AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Will greed cost Canada another gold medal at the World Juniors?

One of the great Christmas traditions in Canadian sport is the World Junior Hockey championships that kick off on every year on Boxing Day.

Unfortunately, the last couple of tournaments have not gone well for Team Canada and their fans from coast to coast to coast. Twice in a row, Team Canada lost in the quarter-finals and finished out of the medals.

It’s super frustrating because if greedy NHL teams weren’t so selfish, Canada would be able to ice juggernaut teams.

In this year’s version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas the title role will once again be played by all the NHL teams that will not release their junior-aged players to play in the World Junior Hockey Championships.

There is no explanation here other than pure greed.

The idea that NHL teams don’t want their junior-aged players to get hurt or that they can’t afford the insurance is complete and utter bunk.

Somehow NHL teams can release their superstars for three weeks for the Olympics. Somehow those NHL teams letting players participate in the winter games can find the insurance money to protect their star players. And yet somehow there are NHL teams that refuse to let their junior-aged players to play for Canada.

It’s not right.

Can someone please explain how NHL teams can risk losing Nathan McKinnon, Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby to injury but they can’t release junior-aged players?

Last year, if Team Canada would have included Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, we would have been a runaway gold medal favourite. The main reason for Team Canada’s disappointing finish in Ottawa last year is because the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks didn’t release two of the best junior-aged players in the world.

Shame on them.

What is both sad and frustrating is that those greedy NHL teams are so consumed about protecting their investment that they fail to realize that letting their players play in the World Juniors could make their players better.

They have an opportunity to have their players come back to the NHL with an entirely new level of confidence that comes from competing for a gold medal. Yet they selfishly won’t let their players have a once in a lifetime experience of representing their country.

This year’s World Juniors are hosted by the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. In any normal year, there would be thousands of Manitoban hockey fans driving down to watch Team Canada, but this is not a normal year, not with a deranged U.S. president harming Canada with punishing tariffs, threats of annexation, and hoping to take control of our abundant natural resources.

Many Canadians and Manitobans are nobly boycotting the U.S. and refusing to spend a plug nickel in a country that’s treating us so poorly. (Hence the phrase “Buy Canada; bye America.”) But the World Junior tournament is a huge draw. It will be fascinating to see if Manitobans continue with their principled boycott of all things American, or if they decide to hold their nose for a couple of weeks and cheer on Team Canada in person in Minnesota.

Besides not giving their players a chance to become better hockey players, the NHL teams playing the role of Grinch this year are also giving Canada a huge slap in the face. They are denying their players the chance to pay back their country that taught them how to play hockey.

We train and develop these junior stars but don’t get to see them represent Canada.

It’s a crying shame.

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Whatever jingles your bells as you and your family celebrate this special time of the year – whether it’s Christmas, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or Chinese New Year – may your holidays be filled with joy, laughter and happiness.

Best of the season to one and all!