After Canada was eliminated by Czechia in the 2025 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, there are many reasons to look at why the Canadians fell short yet again. One of the biggest questions and concerns comes around the building of their roster.
2024 NHL first-round draft selections Beckett Sennecke (ANA), Zayne Parekh (CGY), and Carter Yamekchuk (OTT) are amongst the most controversial snubs from the roster.
Denver Barkey was one of four Flyers prospects invited to Canada’s camp but was the lone prospect to head back to his junior team.
Since returning to the London Knights (OHL), Barkey has been on an absolute tear.
In seven games, Barkey has tallied 5 goals and 9 assists for 14 total points, averaging 2 points per game.
Barkey has 45 points on the season and is now just one point behind Sam Dickenson (SJS) for the team lead. He leads the team in assists with 35 and has 10 goals.
With teammates Oliver Bonk (PHI), Easton Cowan (TOR), and Dickenson away from the Knighst while with Team Canada, Barkey stepped up and produced at a high level in their absence.
Hindsight is 20/20, and I am sure Hockey Canada would have done things much differently if they knew the offensive struggles that were coming for the team.
Four players who played in at least one game failed to register a single point. Two of which were forwards.
Eight players tallied just one point; seven of them were forwards. All (forwards) of them played in all five games except Porter Martone (3 games).
Beyond that, nobody on the Candian roster totaled more than 3 points. Braeden Yager (WPG) and Cowan were the two players leading Canada in points.
Denver Barkey is surely not the biggest name snubbed, but he sure was playing some of the best hockey post-camp.
It cannot go without mentioning that you cannot compare stats between an international competition of the best U20s in the World and an OHL that has sent its best players to play in that competition.
However, for Barkey to put up the numbers that he did makes it worth bringing up a conversation.
Could Barkey have helped Canada break through their struggles? Would he have been able to play at a point-per-game pace? We will never truly know the answer to that.
What we do know, getting sent home from training camp lit a fire under Barkey. He proved that despite the fact he did not play in the WJC, he is still one of the Flyers top prospects, and is someone that is worth keeping a close eye on going forward.
