Gare Joyce

Gare Joyce writes regularly on junior hockey for Sportsnet.ca. A veteran journalist, Joyce is the author of Future Greats and Heartbreaks: A Year Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts, When the Lights Went Out: How One Brawl Ended Hockey's Cold War and Changed the Game and Sidney Crosby: Taking the Game by Storm. He also writes for ESPN The Magazine, espn.com and several Canadian magazines.

Dan Cleary was cut three times at the under-20 evaluation camps, and took some time to deal with the disappointment.

Following the career paths of those named to the world juniors pales to following those who get cut.

It's that annual rite of winter, the selection of the evaluation camp roster for the Canadian team that will head to the world junior tournament over the holidays.

Next to the NHL Entry Draft, there isn't anything more pressurized in a young player's life than the cut-down days at that camp. In my experience, it is, in fact, tougher to sweat out than the tournament itself. A few very good players answer the phone in the pre-dawn and get the awful news that they aren't quite good enough -- that would be tough enough by itself but then they have to run a media gauntlet and answer a few questions addressing the worst couple of hours of their lives to that point.

I've been there for several of these and it makes me feel sick to my stomach. If they were professionals and it were a business, okay. If they were able to come back next year and give it another shot, a blow that can be shrugged off, even a motivation point. But they're not pros, it's still a game at this point and for many, maybe even most, there is no next year.

Maybe I read too much into it, but I've always wondered just how much a blow like this affects a prospect down the line. It's so big that it has to have an effect on some kids.

Back in the mid-90s Dan Cleary was a heckuva talent at 15 and 16, and if somebody told me that he'd never play at the under-20s I would have wagered significant body parts against it. But Cleary was cut three times. My memory of him walking through the lobby after one of the cuts and it looked like he didn't want anything to do with the game anymore. Yeah, top prospects have to become resilient to make it as pros but that's stuff down the line. At 18 or 19, they're getting their first real taste of defeat -- and it's a heaping dose. And one of the side effects has to be doubt, conscious or sub-conscious. Does the cut knock prospects off the rails? I have to believe that it did to Cleary who, thankfully, years later, managed to get back on track. He persisted after absolutely everyone in hockey had given up on him. He might not have ever gone out in the wilderness if he had made just one of the world junior teams.

Angelo Esposito avoided the indignity of being cut four times from the under-20 team--some scouts who saw the tryouts and others on the scene told me they were surprised that he didn't get another wake-up call and surprised that he ended up playing with John Tavares. Still Esposito scored a couple of big goals in last year's tournament. I think a fourth cut would have crushed his confidence, confidence already diminished when Pittsburgh had dealt his rights to Atlanta in the Marian Hossa deal. No one seemed to enjoy the world-junior experience more than Esposito last winter. Did finally making the team turn around Esposito's fortunes? Well, that's going to be a tough read. He's undergoing a second ACL surgery this week.

I remember Mike Comrie and Matt Zultek tearing it up in the last exhibition game on the eve of the cut and yet they still got the early wake-up call. "Sour" doesn't start to describe their reaction. Comrie has gone on to a pretty decent NHL career, although not one distinguished by team success and not one endorsed by the love of his team-mates. Would playing at the world juniors, wearing the red and white, changed his attitude and made him less of a me-first guy? Maybe, but probably a long shot. Zultek, a mid-first-rounder in the previous NHL draft, couldn't have known that his career would be wrecked by knee injuries but at least he had a chance to score a Memorial Cup-winning goal with the Ottawa 67's. Still, a turn with the Canadian juniors would have been something he could treasure, another parting gift. (Last time I talked to him he was working as a firefighter in Pennsylvania.)

By way of contrast Eric Chouinard, a first-rounder of the Canadiens, shrugged off getting cut at that same camp. It was sort of spooky. I never saw a player so blasé about getting passed over. I guess he presumed that he'd have a long pro career and that would suffice. Didn't work out that way. Yeah, his career is long but you need a map to find him. I don't think that the Canadian-junior cut shaped his character so much as it revealed his character. He was a player who might have wanted it but could take or leave it.

It's not easy for anybody but it's easier for players who'll have at least one more shot. I talked to Nazem Kadri and Matt Duchene at last year's Canadian under-20 evaluation camp a couple of days before they were cut. They both had hopes and reasonable expectations that they'd make the team and contribute to the defence of a title. Neither did. Both heard the phone ring at dawn and it wasn't for their roommates. Both could rationalize getting cut -- Kadri had suffered a broken jaw and had lost weight with his mouth wired shut while Duchene had another injury, something less serious, but enough to keep him out of the lineup with Brampton for a few games. Kadri and Duchene both went on to very good seasons with London and Brampton, respectively. They didn't seem to take the blow as hard as Cleary did.

A year later Matt Duchene has 10 goals and counting with the Colorado Avlanche. He won't be going to world juniors simply because he'll be playing a significant role on a playoff contender in the best hockey league in the world. A year later Nazem Kadri is on pace for more than 40 goals and around 90 points back with London -- that he didn't make the world junior team or stick with the Maple Leafs out of training camp doesn't seem to adversely affected him a bit in the long run.

Who will it be this year? How will they react?

Some will go on to be 'Who's he?' trivia questions and some will make it as pros and perform better than a few who'll listen to the anthem in Saskatoon later this month.

Everyone will follow the Canadian under-20s, but I'll look to see who gets the most dreaded hook in hockey.

STUFF THAT FELL OUT OF MY NOTEBOOK ... I still have no idea how Jared Cowan did not make last year's world junior team. Even scouts who had an interest in players who did make the Canadian blueline thought Cowan belonged. Yeah, the Canadian brain trust has always talked about the world juniors being a 19-year-old tournament--but, then again, so is the Memorial Cup and Cowan was the best d-man on a Spokane team that won the Memorial Cup on the strength of its D. And he showed great stuff at the CHL Prospects Game. But soon after he tore an ACL and, though he hasn't missed a game this season, he says the knee still bothers him occasionally. Ottawa's first-rounder, ninth overall, Cowan won't be playing for his dinner at the under-20s. He's going to get a chance. But then again that's what I said about Matt Zultek. Cowan is going to be held to a very high standard, namely the level of play he established in the first season and a half of major junior hockey when he looked like a lock to be a franchise player ... I feel for Cody Hodgson who was named to the selection roster but pulled out because of a back injury that he suffered in the off-season, aggravated at the Vancouver Canucks' training camp and nursed on the sidelines ever since, out of the Brampton Battalion line-up all season. He was in a no-win situation: He was Canada's best all-around player last season but would be coming into the tournament injured and absolutely cold and, like Cowan, held to a lofty standard he set. And even if he were able to get it together in a hurry and contribute for a time, the risk of re-injury would be to great for him and for the Canadian team. Hockey Canada owed him a shot if he wanted it but he did the right thing, not the selfish thing.