Regina Pats defenceman Josh Mahura, who was cut by Team Canada on Friday, will be rejoining the group for pre-tournament games this week. Dante Fabbro is dealing with a lower-body injury. 

“We are thankful to Josh for agreeing to return to the team for the pre-tournament phase in our preparations,” said Joël Bouchard, Program of Excellence Management Group in a Hockey Canada release. “We also want to thank the Regina Pats, the Western Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League for their support through this process.”

Hockey Canada's senior manager of hockey operations Shawn Bullock says they're excited to get Mahura back into the fold. 

"We're excited to get him back, to get him into the mix and get him in our culture and learning the technical package from our coaching staff. And he understands the situation. We made sure it was very clear to him what the understanding is and the situation he's coming into," said Bullock. "But he’ll be exactly like the other players. He'll start practice tomorrow with us. We'll keep him here as long as we need to to make an informed decision on Dante."​

For Mahura, he's still trying to process emotions after getting recalled after being cut less than 48 hours ago.

"It all happened pretty quick. Since leaving and coming back, I haven't really wrapped my head around everything, but obviously really happy to be back.

“Obviously I was pretty disappointed Friday night when I found out I got cut and stuff and you get back to Regina and play last night and start settling in and talking to family and getting ready for Christmas break and then all the sudden you’re getting the call to come back here with the possibility to play so I’m just taking it all in."

Fabbro limped to the dressing room midway through the third period of Friday's game against Denmark and did not return. But the Nashville prospect, who plays for Boston University, met with the media afterwards and said he was feeling fine. Head coach Dominique Ducharme said Fabbro was held out as a precaution.

“Obviously an emotional time for him. We feel for him. We love the kid. He’s a tremendous individual. He’s part of the leadership here, a character individual and we really feel for him and his family at this time,” explained Bullock.

“We don’t exactly have a timeline for him. We’re actually taking some more steps tomorrow morning to further investigate the injury to make a better, more informed decision about his future.”

Canada will play two pre-competition games starting on Wednesday in London, Ont. against the Czech Republic. Canada will also play Switzerland on Friday in Hamilton.