The 2025 World Junior Hockey Championships are set to get underway this month and one Edmonton Oilers prospect could be repping Team Canada.
With the tournament set to kick off on Boxing Day, the Canadian squad announced its full training camp roster. In total, 32 players got an invite to camp, including defenceman Beau Akey, who was drafted 56th overall by the Oilers in the 2023 NHL draft.
He made it in over top defencemen such as Carter Yakemchuk and Zayne Parekh, two first-round picks of the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames, respectively, from the most recent draft.
Congrats to #Oilers D prospect Beau Akey of the @OHLBarrieColts on making @HockeyCanada‘s selection camp! https://t.co/pteSsYHd5s
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) December 2, 2024
Akey has had a rough time staying healthy since being drafted by the Oilers. He appeared in just 14 games with the OHL’s Barrie Colts last season, scoring four goals and nine points in that span, before a shoulder injury took him out for the year. At the time, he was considered a good bet to play for Canada at the 2024 World Juniors, but the injury quickly derailed those plans.
This season, the 19-year-old seems to be back to full health and has been putting up some respectable numbers with four goals and 16 points through the first 22 games of the OHL season. While Akey did attend Oilers training camp earlier this season, he did not appear in any NHL preseason games.
This doesn’t guarantee that Akey will be pulling on the Team Canada jersey when the tournament gets underway in Ottawa later this month. He’ll have to show well in training camp to actually crack the team.
There are also a few notable Oilers omissions from Canada’s training camp roster. Sam O’Reilly, a 2024 first-round pick, has failed to crack the team after a slow start with the London Knights. William Nicholl, O’Reilly’s teammate and a 2024 seventh-round selection, was also left out despite scoring at a point-per-game pace through 26 games.
Some non-Oilers standouts that fans should look out for on this roster are prospective 2026 first-overall pick Gavin McKenna, as well as San Jose Sharks 2024 first-rounder Sam Dickinson, who has been lighting up the OHL as a defenceman with 45 points through 24 games.
Canada will open up the 2025 World Juniors against Finland on Boxing Day.