It’s not exactly hockey weather but the tryout camps never cease in the ice sport. Three high-level camps were announced by Hockey Canada on Tuesday with two Victoria Royals, Cole Reschny and Keaton Verhoeff, and former Victoria Grizzlies forward Matthew Wood from Nanaimo receiving invitations.
The most prestigious of the invitations goes to Nashville Predators prospect Wood, the 15th overall selection in the first round of the 2023 NHL draft, who will skate among the 42 players — four goaltenders, 13 defencemen, 25 forwards — in the Canadian camp July 28 to Aug. 3 in Windsor, Ont., to identify talent for the 2025 world junior championship beginning Boxing Day in Ottawa.
Wood, a power forward, played for Canada at the 2024 world juniors and is pretty much a lock to make the team for the 2025 world junior tournament. The former B.C. Hockey League standout is transferring next season to the Big Ten University of Minnesota Golden Gophers from the UConn Huskies. A total of 38 players in the Canadian junior camp are NHL draft picks, including Wood as among the 17 first-rounders from either 2023 or 2024. The others include the likes of Berkly Catton (Spokane Chiefs), Tij Iginla (Kelowna Rockets), Brayden Yager (Moose Jaw Warriors), Zayne Parekh (Saginaw Spirit) and Sam Dickinson (London Knights).
Meanwhile, forward Reschny and blue-liner Verhoeff are considered the cornerstones of the Royals’ future in the Western Hockey League. Reschny was taken third overall in the first round of the 2022 WHL prospects draft and Verhoeff fourth overall in the 2023 WHL draft, among the perks of the Royals’ losing campaigns previous to those drafts, in what is the cyclical nature of major-junior hockey.
Reschny is among 41 players — four goaltenders, 12 defencemen and 25 forwards — to receive invites to the Canada camp from July 27-30 in Calgary for the U-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup to be played Aug. 5-10 in Edmonton. Reschny, who already has Canada experience from last year in the world U-17s, was fifth in WHL rookie scoring last season with 21 goals and 38 assists for 59 points in 61 games.
The six-foot-three, 201-pound Verhoeff, now 16 and who showed composure and maturity well beyond his age as a call-up for 12 games last season for the Royals, is among 80 players — eight goalkeepers, 24 blue-liners, 48 forwards — invited to the national U-17 camp beginning Thursday in Oakville, Ont. They are preparing for the 2024 U-17 World Challenge from Nov. 1-9 in Sarnia, Ont.
Like Wood and Reschny, Verhoeff also has previous international experience and represented Canada in the 2024 Youth Winter Olympics in Gangwon, South Korea.
“We are thrilled for the opportunity [to] gain valuable insights into the development of our up-and-coming athletes,” Hockey Canada senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations Scott Salmond said in a statement.
“The athletes will gain experience in the operations of our program ahead of the 2024 U17 World Challenge, the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the highly anticipated 2025 IIHF World junior championship in Ottawa.”
