Montreal Canadiens: Owen Beck Added To Team Canada
The Montreal Canadiens have witnessed some impressive tournaments from their prospects at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Halifax and Moncton.
The tournament shifts from preliminary round play to the knockout stages tomorrow as the four quarterfinals will be played.
There are five Canadiens prospects who will be playing in do-or-die games tomorrow after solid performances in the early portion of the event. Joshua Roy of Canada, Oliver Kapanen of Finland, Adam Engstrom of Sweden, Filip Mesar of Slovakia and Lane Hutson of the United States will all be leaned on heavily by their respective countries.
While the only other Canadiens prospect, Vinzenz Rohrer, was eliminated from medal contention as Austria will play in the relegation round, there is suddenly a 6th member of the Canadiens organization competing for a medal.
Owen Beck was added to Team Canada as an injury replacement. The second round pick from the 2022 NHL Draft was a final cut from the team after its training camp, but he will be in the lineup when Canada takes on Slovakia in tomorrow’s quarterfinal.
Colton Dach, younger brother of Canadiens forward Kirby, was injured in the team’s win over Sweden on New Year’s Eve. Since he is out for the remainder of the event, Canada was allowed to replace him on the roster with a player of its choice.
They made the wise decision to bring in Beck for the knockout stages.
Beck is an 18 year old centre who has scored 40 points in 30 games for the Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL. Beck also wins 58.9% of the faceoffs he takes, which is among the very best in the league.
It will be difficult for Beck to carve out a big role as he steps into the lineup just in time for a tough quarterfinal matchup with Slovakia. He will almost certainly start the game as the team’s 13th forward, but could be asked to take faceoffs with the fourth line and could earn himself the role as a key faceoff guy in big situations for the rest of the tournament since that is a huge strength of his.
Whether Beck plays a big role or not, there are now six Canadiens prospects vying for medals in the World Juniors in the coming days.
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