Hockey Canada officially releases roster for upcoming World Junior Championships

Hockey Canada released its official roster for the upcoming World Junior Championships earlier today and, as you might have guessed, it features some serious star power.

Here's the full roster:

Canada features a bevy of high powered offensive players and looks poised for a gold medal repeat this holiday season.

Obviously Bedard is the standout player on this roster and all eyes will be on him for the duration of the tournament. The kid is just 18 years old and the World Junior Championships is traditionally a tournament dominated by 19 year olds, but Bedard will be Canada's top player even if he'll be one of the team's younger players. But, this has been the case for Bedard his entire life and will be nothing new for him. Something tells me that he'll be up for the challenge.

Beyond him there's offensive minded forwards like Adam Fantili, Logan Stankoven and Brennan Othman. No doubt that 4th overall pick Shhane Wright of the Seattle Kraken will be a big part of this team's offense, as well. There should be no shortage of players who can put the puck in the net on this version of Team Canada. I'd imagine that Bedard, Wright, Stankoven and Fantilli will all play center with Owen Beck, Zach Dean, Nathhan Gaucher and Riley Kidney will all compete for prime time on the wing. On defense team Canada will likely count on the likes of Kevin Korchinski, Olen Zellweger, Ethan Del Mastro and Carson Lambos to do the heavy lifting along with Los Angeles Kings blueliner Brandt Clarke.

In goal is where the question marks really are with this team. The two favorites for the #1 role go to Benjamin Gaudreau and Thomas Milic, two goalies who have experience wearing the red maple leaf on their chests. Gaudreau appears to have the inside track, but nothing has been decided by any means.

The biggest "snub" from this selection roster is obviously Logan Mailloux. The London Knights offensive defenseman made headlines for all the wrong reasons last year, but has worked hard to improve his reputation since being reinstated by the OHL in early 2022. Take all of the off-ice baggage away from Mailloux though and I'm still not sure if he cracks this roster on his on-ice merits alone.