On the whole, Victoria Royals defenceman Joe Hicketts would rather be in Portland. That鈥檚 where he would have been today, taking on the Winterhawks, if the Royals had beaten the Kamloops Blazers in the first-round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
But Sochi, Russia, isn鈥檛 a bad consolation.
Hicketts will get to scope out the 2014 Winter Olympics host city at the 2013 IIHF Under-18 world hockey championship April 18-28.
The mobile five-foot-eight blueliner, who had 24 points in his rookie WHL season with the Royals, is one of only six players born in 1996 invited to the Canadian camp which begins today in Toronto. The rest of the 21 players were born in 1995 and are a year older.
The under-agers鈥� status, however, is contingent on how many players get invited to the Canadian U-18 team from clubs eliminated in the next round of the major-junior playoffs in the WHL, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior League.
Hicketts and the other five under-agers will travel to Sochi and play in the two exhibition games, April 14 against the U.S. and April 16 against the Czech Republic, before sa国际传媒 opens Group B play against Germany, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland.
鈥淎 lot will depend on how we [under-agers] perform in the exhibition games,鈥� said Hicketts, by phone from the Toronto camp.
鈥淭hey [coaching staff headed by Don Hay of the Vancouver Giants] are definitely watching everything. The practices, both here in Toronto and when we get to Russia, are going to be huge [in determining the final roster].鈥�
Hicketts has played internationally at the U-16 and U-17 levels and is getting a handle on what to expect from the European teams.
鈥淭he Europeans can slow the pace down, and stop and regroup if they don鈥檛 like what they see in their breakout pattern, and that makes it harder on you as a defenceman,鈥� noted Hicketts, one of seven blueliners currently on the Canadian roster.
Hicketts is among seven WHL players invited to the Toronto camp. Eight are from the QMJHL and six from the OHL.
