Bouchard, McLeod and Rodrigue invited to Team Canada, World Junior Showcase

Team Canada just announced the 40-man roster for this year’s summer showcase of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship roster and all of Edmonton’s first three draft picks from the 2018 NHL entry draft found their names on the list.

Evan Bouchard (10th overall), Ryan McLeod (40th overall) and Olivier Rodrigue (62nd overall) were all selected to join the showcase.

Descending on Kamloops BC in late July (28th to August 4th) will be 40 of Canada’s best hopefuls for the final world juniors roster in 2019. This is a four-nation tournament where teams will be able to showcase some of their talents, build some chemistry and show their skills to coaches who may not be able to watch them play much before the “real” camp in December. Canada will be joined by the USA, Finland and Sweden in the mini-tournament playing each team in a regular team game as well as kicking off the festivities with a split-squad game between Canada and the USA on July 31st.

As for the 2019 World Junior Tournament that this is a precursor for, the Oilers and Oilers fan could see as many as eight Oilers prospects/players for the different teams:

Evan Bouchard (CAN)
Ryan McLeod (CAN)
Olivier Rodrigue (CAN)
Ostap Safin (CZE)
Patrik Siikanen (FIN)
Dmitri Samorukov (RUS)
Kirill Maksimov (RUS)
Phil Kemp (USA)

Being named to this roster doesn’t mean they will be in camp and on the team come December, but it’s a great start.