There have been varying opinions on Dawson Mercer’s chances to survive the cutdown at Hockey Canada’s selection camp for its 2020 world junior championship team.
Dobber Hockey, a long-established online site, looked at the seven draft-eligible players prior to the camp and pegged their odds of making this year’s team. They suggested Mercer, an 18-year-old from Bay Roberts, as having a one-in-four chance.
Last week, also on the eve of the camp, another online site, The Hockey Writers, predicted Mercer wouldn’t make the final cut, although it felt the other Newfoundlander taking part in the selection process, St. John’s native, Boston College freshmen and Colorado Avalanche first-rounder Alex Newhook, would be one of the 13 forwards on the roster.
But on Tuesday, two days into the camp in Oakville, Ont., Sportsnet’s Sam Cosentino posted an online notebook where he said, “Mercer looks to be in serious consideration for a final roster spot.”
Cosentino pointed out Canadian head coach Dale Hunter has had Mercer skating on a line with one of the more high-profile in players in camp, London Knights left-winger and Washington Capitals first-round pick Connor McMichael, the leading scorer in the Ontario Hockey League.
However, Mercer also found himself lined up with Newhook Wednesday night in Oakville, where the junior team downed a team of Canadian university all-stars 4-3, with Mercer getting one of his team’s goals on a set-up from his fellow Newfoundlander.
In his notebook, Cosentino highlighted the fact that Mercer, in his third season with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Drummondville Voltigeurs, is also only one of three right-shot forwards in camp who are not slotted as centres (Newhook is a left shot).
You can be sure that no matter who says what about his chances, Mercer himself won’t lose his even keel — in either direction — or have his confidence shaken.
It was also that way when he was left off the list for the world junior team’s summer development camp.
“No, really, I didn’t let it affect me at all,” Mercer told The Telegram. “Of course, it would have been a nice experience to go to (the development camp), but I still knew where I stood and what I could do.
“I felt like I still had a good chance to get my name on the list (for this week’s selection camp) as long I made sure I played consistently and showed that I was versatile.”
That he did, topping things off with a standout performance as part of a QMJHL all-star team that played a Russian touring side for two games in last month’s CIBC Canada-Russia series.
Newhook and Mercer are among 17 forwards and 31 players who were invited to this week’s camp. Those numbers don’t include forward Joseph Veleno, Mercer’s former teammate in Drummondville, who has been playing in the AHL for the Detroit Red Wings’ fam team in Grand Rapids. Veleno was released for the world juniors by the Wings, but isn’t participating in the selection camp.
Hunter and the rest of the team’s coaching and management group will have to pare down to a 23-player roster for the upcoming world championship in the Czech Republic, where Canada will open its preliminary schedule on Boxing Day against the United States.
A few roster choices — Veleno’s inclusion, for example — have almost certainly been made already, but the majority of the decisions won’t be come until the juniors complete the two-game exhibition series against the U Sports all-stars, whose lineup includes St. John’s native and UNB centre Tyler Boland.
Boland had an assist Wednesday.
The second game of the series is this afternoon at Oakville.
Twitter: @telybrendan
