Dylan Garand will make his first career World Junior start on Sunday as Canada opens the tournament against Czechia.
"It's definitely a pretty cool feeling," the Kamloops Blazers goalie said. "You grow up dreaming of playing for Team Canada and to get the start is a dream come true."
It's already been a big week for Garand. On Thursday, he signed an entry-level contract with the New York Rangers, who took him in the fourth round (103rd overall) at the 2020 National Hockey League draft.
"Another dream come true," the 19-year-old from Victoria said. "I've been waiting for a little while to finally get one. All my friends are signed and just waiting and hoping for one and to get one is pretty cool. But, at the same time, I have something else on my mind so it's a quick turnaround and got to put it in the past and get ready."
Garand wasn't resting on his laurels on Saturday. If anything, he seemed emboldened.
"He's freshly inked with his new contract so he's got a little bit of extra confidence now," observed Team Canada left winger Cole Perfetti. "It seemed like it at practice."
Garand played just one period in relief in last year's tournament, but learned a lot from watching Northeastern University's Devon Levi.
"Just his approach to the short-term tournament," Garand said when asked what stood out. "The way he carried himself throughout the games. He didn't get too high, didn't get too low and that's something I really picked up on even on practice days. How he got the most out of every day."
The experience at Rangers training camp this fall also provided a boost.
"The shots are a lot harder," Garand said. "It's helped me get better. I feel like a much better goalie coming into the tournament this year than last year."
Garand stopped 14 of 15 shots while playing half of Canada's only exhibition game on Thursday.
"In the first period against the Russians, he made some big saves and if those go in it could've been a different game," said defenceman Kaiden Guhle. "He's not the biggest guy [6-foot-1], but he plays big. He's got good hands. He's good all around the net. I don't know much about goalies, all I know is he's pretty hard to score on in practice and in games."
Garand leads the Western Hockey League with a .932 save percentage this season.
"A very smart goalie," said Perfetti. "You can tell that he understands and gets it. He's competitive. He's always asking for extra shots. If I score on him, he gets pretty upset and if he stops me, he's quick to let me know."
What did Dave Cameron see from Garand to give him the Boxing Day start?
"I've seen lots. Seen everything," Team Canada's head coach said. "He's earned it."
Sebastian Cossa, who signed his entry-level deal shortly after being picked 15th overall by the Detroit Red Wings this summer, is waiting in the wings, but Garand has a real chance to run with the job.
"Generally guys don't get benched for [good] play," Cameron noted. "He's got the net and he's going to want to keep it."
Levi didn't give up the net last year starting all seven games and posting a .964 save percentage.
"He's been super supportive and sending me a couple texts," Garand said. "He texted me Friday and said, 'Keep going,' and 'Good game.' He's been watching back home so I know he's there for me ... It's nice to have his support."
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At Saturday's practice, Team Canada shuffled its defence pairs for the first time since training camp opened. Everett's Ronan Seeley moved up to the top pair alongside Michigan's Owen Power while Everett's Olen Zellweger moved down to the third pair to skate with Grand Rapids' Donovan Sebrango.
"Probably a little more offence now divided among those two pairs that we switched," Cameron explained.
What does Cameron appreciate about Seeley's game?
"The steadiness of it," he said. "The predictability of it. Coaches love players that when they put them on the ice they have a pretty good idea of how they're going to perform, the consistency of it, and that's probably Ronan's biggest asset."
"He keeps it simple," Guhle said. "He does his job well. He moves the puck. He can shoot the puck. He can pass. He's a good skater. He's got it all. He's going to help us out, for sure."
Saturday's promotion is the latest chapter in Seeley's remarkable rise. He is the lowest draft pick on Team Canada's stacked roster. The Carolina Hurricanes nabbed Seeley in the seventh round (208th overall) in 2020.
"Draft day was a pretty tough day for me," he admitted. "It took me a while to get over it but, at the end of the day, I got a shot now. I think I've proved a lot of people wrong and proved myself right in some ways so, yeah, for sure I use it as motivation. And I just got to put it behind me. I'm here now and that's all I got to focus on."
Seeley now finds himself skating alongside Team Canada's highest pick in Power, who went first overall to the Buffalo Sabres in July.
"We're both good skaters," Seeley said. "Owen likes to control the play a lot from the back end, especially moving up ice, so me and him are going to work well together breaking pucks out. And, on the blue line together in the offensive zone, he likes to be a little creative so I can be that support for him and move around to be wherever he needs me to be."
Seeley credits his tiny hometown of Olds, Alta. for helping launch his hockey career.
"There's not a lot going on there so hockey, for me, was the one and only thing," he said. "That's all I did and that's why I'm the player I am today, the hard-working player I am. A lot of my personality comes from that small town."
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Jan Mysak was the last guy on the ice at Czechia's practice on Saturday. The Hamilton Bulldogs centre was still working away even as the ice resurfacer made its way around the ice.
"He's a pro," said Guhle, who roomed with Mysak during Montreal Canadiens training camp. "He would take care of his body. He would always stretch in the room. He's a good guy. He's going to have a long pro career, for sure. He was fun to room with."
The feeling is mutual.
"He's a good roommate," Mysak said with a grin. "We talk about good stuff. It's funny to spend some time with him."
Mysak sent Guhle a congratulatory text after Canada named him captain. And the pair actually bumped into each other on Saturday.
"He said, 'What's up? How's it going?' We've kept it in touch a little bit since we've been in Montreal," Guhle said.
Mysak laughs when asked how he can get the better of Guhle on Sunday.
"I will try to move my feet, that's all," he said. "He's really good in the D-zone. He's a tough guy. He can finish the plays, he can hit you so, for me, if I'm against him one-on-one I will try not to smile and try to skate around him. That's all."
"He's fast," Guhle said. "He's got good hands. He's a really smart player. It will be fun to go up against him."
This is Mysak's third World Juniors and the second straight year he's served as Czechia's captain.
"I grew up on stories on legends from the Czech Republic, who won Nagano or played in NHL and won Stanley Cups so for me it’s an honour and especially wearing the captain letter," he said.
Mysak feels stronger and faster this year and says his experience in the American Hockey League with Laval last season was really helpful. He also got a boost from getting into a couple NHL pre-season games.
"The first game in the Bell Centre in front of fans was so cool for me," he said. "It was kind of a dream. When you walk into the rink and you see a lot of fans there cheering for you, that was so good. I was really surprised because I didn't expect that. It was amazing."
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It's back, baby.
After opting for a country song ('Loud' by Tim Hicks) last year, Team Canada will use the DJ Otzi tune 'Hey Baby' as its goal song this year in Edmonton. It was last used during Canada's run to the gold medal in 2018.
"It was unanimous," Perfetti said of the choice. "One guy brought it up and we were like, 'Perfect, let's go with it.' It's one of the best ones there is. It's an iconic one and when you score a goal and the whole crowd is singing it, it's pretty cool."
"I believe the whole country loves it," Guhle said. "It's catchy. It gets your blood pumping a little bit. It was fun to hear it the other night [in the pre-tournament game]. It gave me some chills. We're excited to have that back."
It's hard to believe that 'Hey Baby' was initially a controversial choice before Dillon Dube, Dante Fabbro and company took it mainstream in Buffalo.
"I had never heard the song before in my life," Perfetti recalled. "I was kind of like, 'What? What is this?' It's a weird one and I didn't really necessarily love it in the beginning. But the more and more they scored and the more and more I heard it, it grew on me and I love it now. It's catchy and it gives me that World Junior feeling, if that makes sense. It's a perfect fit."
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Ducks prospect Mason McTavish and Jets prospect Perfetti both have NHL experience this season. In fact, they actually made their NHL debuts in the same game on Oct. 13 in Anaheim. And they had one memorable interaction.
"We were going to fight, actually," McTavish revealed. "I wanted the Gordie Howe Hat Trick, but he didn't want to fight. I don't know, maybe he'll tell the story a little bit differently ... maybe he didn't hear correctly or something."
"He had a goal and an assist at that point and he was fishing for a Gordie Howe Hat Trick in his first game," Perfetti recalled. "There was a big hit along the boards and a penalty and a scrum and we ended up grabbing each other and just taking each other off the pile. He looked at me and said, 'You wanna go?' I just laughed at him ... He was doing whatever he could to keep getting on the game sheet that night."
McTavish has one fight under his belt in the Ontario Hockey League, which is one more than Perfetti, who currently plays for Manitoba in the AHL.
"I got zero career fights and I didn't really want my first NHL game to have a fight in it," he said. "When he asked I looked at him and laughed. I didn't think he was being serious. I couldn't tell. I don't think he's much of a fighter either."
Perfetti (two games), McTavish (nine games) and St. Louis Blues prospect Jake Neighbours are the three Team Canada players who have played in the NHL this season. Neighbours and McTavish also faced off in a game on Nov. 7 in Anaheim.
"I remember Mac was on the power play and I was PKing and so I bumped into him in the slot a couple times," said Neighbours. "I don't think we ever exchanged words or anything like that, but just a couple rookies trying not to look bad out there."
"It was cool to see somebody else at a similar age as you playing in the NHL," McTavish said. "It was pretty cool that we did that and are now here with the World Junior team."
McTavish is aiming to become the second straight Ducks prospect to dominate the World Juniors. Trevor Zegras was named tournament MVP last year while leading Team USA to gold.
"Me and Zegras are pretty tight," McTavish said. "We lived together for the last bit of [my time in Anaheim]. We FaceTime and stuff like that and talk to each other a lot. He had a really good World Juniors last year so he's definitely giving me some tips. It's cool having guys like that on your side."
What did McTavish take from Zegras' performance last year?
"You could tell he was really confident on the ice and that's something a lot of players lack sometimes, you know, they're not being themselves, and they're just trying to fit in. He obviously has terrific skill and he put it on full display every game. He didn't care if it looked funny or whatever. I think that's pretty cool."
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Canada's power-play converted on two of five chances in Thursday's game.
"We're happy with that," said Perfetti, who plays the flank on the top unit. "It's a good starting point. We can build off that. Really good on our face-offs, really good on our entries and recoveries. In-zone we're trying to build momentum. We had one goal off the rush there and the other unit scored off a nice down-low play. A lot came from either a nice entry play or having that big face-off win. I think we only lost two face-offs all night on the power play, which is crazy. We were like 78 or 80 per cent at the dot and when you're starting every power play with the puck like that it's a huge help."
The United States converted on 41 per cent of their power-play chances last year to lead the tournament while Canada ranked third at 32 per cent.
"Forty per cent is the gold-medal standard," Perfetti said. "[Assistant] coach Michael Dyck has been saying, 'If you want to win the gold medal, you got to operate around that percentage.'"
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Canada is 17-1-2 against Czechia at the World Juniors. The countries faced off in the quarterfinals last year with Canada winning 3-0.
"We're prepared for a tough game," Cameron said. "This Czech team is a formidable team. I think they got 10 players playing over here in North America and doing quite well in the CHL so we're not worried about over confidence. We addressed that."
"He was talking about how it wasn't going to be an easy game," said Seeley. "We can't underestimate this team and we have to be ready physically and mentally."
At one point on Saturday, Cameron stopped practice to remind the players not to get bogged down in East-West play.
"You can't play fast unless you go North and we want to be a fast team," the coach said.
On paper, at least, Canada seems to have an easy path to start the preliminary round with games against Germany and Austria to follow the opener against Czechia.
"There's a big difference between confidence and cockiness," Perfetti said. "You have to find that fine line ... It's hard, but championship teams figure it out early."
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After being drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in July, Phoenix native Matthew Knies received a text message from Auston Matthews.
"He's a huge influence on me and a guy I looked up to coming from Arizona," Knies said. "So, that was pretty shocking. I didn't know how to respond to him. I was kind of asking around about what I should say back so that was definitely a nerve-wracking text."
Knies skated in the same group as Matthews at times when he was growing up.
"I got to chat with him before so I got to know him a little bit," Knies said. "He started the text with, 'Papi,' knowing that I'd understand his nickname so that was pretty cool and made it a little easier to text him back and kind of go back and forth on how he's been and how the summer's gone."
The pair haven't texted since.
"Maybe if we go far in this tournament, I'll get lucky and get another one," Knies said with a smile.
The University of Minnesota freshman seems primed for a big World Juniors.
"I'm going to bring that power forward game: strength, size and speed," the 19-year-old said. "Bring a lot of strength on the left wing and be able to drive the puck deep and play below the goal line and score those greasy goals. That's what I'm really good at is playing within five feet of the net. I'm just happy to do that and be around there and score those big goals in big moments."
Knies has posted seven goals and nine assists in 18 games this season. The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder is getting plenty of positive feedback from the Leafs, who picked him in the second round (57th overall).
"They like how I'm playing with my size," he said. "I'm a bigger, stronger player so they like me to use my physicality and take it to the net so that's the type of thing I've been looking to do. That's the kind of thing they want to see in my game and that's what I've been trying to do."
Knies has been skating on Team USA's second line alongside draft-eligible centre Logan Cooley.
"He's a shifty little kid," Knies said of the U.S. National Development Team product. "He's probably the most skilled player I've seen on skates in a very, very long time. He's really dangerous with the puck. He makes plays that make you kind of stand in awe. He's a wonderful player to play with ... I bring a lot of physicality and strength to the game and with his skill I think it's a dangerous combination. I've really enjoyed playing with him."
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Lines at Saturday's practice:
Perfetti - Wright - Bourgault
Johnson - McTavish - Bourque
Neighbours - Greig - Sourdif
Cuylle - Desnoyers - Guenther
Stankoven - Bedard
Power - Seeley
Guhle - Cormier
Zellweger - Sebrango
O'Rourke - Lambos
Garand
Cossa
Brochu
Power play units at Saturday's practice:
QB: Power
Flanks: Johnson, Perfetti
Middle: Bourque
Net front: McTavish
QB: Zellweger
Flanks: Cormier, Wright
Middle: Bedard / Guenther
Net front: Neighbours