Blazers Logan Stankoven and Dylan Garand are members of the 2022 Canadian world junior team (Image Credit: Hockey Canada)

By Chad Klassen

WORLD JUNIOR TEAM

Stankoven willing to play any role after ‘shocker’ making the world junior team

Dec 17, 2021 | 8:54 AM

KAMLOOPS — Logan Stankoven has been soaking up his Canadian world junior experience alongside teammate Dylan Garand. Stankoven was pleasantly surprised to make the team, going into the selection camp with some uncertainty.

“It was just pure joy and excitement,” said the 18-year-old from Kamloops from the hotel in Banff. “It was a little bit of a shocker to me. Obviously I wanted to come to the camp and do as well as possible, but for me it was going to the camp, getting experience. I wasn’t really slotted on the roster to make the team.”

Like he’s done throughout his hockey career — overcoming the odds with his size — Stankoven impressed the coaching staff in Calgary and earned his way to the biggest stage in junior hockey.

He didn’t play Saturday night against USPORTS while under COVID protocol, but he took advantage of an exhibition appearance on Sunday.

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“That was my one game and my one shot to showcase what I had, so I took that game, just as important as any other game, and it definitely probably a make-it-or-break-it type situation for me,” he said. “I wanted to go out there and make sure I left a good impression with the coaches and the coaching staff.”

He doesn’t know where he fits in the line-up, but he says he’s willing to do anything.

“I don’t really expect much personally. I’d be happy to just sit in the stands and cheer on my teammates at the tournament, and like you said even being a stick boy would just be cool, filling the water bottles. I don’t really care. I don’t have any expectations,” said Stankoven. “But when I do get that chance to go on the ice, I’m going to leave it all out there.”

In addition to Garand, Stankoven has other familiar faces on the team. There are five players on the world junior team that helped Canada win the U18 world hockey championships in the spring.

Gold is always the goal for any Canadian team, but winning the ultimate junior tournament would be special for Stankoven.

“Oh it would be awesome. It’s a dream of mine,” he said. “Every kid dreams of playing in the world juniors. For me, I grew up watching the world juniors around Christmas time. It’s a hockey tradition for a lot of families. I’ve watched so many great gold medal games go down between Canada and the United States or Russia and Sweden.”

He added, “Right now, I’m not really focused on getting to the gold-medal game. We’ve got lots of games coming up in the round robin and we’ve got to focus on those first, but to think of the end-goal being a gold medal and bringing that back to Kamloops would be pretty amazing.”