Praise for Blazers forward Connor Zary as he tries to crack Canada’s roster for this year’s World Juniors in the Czech Republic.

On the NL Morning News, World Juniors Play-by-Play host Jon Abbott said he thought Zary would have been among the initial 31 camp invitees.

But he notes with the number of elite centres at camp, Zary has his work cut out for him.

“You know these players have to be available to play in other positions up and down the lineup and be prepared to play different roles, and I think to me that is the biggest check mark when it comes to a guy like Zary, is I see him being able to fit in on lines 1 through 4, so maybe that gives him an outside edge,” said Abbott.

The 18 year old Zary – who has 41 points in 28 games with the Blazers this season – was added to the camp on Sunday as an injury replacement to Moncton’s Jakob Pelletier.

“Really what it boils down to is competition against the Canadian U Sports, that’s the Canadian University all-stars, and those are the big showings for a guy like Connor Zary to try and leave his impression because you just have such little time to do that before the team is announced on Friday,” Abbott said.

Canada kicks off its World Juniors campaign on Boxing Day when they face the United States. You can catch all of Team Canada’s games on Radio NL as it happens.

(Photo via Kamloops Blazers)