Vancouver-born Macklin Celebrini makes Canada’s world junior roster

Vancouver-born Macklin Celebrini will soon be on a plane to Sweden to represent Canada at the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship.

The 17-year-old presumptive No. 1 pick at June’s NHL draft was named to Canada’s roster for the tournament on Wednesday.

Celebrini sits second in the NCAA with 10 goals and 25 points in 15 games this season for Boston University.

He takes his talents to the tournament just one year after North Vancouver’s Connor Bedard dominated the tournament as a draft-eligible player.

The smooth-skating centre from Vancouver is part of a group led by three players with NHL experience — forwards Fraser Minten and Owen Beck, and defenceman Tristan Luneau — set to compete at the under-20 showcase, which runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Owen Allard, Easton Cowan, Nate Danielson, Jordan Dumais, Conor Geekie, Carson Rehkopf, Matthew Savoie, Matthew Wood, and Brayden Yager also made the team up front.

Denver Barkey, Jagger Firkus, Paul Ludwinski, and Markus Vidicek were cut from the roster.

Hockey Canada had the option of keeping a 13th forward but instead chose to leave that spot open in hopes that an NHL team would release a player before the team plays its first exhibition game.

The team could also recall one of Wednesday’s cuts before that date.

Oliver Bonk, Jake Furlong, Maveric Lamoureux, Denton Mateychuk, Tanner Molendyk, and Noah Warren make up the remainder of the defence corps.

Canada cut blueliner Michael Buchinger, Jorian Donovan, and Ty Nelson.

Canada’s three goalies are Samuel St-Hilaire, Scott Ratzlaff, and Mathis Rousseau, while Domenic DiVincentiis was sent home.

Canada heads to Europe on Thursday, with the first pre-tournament game set for Tuesday against Denmark’s under-25 team.

The Canadians will then meet Switzerland on Dec. 22 and the United States the following day before opening their world juniors on Dec. 26 against Finland at Gothenburg’s Scandinavium arena.

Canada doesn’t have any current NHL players returning players from the 2023 tournament, with Connor Bedard (Chicago), Adam Fantilli (Columbus), and Kevin Korchinski (Chicago) all playing big roles for their teams.

Matthew Poitras (Boston), Zach Benson (Buffalo), and Shane Wright (Seattle/AHL) — the other eligible players playing professionally — have yet to be made available by their teams.