Two Newfoundland junior hockey players will be attending world junior A selection camps next month.
Forward Alex Newhook of St. John’s is among 44 invitees invited to the Team Canada West training camp Dec. 3-5 at the WinSport Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, while goaltender Andrew Rose of Conception Bay South is set be one of 40 Team Canada East hopefuls gathering at the MasterCard Centre in Etobicoke, Ont., Dec. 2-4.
The 2018 World Junior A Challenge runs Dec. 9-16 in Bonnyville, Alta., with Canada East and Canada West taking on the United States, Russia and the Czech Republic.
Newhook, who toils for the Victoria Grizzlies, leads the British Columbia Hockey League in scoring with 16 goals and 45 points in 28 games. The 17-year-old (he turns 18 in January), who is the Grizzlies’ captain, is committed to attending Boston College beginning next season and is widely touted as a potential top 10 pick in the 2019 National Hockey League Entry Draft.
Newhook attended the Team Canada West selection camp last season, but didn’t make the cut. He did, however, compete with Canada’s Team Black at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Rose, 18, is a goalie for the Grand Falls, N.B., Rapids of the Maritime Junior Hockey League, whose coach is former NHLer Sandy McCarthy. The former St. John’s Maple Leafs’ major midget suited up for the Woodstock Slammers in 2017-18. The Slammers relocated to Grand Falls earlier this year.
Rose is 5-8 this season with a 3.82 goals against average and .887 save percentage. Earlier this fall, he also was part of the Maritime league’s Team North at the Eastern Canadian All-Star Challenge, an event featuring entries from junior A leagues in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.
Goalie Zach Rose of Paradise, Newhook’s teammate on the Grizzlies, backstopped Canada West to the 2017 World Junior A Challenge championship, winning all-star goalie and MVP honours along the way.
Those awards helped him land a scholarship to Ohio’s Bowling Green University starting next season.
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