Adam Rockwood of the Coquitlam Express is among the BCHL players invited to suit up for Canada West at its selection camp for the 2013 World Junior A Challenge.
Rockwood, an 18-year-old Coquitlam product, is tied for second in BCHL scoring with four goals and 20 assists.
"His vision, his play-making ability is through the roof. It's been a long time since I've seen a kid with that kind of ability," said Express head coach Barry Wolff.
Rockwood will be among the 66 players that will attend the selection camp Oct. 26-30 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. The players will be divided into four teams and will play six intrasquad games, in addition to daily practices at the camp that will be used to form the roster for November's World Junior A Challenge.
While the Express will be without Rockwood for Sunday's game against the Chilliwack Chiefs, and longer if he's named to the Canada West roster, Wolff sees it as a positive.
"It's going to be good for us and good for him," he said. "That kind of environment, all of a sudden you're with 60 guys at that level, he's going to have to show how good he really is."
Three BCHL goaltenders are among six invitees. Victoria Grizzly Alec Dillon is joined by Prince George stopper Jesse Jenks and Powell River's Jonah Imoo.
Thirteen BCHL blue-liners are in the mix, including the Penticton defensive trio of Paul Stoykewych, Brett Beauvais and Alexandre Coulombe and the Powell River troika of Jeremy Leclerc, Luke Ripley and Jordan Burns. Victoria sends two in Rory McGuire and Mitch Meek. Other invitees are Dane Birks (Merritt), Matthew Dawson (Surrey), Viktor Dombrovsky (Langley), Adam Plant (West Kelowna) and Jared Wilson (Vernon).
Rockwood is one of 11 BCHL forwards among the 36 invited. The others are Mason Blacklock and Demico Hannoun (Vernon), Kurt Keats and Jarid Lukosevicius (Powell River), Seb Lloyd and David Pope (West Kelowna), Steen Cooper (Cowichan Valley), Alex Gillies (Salmon Arm), Brendan Taylor (Nanaimo) and Jeff Wright (Merritt).
The 2013 World Junior A Challenge will be held Nov. 4-10 at the Mariners Centre in Yarmouth, N.S. Canada West will play in group B, joined by the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Canada East, Russia and the United States will comprise group A.
Players named to the selection camp roster were selected from the CJHL's five western junior A leagues: the BCHL, Alberta Junior Hockey League, Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, Manitoba Junior Hockey League and Superior International Junior Hockey League.
The selection camp roster was chosen by Canada West head coach Jason McKee (Spruce Grove, AJHL), along with assistant coaches Trent Cassan (Yorkton, SJHL) and Ryan Smith (Selkirk, MJHL), and team manager Shawn Bullock (Hockey Canada).
