Over to you, Hockey Canada.
Red Deer Rebels defenceman Alex Petrovic is currently performing at a personal-best level, a fact that was enhanced by the WHL player-of-the-week accolades that came his way Monday.
And he put forth an impressive, steady-as-she-goes effort for Team WHL in Wednesday’s 5-2 Subway Super Series win over Team Russia at Regina, finishing with a plus/minus ranking of plus-2.
Now, the big question? Will be receive an invitation to the Canadian national junior team selection camp next month in Calgary? It certainly appears that Petrovic has done his part in convincing the Canadian coaching staff that he deserves a serious look.
“I was surprised that he wasn’t invited last year. Whether he could play on the team or not, who knows, but I certainly thought he should have been invited to the selection camp,” Rebels GM/head coach Jesse Wallin said Thursday.
If that snub stumped Wallin, the Rebels bench boss was truly puzzled when Petrovic — coming off a WHL Eastern Conference all-star season — was excluded from the national junior team’s summer development camp.
“I was really disappointed that he wasn’t invited this summer. Obviously I’m biased, being his coach, but I think he’s a heck of a player and he fits into that group of elite guys,” said Wallin.
“He’s done everything to put himself on the map, on the radar. He’s good at both ends of the rink and he’s done the things that you would expect a 19-year-old defenceman of his calibre to do. As long as he continues that way I’d be shocked if he didn’t get an invite to the (selection) camp, for sure.”
Petrovic appeared in his second Super Series — a measuring stick of sorts for potential national junior team players — game Wednesday, while Rebel teammates Mathew Dumba and Adam Kambeitz competed in their first.
“From last year I thought the pace this year kind of slowed down a bit, and that’s just from being older, stronger and more experienced,” said Petrovic. “I thought I played a lot better this year, I was more stable back there. I didn’t really get beat one-on-one or outmuscled or get beat wide. I thought I played really well.”
But did he do enough to keep the national junior scouts interested in keeping close tabs on him over the next few weeks?
“My confidence is up there right now. My agent has been talking to me about Hockey Canada and they’ve been looking at me,” said Petrovic, who sits third in team scoring with 20 points (2g,18a) in 20 games and is a plus-11 player. “As long as I just keep doing well then hopefully that will raise my chances to be invited to the selection camp.”
While Petrovic played with energy and poise Wednesday, Wallin was also impressed with Dumba and Kambeitz.
“I thought they all acquitted themselves well,” said Wallin. “Matty, for a young guy in a situation like that . . . he handled himself well and looked comfortable. And Kamby played his game. He played wing quite a bit, which is not his normal position, so that was a bit of change for him. But I thought he was fine, that he was effective.
“All three of them looked good.”
Dumba, who at 17 might be considered too young to be a viable candidate for the national team this year, delivered one of his highlight-reel, open-ice hits, spilling Russian forward Emil Galimov in the opening period.
“The Russian guy was flying down the wing and he had his head down I think the whole way. He cut in and I got a good piece of him,” said Dumba, who’s projected as a definite top-10 pick for next year’s NHL entry draft.
“Overall, it was an awesome experience, a lot of fun. I met a lot of new, pretty good guys there. It was a good time.”
Did he help himself in his quest to earn an invitation to the selection camp?
“Maybe. I don’t know if I played the best game that I wanted to, but you never know,” said Dumba, who was a minus-2 for the evening while paired with Colorado Avalanche prospect Duncan Siemens.
“I hope I did. I went out and worked hard and competed as hard as I could. Hopefully the coaches saw that and hopefully they will continue to watch me down the road and I can prove to them that I deserve to be there.”
Kambeitz, a long-shot at best in terms of being considered as a potential national junior team member, was amazed by the level of speed displayed by the Russian squad.
“The Russians are really a good skating team. One of the big things that I noticed was how quick they will blow right by you, how they’ll blow your doors off if you’re caught off guard,” said the Rebels captain. “So you have to be ready for that.”
Kambeitz, minus-1 for the game, skated on a line with Josh Nicholls of the Saskatoon Blades and Colin Smith of the Kamloops Blazers.
“We played kind of that gritty style, cycling the puck down low, which kind of fit into my game nicely,” said the fourth-year Rebel.
“The experience was everything I expected and more. I haven’t played with top-end players like that before and to meet those guys and talk to them and see the skill level there was pretty incredible.”
A realist, Kambeitz doesn’t expect to be hearing from Hockey Canada.
“I wouldn’t think so. There’s a lot of great players competing in these two (Super Series) games, plus they have the two other (major junior) leagues to pick from,” he said. “I just wanted to go there and play my game and get myself noticed by (NHL) scouts.
“I’m not expecting to be on the (national junior team) radar at all, but then again you never know.”
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com