When Tyler Wotherspoon was named to Team Canada’s World Junior selection camp roster earlier this month, many believed he was in tough to make the final roster. Yet, when the 23 players who will represent Canada were named last Thursday evening, the Portland Winterhawks defencemen was among them. How surprised should we be by the decision? If you’re the NHL team that drafted him, not very.
Wotherspoon was a second-round pick, 57th overall, of the Calgary Flames in 2011. The team was very high on Wotherspoon’s steady nature and shutdown ability after watching him in his first season with the Winterhawks.
“He’s more of a defensive defenceman,” said Flames GM Jay Feaster in St. Paul at the 2011 NHL Draft. “He skates well though, our guys think that he may have a little bit more offensive upside than he’s shown to date, but he’s a high character guy.”
It seems like those thoughts of more offensive output were well founded, as Wotherspoon is on pace to shatter his previous WHL totals with 23 points in 29 games to date (his career high is 28 points). However, offence isn’t what he’ll be counted on for Team Canada in Ufa, Russia when the tournament starts on Boxing Day.
The Canadians will look to Wotherspoon in a more defensive role at the World Juniors, which was foreshadowed early on. Hockey Canada head scout Kevin Prendgerast told the assembled media when the selection camp roster was revealed that Wotherspoon was on the list thanks to Ryan Murray’s shoulder injury suffered early this season. The Everett Silvertips defenceman, and 2012 second-overall pick, would have been counted on in a shutdown role had he been healthy. He wasn’t, so Wotherspoon got the call.
It was interesting watching the Surrey native progress through selection camp, as things didn’t start the rosiest. Wotherspoon was paired with Canucks prospect Frankie Corrado in night one’s Red-White game and looked hesitant on the ice. Plain and simple, he looked like a guy playing in a game against the best 18- and 19-year-olds in the country as opposed to just a few; there was going to be a natural adjustment.
“Obviously you don’t want to make any mistakes and you want to play your game,” Wotherspoon told Sportsnet after Canada’s final roster was announced. “I think that’s where the nerves kicked in, but I thought as the camp went on I thought I kind of loosened up a bit and played more of my game.”
That’s exactly how the script played out. Canada’s final two games of the camp saw Wotherspoon come into his own noticeably, and he was extremely tough to play against in Thursday’s match with the CIS All-Stars. Wotherspoon wasn’t beaten cleanly once, he was punishing in the corners and made life extremely difficult for forwards trying to move towards the front of the net. These were all traits noticed by the Flames, who were watching the selection camp very intently, especially special assistant Craig Conroy.
“I thought he got considerably better from the Red-White game,” Conroy said when sitting down with Sportsnet 960 The FAN. “He keeps getting better, he’s making a good first pass…and I think he definitely hasn’t hurt himself.”
The biggest question Wotherspoon faces now is how his game will translate to the larger international ice surface. At 6-foot-2 and 203 pounds, there’s no guarantee that Wotherspoon’s punishing, shutdown style will be as effective when forwards have extra room to take the puck outside. It was something that got better through selection camp, and it doesn’t seem like Conroy is overly concerned.
“You’re always watching his speed, but he’s one of those guys where…he doesn’t get beat outright clean. If he’s going to the net, he’s able to at least be able to keep up to the guy and make the guy go wide or around the net rather than be able to cut into the net and beat him. Out of the corners, he keeps the distances good…just on overall speed, I was surprised, I thought maybe speed would be an issue but it really hasn’t been.”
Don’t be surprised if you see a good amount of Wotherspoon once the tournament begins. Yes, Team Canada also boasts names like Scott Harrington and Griffin Reinhart who can fill the shutdown role as well, but playing against elite competition, you really can’t have enough. Head coach Steve Spott will have the ability to deploy Wotherspoon against forwards a little lower down the depth chart and can have the confidence he’ll do the job when he starts him frequently in the defensive zone.
So, while Wotherspoon’s offensive game has improved by leaps and bounds, he also knows what’s important in Ufa.
“We’ve got a lot of offensive defenceman and we’ve got a lot of great offensive forwards so I think my role right now is to play a simple, defensive style game and get the puck up quick with this big ice, and let them do their job.”
It’s an important role for Team Canada and it’s a role they thought Wotherspoon could fill heading into selection camp or he wouldn’t have been invited. So while some on the outside were surprised to see Tyler Wotherspoon on the final 23 man roster, Hockey Canada wasn’t surprised and neither were the Calgary Flames.