By Lethbridge Herald on July 23, 2021.
Lethbridge’s Ridly Greig is heading to his second Junior Selection Camp for Team Canada.
The forward for the Brandon Wheat Kings and first-round draft pick of the Ottawa Senators last October was one of 51 players have been invited to attend Canada’s National Junior Team summer development camp July 28-Aug. 4 at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex on the Tsuut’ina Nation near Calgary.
Five goaltenders, 16 defencemen and 30 forwards will be part of the eight-day camp, participating in a variety of on- and off-ice sessions.
The camp will also feature combined practices and intrasquad games with players attending Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team summer development camp on Aug. 2-3.
“This is an exciting first step as we begin preparations for the upcoming season and the opportunity to compete at the World Juniors on home ice,” said Alan Millar director of player personnel for the Program of Excellence in a release. “We are excited about these 51 players, and we look forward to returning to the ice for a highly competitive camp to kick off a new season.”
The roster includes five players who won a silver medal at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Of the 51 players invited, 28 were selected in the 2020 NHL Draft and 22 hope to have their names called at the 2021 NHL draft today. One is eligible in 2022.
Another Lethbridge product will return to Team Canada this year as former Lethbridge Hurricanes head coach and current Vancouver Giants coach Mike Dyck returns as an assistant coach.
Dyck most recently won a gold medal as an assistant coach at the 2021 IIHF World Championship, silver as an assistant at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship and silver as head coach of Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team at the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
He was also head coach of Team Pacific at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in 2010 and 2012, won a silver medal with Canada at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games and coached Alberta to silver at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
In the shortened 2021 Western Hockey League season, Greig, who will turn 19 Aug. 8, had 10 goals and 32 points with Brandon in 21 games, good for second in team scoring.
He rounded out the season with the Senators’ Belleville Senators farm team of the American Hockey League, scoring one goal and three points in seven games.
Greig had a short stint at Canada’s selection camp last year in Red Deer, but tested positive for COVID-19 Nov. 8, forcing him into a 14-day quarantine. He returned to the team Nov. 22 before being sent home.
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