CALGARY — Canada's junior hockey team is getting another big boost from the NHL.
Hockey Canada says the Seattle Kraken have loaned forward Shane Wright to the team before the start of its selection camp in Moncton, N.B., for the upcoming world junior championship.
The Arizona Coyotes are also making forward Dylan Guenther available.
The Kraken picked Wright fourth overall in the 2022 NHL draft.
He recently returned from a conditioning stint in the American Hockey League and scored his first NHL goal on Tuesday against visiting Montreal.
Wright, 18, was on Canada's team at the 2022 world junior championship that was postponed due to an outbreak of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. He did not play in August's rescheduled tournament in Edmonton.
He helped Canada win gold at the 2021 under-18 championship and finished the tournament tied with teammate Connor Bedard for second in scoring with 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in seven games.
The 19-year-old Guenther, the ninth-overall pick in the 2021 draft, has registered three goals and eight assists in 21 games with the Coyotes this season.Â
He currently ranks sixth on the team in scoring and is tied for the rookie lead in power-play goals with three.
Like Wright, Guenther played two games at the 2022 world championship before it was postponed and did not suit up in the summer replacement tournament.
The additions of Wright and Guenther to Canada's selection camp roster come a day after the Los Angeles Kings loaned defenceman Brandt Clarke, another key member of the 2021 U18 squad, to the junior team.
Canada kicks off its selection camp for the 2023 world junior team Friday in Moncton.
The world junior championship starts Dec. 26 in Moncton and Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2022.
The Canadian Press
