Goaltender Dylan Garand of Langford, former Victoria Grizzlies captain Alex Newhook and Victoria Royals forward Keanu Derungs are the latest in a line of players with Island ties to dress in the world junior hockey championship.
But it鈥檚 a safe bet none of Jamie Benn, Tyson Barrie, Joe Hicketts, Mel Bridgman, Matt Pettinger or Mark Morrison experienced anything close to a world junior tournament like Canadian players Newhook and Garand and Switzerland鈥檚 Derungs are undergoing amid a pandemic bubble in Edmonton.
The tradition of Island players at the world junior championship began when future NHL players Bridgman of Victoria and the late Rick Lapointe of Esquimalt, both at the time with the Victoria Cougars of the WHL, captured silver with sa国际传媒 in 1975 when the tournament was little noticed or followed.
Canadian interest in the event grew because of an incident in the 1982 tournament in a rickety little rink in Rochester, Minnesota. When the tape machine jammed, the 颅gold-medallist Canadian players filled the awkward silence with an impromptu rendition of O sa国际传媒 that captured the hearts of Canadians. Victoria鈥檚 offensively dynamic Mighty Mouse, Morrison, and the late and under-rated Paul Cyr of Port Alberni, both out of the Victoria Cougars, were part of that championship team. Morrison, as Canadian captain, and Cyr were also part of the 1983 bronze-medallist Canadian squad at Leningrad.
A highlight was Benn playing a pivotal role in sa国际传媒 winning world junior gold in 2009 in Ottawa. The Central Saanich product, captain of the Dallas Stars, continued his international career with gold at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
But not even Benn can match fellow Islander Kent Manderville鈥檚 achievement of two world junior championship gold medals. The former NHL forward from Victoria won back-to-back world junior golds in 1990 and 1991 before becoming an Olympic silver medallist in 1992 at Albertville.
The Victoria Royals鈥� undersized but highly-mobile defenceman Hicketts helped provide a gold-medal moment for sa国际传媒 at the 2015 world junior championship in Toronto with Royals mentor Dave Lowry the assistant coach. It didn鈥檛 go so well the following year in Helsinki, with Hicketts again on the blueline and Lowry stepping up as head coach, in a sixth-place Canadian finish.
Current veteran NHL blueliner Barrie, out of the Juan de Fuca Minor Hockey Association, and his Canadian mates let gold slip away in 2011 at Buffalo when Russia rallied from a 3-0 third-period deficit in the final. Also on that Canadian team was Port Hardy-raised, Campbell River native Brett Connolly.
Former NHL and German DEL forward Pettinger of Victoria led sa国际传媒 to the bronze medal at the 2000 world juniors in Sweden.
Feisty former Victoria Cougars forwards Curt Fraser and the late Gary Lupul won silver medals in the 1978 and 1979 world juniors, respectively.
Non-medallist Islanders who represented sa国际传媒 were a starry bunch, too, despite missing the podium.
Stanley Cup-winning captain Rod Brind鈥橝mour of Campbell River and former NHL dynamo forward Russ Courtnall of Victoria respectively played in the world juniors in 1984 in Sweden and 1989 in Anchorage, Alaska.
Both continued internationally for sa国际传媒 with fourth-place finishes in the Winter Olympics, Courtnall at Sarajevo in 1984 and Brind鈥橝mour at Nagano in 1998.
Derungs is the fourth Royals player to perform in the world juniors following Hicketts, current Victoria captain and two-time Danish team skater Phillip Schultz, including in 2019 when the tournament was co-hosted by Vancouver and Victoria, and forward Igor Martynov of Belarus in 2018.
