Monday, November 28, 2011

Can MacKinnon Make WJC History?

It’s only happened five times before. Wayne Gretzky, Eric Lindros, Jason Spezza, Jay Bouwmeester, Sidney Crosby. Those are the only five players to represent Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships at age 16. Could Nathan MacKinnon be the latest addition to that list?

Later today, Hockey Canada will announce the 40-man selection camp roster for the upcoming World Juniors, from which the final team will be selected. Saying that a 16-year old needs to be a real standout to make the team is an understatement, but anyone who has seen MacKinnon play won’t question his ability to turn heads.

With the eyes of Hockey Canada focused on the Subway Super Series earlier in the month, MacKinnon rose to the occasion and was Team QMJHL’s best skater against the Russians in the first game of the series. However, that wasn’t enough to convince Hockey Canada Head Scout Kevin Prendergast that he was ready to play at the WJC.

I suspect MacKinnon will earn an invite to the selection camp at least, since it’s in Hockey Canada’s best interest to give him that experience for next year, but the odds are stacked against him to actually make the cut. He would need to step in to a scoring role to get regular ice time, and those will be hard to come by. Players like Jaden Schwartz, Ryan Strome, Mark Scheifele and Tyler Toffoli are likely locked in to some of those positions already.

However, MacKinnon does have a few things working in his favour. An injury to Jonathan Huberdeau, expected to play a starring role for Team Canada, could keep him off the final roster if he’s not firing on all cylinders by the end of selection camp. That would free up a top-6 role, not to mention players in the NHL who are unlikely to be released by their teams, such as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Brett Connolly and Sean Couturier.

MacKinnon has all the tools to be a contributor at this level. He has breathtaking speed, including a two-step quickness that not many players have in their arsenal. Terrific hands, a good shot and elite playmaking talent, combined with an ability to dominate physically against players three or four years older than him makes him an offensive threat anywhere on the ice. None of the players named to today’s selection camp roster have quite the array of tools that MacKinnon does, but many of them have pedigree. In a short tournament like this, the players with experience tend to be the ones that make the cut, which doesn’t bode well for MacKinnon despite his talents.

There’s a possibility that he’s taken as the 13th forward, at least to start, as other young, offensively talented players have been in the past. That way he can be sheltered and used only in offensive situations, and if he proves he can handle the level of play, he becomes a player that is leaned on regularly.

If I’m Hockey Canada, I take the kid. He’s a game-breaker at the best of times, and if he shows that he can’t hack it with that level of competition just yet, then you’ve got one hell of a powerplay specialist. It takes a special kind of talent to make Team Canada at age 16, but there aren’t many more deserving of that designation than Nathan MacKinnon.

Photo Credit: Marc Henwood/Station Nation

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