Montreal Canadiens Prospect Blake Biondi On USA World Junior Preliminary Roster

Montreal Canadiens prospect Blake Biondi was a bit of an unknown when he was drafted. However, he proved to be a key piece on a terrific Minnesota-Duluth team this season.

Biondi was drafted by the Canadiens in the 4th round of the 2020 NHL Draft. He had piled up offensive numbers the previous season, but he was playing high school hockey in Minnesota so you would expect an NHL pick to have ridiculous numbers.

He sure did, with 37 goals and 76 points in just 25 games, but what does three points per game in a high school hockey league mean? He played ten games against USHL competition that season and had only three points, which was a bit of a red flag.

But the previous management regime took a shot on Biondi and two years later, it looks like a worthy gamble. He played a fourth line role for a deep Minnesota-Duluth squad in 2020-21, and scored just five points in 26 games. As a sophomore, he took a huge step forward and scored 17 goals and 28 points in 42 games for another national contending team.

Biondi just turned 20 in April, but was just invited to the USA World Junior preliminary roster for the 2022 summer World Juniors. The World Juniors were initially supposed to be played in December and January like usual, but they were canceled after a couple days due to pandemic concerns.

They will begin the event again from scratch on August 9th. While Biondi is on the preliminary roster, it is a lengthy one. There are 60 players on the list that will attend the camp in Plymouth, Michigan from July 24th – August 3rd.

It is sort of a combination camp for the 2022 summer tournament and the 2023 team that will play in December and January. As such, it is kind of a young looking roster filled with top prospects for the upcoming 2022 NHL Draft.

There are 35 forwards in attendance and only 14 will be on the roster for the 2022 tournament. Biondi remains a long shot to make the team, but just being on the camp roster shows he was worthy of that gamble that many questioned two years ago.

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