Calen Addison has huge opportunity at World Juniors showcase

Well, gang, we made it to August. Only one more summer month to go. Believe it or not, there’s actually some meaningful hockey action going on if you squint hard enough and look to Kamloops, British Canada. This week, the World Juniors showcase is going on for countries to test and self-scout what they have for the winter’s big event.

This summer, Team Canada is the group to watch for Pittsburgh Penguins fans. Recent fifth-round pick Justin Almeida and undrafted signee Jordy Bellerive were invited, but couldn’t attend due to injury, but 2018 second round pick defenseman Calen Addison is there. And not only is he there, he’s getting a really interesting audition in terms of where he’s playing on the power play:

That’s Addison up with Morgan Frost, Michael Rasmussen, and Nick Suzuki as forwards — all of whom were first round picks in 2017 and count as some of the top offensive skill in the junior ranks. Given their ages and abilities, those are some heavy guns, and chances are they’re a potential power play group for the tournament that counts. Addison in the mix here is pretty big, especially since he’s up there and 12th overall pick from this year, Noah Dobson, is not.

It’s just a summer “showcase,” but it’s still noteworthy to keep half an eye on with a lot of these games on the NHL Network. Showcase is the operative word here, and it really looks like just that for Addison.

The Team Canada “Red” split squad fell to the Team USA split “White” team 7-5 last night. Addison had zero points on the score sheet, but made some waves getting into a physical altercation at the end of the period with fellow class of 2018 draftee, Quinn Hughes.

With a strong performance in this week’s showcase, Addison could be off to a very strong draft+1 season. If he’s able to make Team Canada’s World Junior Championships squad, he’ll be the first Penguins representative of the powerful team since the days of Derrick Pouliot.

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$50,000 to Special Olympics Nova Scotia. Just Sidney Crosby doing Sidney Crosby things. Is this guy just the best, or what?

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When Evgeni Malkin came off the ice from a training session yesterday, he had a birthday cake waiting on him. Just typical Russian things.