Hunt, 18, was one of 46 players named to the National Junior Team Sport Chek Selection camp on Thursday, with players from throughout the Canadian Hockey League and NCAA descending on Red Deer on Nov. 16 for the nearly month-long event. The camp — which will take place in a cohort bubble similar to that seen in the recently completed NHL season — will wrap up Dec. 13, when the team will move into the Edmonton bubble for the 2021 World Junior Hockey Championship beginning Dec. 25.
“It means the world to me,” Hunt told Warriors director of hockey administration James Gallo in a Zoom interview posted to the team’s website. “For me, wearing the Canadian jersey doesn’t get better than that. Now it’s time to go to camp and do everything in my ability to make this team and make this roster and get the best out of everything.”
Even with his pedigree of having played for Team Canada at every age group through his career, on top of being selected by the Minnesota Wild in the NHL draft a month ago, Hunt is under no illusion that his selection to the team is a foregone conclusion.
“It’s really hard,” he said. “Everyone is the best of the best, you could make three Canadian World Junior teams and they could all win gold. So I think it’s a matter of playing my game, and when I play my game, that’s what’s got me this far in my career.
“Everyone has skill at this camp, so being able to stand out is hard, but at the same time they’re watching the little things and if I do the little things right, of course I’ll get noticed. If you do everything right, then you have a good shot of making this hockey club.”
Moose Jaw Warriors general manager Alan Millar is also the U20 lead for the Program of Excellence Management Group. He feels Hunt has the same chance of cracking Team Canada’s roster as the rest of the crew even though he enters the event as an 18-year-old.
“They talk about the World Juniors as a 19-year-old tournament and we have a strong group of 19-year-olds, we have some really good 18-year-olds in the mix that Daemon is a part of,” Millar said. “At the end of the day he has an opportunity just like the other 46 guys to show what he can do and see where he falls when we finalize the roster.
“Daemon has done well in the Program of Excellence, he was very good in New Brunswick during the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, he played in the Under-18 World Championships as underage and he was a real important player for us at the Hlinka Gretzky last summer. With the exception of the bump in the road with the significant injury this past year, he’s on a real good trajectory with his upside and being a really good player and being a pro and all those things.”
Of course, there’s the aforementioned unusual aspect of the proceedings due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Everything from the selection camp to the tournament itself will be conducted in a bubble, closed to fans and media. That will take some getting used to, but Hunt doesn’t expect it to be a problem.
“It’s interesting,” he said. “Going into the bubble, you’re going to be living with these guys for the next month or two. It’s interesting, and it’s exciting. I know most of the guys, I’ve played with them or against them and every day with these camps, I find my game gets better and better. The more comfortable you get, the way the hockey is, the way the people are and the way everything goes. It’s just going to be interesting to be in a bubble with everyone and be a part of this.”
Hunt was recently loaned to the Virden Oil Capitals of the MJHL and will play four games for the Junior A squad beginning this weekend before reporting to camp.
Players will take the ice in three intrasquad games and six games against a team of USports all-stars between Nov. 28 and Dec. 13 before the team travels to Edmonton.
Canada plays it’s first game of the 2021 World Junior Championship on Dec. 26 against Germany.
