Couple of Herd to Represent Canada

Photo - RDS.ca

Hockey Canada has announced it's 22-man roster that will represent the country at the upcoming Ivan Hlinka tournament. Two Halifax Mooseheads players were among the young men to be given a spot on the U18 team.

Sophomores Xavier Parent and Justin Barron will wear the red and white starting on August 6 in Red Deer and Edmonton. The association made the announcement today after twice the amount of players participated in a selection camp in Calgary the past week which included on- and off-ice sessions as well as 3 intrasquad games. The tournament has generally been held in the Czech Republic so this is the first time it has been hosted in Canada and it is now called the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

This is not the first time that Parent and Barron have worn the maple leaf as they both played in the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge in November for Team Canada Red. 17 year old Xavier had a pretty good showing during the tournament, scoring 4 goals and adding 3 helpers in 6 games played while defenseman Justin had an assist.

Barron, 16, had 19 assists and 21 points in 51 games played during the regular season for the Mooseheads in his rookie campaign this past season. The Halifax, NS native is not eligible for the NHL draft until 2020. Parent on the other hand is heading into his draft year so the Blainville, QC native will be looking to have a better campaign this season than 13 goals and 29 points in 63 games he had during 2017-18.

The two Herd sophomores are joined by 4 other QMJHL players; Alexis Lafreniere (RIM), Samuel Poulin (SHE), Maxence Guenette (VDO) and Jakub Pelletier (MON).

Congrats Xavier and Justin on making the team and good luck boys. You can watch Team Canada take on Team Switzerland on Monday at 7:00pm MT on TSN Sports.


Prospect Marcel Barinka was named to the Czech Republic roster and will look to help his country get revenge on the Canadians after last year's disappointing loss to the red and white in the gold medal game. Barinka was drafted in the 2018 CHL Import Draft back in late June 106th overall. The 17 year old had 31 goals and 65 points with RB Hockey Akademie last season in 39 games.