Matthew Poitras joins Canada at the WJC!

The rookie centerman will be headed to the grand Teenager Tourney after all, as the team has sent him on his way to compete for gold!

Get ready to learn “where’s the bathroom” in Swedish, Matthew, because you’ve just won a free ticket to Gothenburg!

Yes, Matthew Poitras will in fact be going to the World Junior Championships this year, as the team announced they assigned him today:

This couldn’t have come at a better time for Team Canada, as while the typical gold favorite is still a pretty damn good squad…they’re in a unique position where they actually kind of need him.

I mean, they’re still going to medal. Nobody’s going crazy and saying something like “they’re all busts” or something like that, but this is going to be one of Canada’s weaker teams in recent memory, and a big part of why is that a vast majority of NHL teams have decided they’d rather keep their 19 year old prospects to themselves; either in junior or in the AHL; Only Anaheim and now Boston are the teams to send a prospect to the Red and White (and Black, for some reason).

The Bruins meanwhile were in a bit of a tizzy trying to figure out what exactly they wanted out of Poitras. He had a great start, and in my opinion still shows plenty of positive traits while he’s out on the ice, but now the rookie jitters have come in…and on a team that’s starved for offense and yet somehow still leading their division, they really can’t afford to both keep him around to possibly get benched, nor can they afford him to lose any of the positives he’s gaining from all his ice-time.

This was probably the best choice for him; let him play top six minutes, and heavy ones, on a team that genuinely needs him just as much as Boston does for a bit, and then come back energized to perform in the NHL after dumptrucking Austria or Finland. This also gives a number of AHLers in Providence a chance to show what they’ve got, so the Bruins can better divine a path forward for themselves.

And if nothing else, now you have an excuse to watch the World Juniors. Hah. Got you. See you at the Primer next week.

We at SCoC wish Matthew all the luck in the world in Gothenburg, and hope he comes back with gold!