The World Under-17 Hockey Challenge has been a reliable part of the calendar in the hockey world every November and nearly as reliable has been the Brandon Wheat Kings having a presence at that tournament.
Defenseman Cruz Jim is the latest Wheat King to get the call to represent Canada at the event. The 2010-born defenseman was officially named to the roster for Canada White earlier this week.
“It feels amazing,” Jim said. “It’s always an honour to be able to represent your country and wear that maple leaf. I’m super excited, I know we’ll have a great team and I’m looking forward to it.”
Jim said he’s looking forward to playing against some of his peers at the tournament, but that’s not to say he’s been struggling against older competition. He’s not only started to pick up points, including a picturesque primary assist on Brady Turko’s goal in Kelowna, but he’s been playing a reliable physical game as well.
“It was helpful to have some games last year and that kind of leads into the start of this season,” said Jim. “Preseason, feeling things out a bit at the start of the season, and I’m still kind of feeling my way a bit but it’s gotten a lot better for sure with the way I’m managing pucks and controlling play.”
“He makes the game look pretty easy,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “He’s not the biggest guy but he’s so smart. He can make plays with the puck, and his positioning and his stick are really good. We knew we had a pretty good player when we drafted him, and that’s certainly been the case in his time with us full-time.”
Thanks to an invite to Canada’s U17 summer camp, Jim had a pretty good idea he was on the radar for Team Canada for the coming year. He also gained a healthy appreciation for the quality of both competition and teammates he could expect at the event.
“It was a really good experience,” Jim said. “I got a taste of what it will be like, the culture and the standards they set there, the expectations. There were 80 or so players there, so many great players, and now that they’ve cut that in half to make two rosters, it’s going to be crazy the amount of talent and skill and just how good the guys will be.”
The World Under-17s begin in Oakville, Ontario on November 1, and the Wheat Kings do still have quite a bit of hockey to play between now and then, much of it on home ice following their highly successful B.C. road trip. They’ll be happy to have Jim in the lineup until then.
“Going into it, we just need him to continue to play like he has been,” said Murray. “He’s making strides. I think I speak for our whole staff that we feel comfortable with any of those young guys out against other team’s top lines, they’ve done a really good job. For Cruz, I’d like to see him just continue on in the way he’s playing.”
When he does leave for the event, Jim will have some big shoes to fill. The Wheat Kings have sent at least one player to represent Canada at this event in the last five tournaments, and they’ve had a player on the gold-medal winning team three years in a row. The good news is, if Jim ever wants advice on how to handle his first taste of international hockey, he’s got plenty of teammates to ask about it.
“It’s really helpful to have Surks (Chase Surkan), Jax (Jacobson), and Joby (Baumuller), they were all there and they’ve kind of been in my shoes before,” Jim said. “If I’m ever wondering about something or just want to ask a question or ask for some advice, they’re definitely great guys to go to and ask.”
“One of our goals is to have kids play for their national teams,” said Murray. “It might be Canada, it might be for the U.S., it might be Finland or whoever. When those kids get an opportunity to represent their country, I think it’s a feather in our cap. It shows that our scouts are doing a good job and when they get those opportunities, we feel very proud of them.”
The Wheat Kings will have Jim for a few games yet, including this weekend when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday night and the Prince Albert Raiders on Sunday.
