., Saginaw (OHL), Flames 2024 (1/9)

Forwards

Denver Barkey, Newmarket, Ont., London (OHL), Flyers 2023 (3/95)

Andrew Cristall, Burnaby, B.C., Kelowna (WHL), Capitals 2023 (2/40)

Riley Heidt, Saskatoon, Sask., Prince George (WHL), Wild 2023 (2/64)

Beckett Sennecke, Toronto, Ont., Oshawa (OHL), Ducks 2024 (1/3)

Matthew Wood, Nanaimo, B.C., University of Minnesota (Big Ten), Predators 2023 (1/15)

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