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Wenatchee Wild

Wenatchee Forwards Geekie, Savoie Chosen for Canada National Junior Team Selection Camp

December 5, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release


Wenatchee Wild forwards Conor Geekie (right) and Matt Savoie (center) gather with defenseman Graham Sward
Wenatchee Wild forwards Conor Geekie (right) and Matt Savoie (center) gather with defenseman Graham Sward
(Wenatchee Wild, Credit: Russ Alman/Wenatchee Wild)

WENATCHEE, Wash. - The Wenatchee Wild, proud members of the Western Hockey League (WHL), are excited to announce the selection of forwards Conor Geekie and Matthew Savoie to Canada's National Junior Team Selection Camp, scheduled for December 10-13 in Oakville, Ontario. The two Wenatchee forwards are part of a 30-player group selected for the camp, including nine players from the WHL. From there, the roster for the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship will be selected, with the tournament scheduled for December 26 to January 5 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

"It's exciting. Every kid in Canada dreams about playing in World Juniors someday," said Savoie, who will make his first trip to the camp. "It's kind of a Christmas tradition for all hockey players, watching when you grow up, so it's exciting to see some of the guys that played in it previously and that I've played against, so I'm looking forward to it."

Should they be selected for the final Team Canada roster, they would be the first players from the organization to appear at the World Junior tournament since Carson Lambos (Canada) and Maximilian Streule (Switzerland) two years ago. Wenatchee forward Rodzers Bukarts also played in the tournament last year, as a member of the Latvian team.

"You get to see a lot of guys that you played against all the time and see what's going on in the other leagues in the CHL, and it's a cool experience to play against the best in the world," said Geekie. "Savs and I have done just about everything in hockey together since the bantam draft, so it's another thing we get to do together."

Geekie leads the Wild roster this season with 20 goals and 49 points, and his 13 points over four games last week earned him the WHL's latest Player of the Week award. Savoie has been on fire since returning from a season-opening stint with the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres and American Hockey League's Rochester Americans, picking up 11 goals and 12 assists in a Wild uniform, charging into fourth place on the team's scoring leaderboard despite appearing in only 10 games.

Selection camp will take place at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex in Oakville, and will include practices and a pair of games on December 12 and 13 against a team of U SPORTS all-stars from Canadian university programs. Canada's National Junior Team will travel to Malmo, Sweden on Dec. 14 for a pre-tournament camp ahead of the World Junior tournament. As part of the lead-up to the tournament, Canada will face a U25 team from Denmark on December 19 before facing Switzerland and the United States on December 22 and 23. The 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship begins on December 26 when Canada takes on Finland at 5:30 a.m. Wenatchee time.

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Images from this story

Wenatchee Wild forwards Conor Geekie (right) and Matt Savoie (center) gather with defenseman Graham Sward
Wenatchee Wild forwards Conor Geekie (right) and Matt Savoie (center) gather with defenseman Graham Sward
(Russ Alman/Wenatchee Wild)		   

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