 A new 17-year-old star headlines Canada's world junior hockey team | | | Last year's world junior hockey championship belonged to Connor Bedard. The 17-year-old phenom scored nine goals in seven games (including his astonishing OT winner in the quarterfinals) and racked up a Canadian-record 23 points to lead his team to gold in front of adoring crowds in Halifax, cementing his status as the most exciting prospect since Connor McDavid.
Bedard, now 18, is still eligible for the world juniors, but he's onto bigger and better things. In his first 28 NHL games after being drafted No. 1 overall by Chicago, Bedard has 12 goals and 24 points, leading all rookies by a considerable margin in both categories.
Meanwhile, another 17-year-old Canadian is hoping to follow Bedard's path at this year's world juniors, which start on Boxing Day in Sweden. Macklin Celebrini, a freshman forward for Boston University, headlined the 22 players named to the Canadian team yesterday.
Celebrini is not quite on Bedard's level — the giveaway is that it's possible for hockey analysts to talk about him without using the term "generational talent." But the Vancouverite is widely considered the top prospect in next year's NHL draft, largely based on his precocious play at BU. The youngest player in NCAA men's hockey has 10 goals and 25 points in his first 15 games for the Terriers, who are ranked No. 2 in the country.
Before college, Celebrini scored 50 goals in 52 games in his final season at Shattuck St. Mary’s, the Minnesota prep school that helped sharpen Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and other future NHLers. Last season, he scored 46 times in 50 games for the Chicago Steel of the USHL, the American junior league.
Sports run in Celebrini's family. His older brother Aiden, 18, is a freshman teammate at BU who was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the sixth round this year. Their dad, Rick, played soccer for the Canadian under-20 national team before a brief pro career. He's now an executive in charge of "player health and performance" for the NBA's Golden State Warriors.
It's rare for a 17-year-old to make the Canadian juniors (Crosby, McDavid and Bedard are on the short list). So of course Celebrini is the youngest player on a team made up mostly of 19-year-olds. But coaches and other players in camp raved about his grown-up skill set, which features exceptional skating, stickhandling, competitiveness at both ends of the rink and, like Bedard, a great shot.
"He doesn't play his age," said goalie Mathias Rousseau, adding that Celebrini and Bedard have a "similar style" of play. "You can tell he's a pro already," said forward Conor Geekie. Head coach Alan Letang was impressed by Celebrini's devotion to his craft. "Even in the lineup for drills, he's always touching the puck and he's always stickhandling. He's just very focused on the things he needs to do to continue to be successful."
Beyond Celebrini, this Canadian team is considered light on stars — or even familiar names. The only player returning from last year's gold-medal team is forward Owen Beck, a 2022 second-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens' who dressed for only three games in Halifax and recorded one assist.
Letang and his staff left the light on for a junior-eligible NHL player by keeping one roster spot open at forward. Bedard is obviously not coming, and neither is Columbus Blue Jackets centre Adam Fantilli, Chicago defenceman Kevin Korchinski or minor-league centre Shane Wright, who all played for Canada last year. The hope is that Boston Bruins centre Matthew Poitras or Buffalo Sabres winger Zach Benson, neither of whom have played in the world juniors, are granted a release by their clubs.
But that's considered a long shot, so Celebrini and company will probably have to just work with what they've got, in the shadow of last year's memorable champs.
“We may not be the most skilled group Team Canada has ever had," said Geekie. "But we’re definitely going to take pride in being the hardest working.” Read more about the Canadian junior team here. | | |  | Seventeen-year-old Macklin Celebrini wowed teammates and coaches with his grown-up skills at Canada's world junior selection camp in Oakville, Ont. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) | | | Quickly… | | | Some other things to know:
1. Draymond Green was suspended indefinitely by the NBA.
The league took the unusual step of an open-ended ban for the Golden State Warriors star after his ejection from a game on Tuesday for hitting Phoenix Suns centre Jusuf Nurkić in the face. Green claimed the blow was unintentional, but the NBA didn't give him the benefit of the doubt, noting his "repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts."
The combustible 33-year-old forward has been ejected 18 times in his career, the most among active players, and this is his sixth suspension. The first came during the 2016 NBA Finals, when Green's shot to LeBron James' groin area led to the Warriors' blowing a 3-1 series lead and losing their title to Cleveland. The most recent Draymond ban happened just a month ago: five games for putting Minnesota's Rudy Gobert in a headlock. Green was not suspended by the league or the Warriors for punching then-teammate Jordan Poole at last year's training camp.
The NBA said Green will be "required to meet certain league and team conditions before he returns to play," which will reportedly include counseling. "I hope Draymond gets the help he needs," said former Warriors teammate Kevin Durant. Read more about Green's latest suspension here.
2. Shohei Ohtani has (another) unusual clause in his contract.
A couple days after we found out the Japanese superstar will defer a whopping $68 million of his $70 million annual salary without interest comes a new twist: Ohtani can reportedly opt out of the 10-year, $700M megadeal with the Los Angeles Dodgers at the end of any season if billionaire Mark Walter is no longer the controlling owner or president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman leaves the team.
Ohtani, who won his second American League MVP with the Los Angeles Angels this year, will be officially welcomed by his new club today at a 6 p.m. ET press conference. Read the latest on his contract here.
3. They finally got a men's downhill in.
The World Cup season opener for alpine skiing's most glamourous event was supposed to happen more than a month ago, but nasty weather in the Swiss-Italian Alps wiped it out. The same thing happened to the women's downhill opener scheduled for the following week at the same venue, and the men's downhill and super-G in Colorado a week later got kiboshed too. The women were finally able to hold their first speed races of the season last week in Switzerland, where American star Mikaela Shiffrin scored a rare downhill victory, but the men were still waiting for theirs.
The wait finally ended today at northern Italy's Val Gardena, where American Bryce Bennett surprised the favourites by winning the downhill with a late start number on a shortened course. Canada's Jack Crawford placed fifth.
Val Gardena will host a super-G on Friday at 5:45 a.m. ET (Crawford is the reigning world champion in that event), followed by another downhill on Saturday at the same time. Watch them both live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. | | | Coming up on CBC Sports | | | Along with the men's super-G in Italy, Friday's action on CBC Sports' streaming platforms includes World Cup events in moguls skiing, snowboarding, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge, and the winter Canadian diving championships. Here's the full streaming schedule. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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