Mathieu Darche has made watching the Islanders’ stable of prospects a regular part of his travel itinerary, so it would be no surprise if the general manager made the trip to Minneapolis at some point over the next week for World Juniors.
The Islanders will have five players skating for four different teams at the under-20 World Championships, which start Friday in the Twin Cities: Victor Eklund (Sweden), Kashawn Aitcheson (Canada), Tomas Poletin (Czechia), Cole Eiserman (USA) and Kamil Bednarik (USA).
“It’s a tournament that you watch growing up every single Boxing Day with your family through the holidays,” Aitcheson told Sports+ in a phone interview. “It becomes a dream of yours to one day represent your country on a really big stage. This is probably the biggest tournament in the world. Just with all the eyes on you, everything like that, it’s obviously an honor to put on that maple leaf.”
Aitcheson, a defenseman who plays club hockey for the OHL’s Barrie Colts, is expected to play a key role for Team Canada as a matchup defender and penalty killer. He’s shown prodigious offensive ability as well — his 19 goals with Barrie this season are more than any Team Canada player has for their club team.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
