Canada loses top defenceman Matthew Schaefer for remainder of World Juniors | TSN

Team Canada will be without top defenceman Matthew Schaefer for the remainder of the World Junior Championship after he suffered an injury in the first period of Friday’s shocking 3-2 loss to Latvia. 

TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie reports that Schaefer has a broken collarbone and could be sidelined for the next 2-3 months. 

Defenceman Sawyer Mynio was added to the roster as a replacement following the shootout loss while Kitchener Rangers winger Carson Rehkopf will also join the team. 

While chasing a puck down in Latvia’s zone, Schaefer lost balance and crashed into the Latvian goal post, and moved gingerly to the bench before departing the game.

Schaefer recorded an empty-net goal and an assist in Canada’s 4-0 victory over Finland to open the tournament on Thursday.

Jack Ivankovic, who started the loss against Latvia in net for the Canadian side, told TSN’s Mark Masters that Schaefer is “my best friend,” and that Canada is “going to miss him.”.

Mynio, meanwhile, is a Vancouver Canucks prospect and will be making his Team Canada debut when he sees his first action of the tournament.

“Obviously not a lot of people know me,” Mynio said before the tournament. “I haven’t done any Hockey Canada [tournaments], U17s, or 18s, things like that. I made the one that counts.”

“You kind of just black out [when you hear the news],” the 19-year-old from Kamloops, B.C. said. “It felt like the draft again.”

Canada will have a chance to rebound from the loss when they battle Germany in their next game on Sunday.