As confirmed by both the Leafs and Hockey Canada on Friday, Mitchell Marner has been officially added to the Team Canada roster for the 2017 World Championships.
Hockey Canada has added @MapleLeafs forward Mitch Marner to its roster competing at the 2017 IIHF World Championship. #TMLtalk
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) April 28, 2017
Per Hockey Canada, this is Mitch’s third international tournament, following the 2014 Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament and the 2016 World Juniors. From the roster on their site, it seems he’ll be sticking with the number 16 he wears with the Leafs.
Team Canada hit the ice in Geneva for their first practice yesterday and TSN’s Laura Diakun got a few of them on camera to talk about the experience of being at Worlds.
Marner had this to say about the experience in general:
“It’s going to be a lot of fun here the next few weeks. I think our team really has a lot of speed and skill - it’s going to be a lot of fun to get out there and start playing. I think we’re all here to get out there and it’s just going to be a great tournament.”
And regarding what it’s like playing with the veterans on Team Canada:
It’s definitely pretty cool. You know, obviously you watch these guys on tv, and the playoffs in recent years and now you get to play alongside of them and get to meet them. So it’s definitely pretty cool. Like I said, it’s definitely going to be a great experience here, a lot of fun to playing with these guys, and we’re all looking forward to the next couple of weeks.
Catch the full video, including some footage of practice, over at TSN.
Canada’s only pre-tournament game will be against Switzerland in Geneva on Tuesday May 2 at 1:30 pm EST.
Round robin competition begins on Friday May 5. Canada will play their first game in Paris against the Czech Republic at 2:15pm EST, available on TSN.
