The Yukon’s Dylan Cozens has been invited to Hockey Canada’s virtual National Junior Team Sport Chek Summer Development Camp, set for July 27-31 – the beginning stages of roster selection for those players who will represent Team Canada at the next IIHF World Junior Championships.

Cozens will join 40 other players, five goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 26 forwards over the five-day virtual camp and will be participating in a variety of sessions with a focus on player development through online education.

Cozens said he was anticipating getting an invite but it’s exciting all the same.

“As a player that’s already played there I was expecting to be invited back to camp,” said Cozens. “But it’s obviously exciting when the head coach calls you, and talks to you and you get to talk to them again.

“It’s different this year the way camp is going to go, it’s going to be a Zoom thing, I don’t know really quite how it’s going to work. But I’m going to get to talk some old buddies again and see how it goes.”

Including Cozens, the roster has seven players who helped Canada win gold at the 2020 World Juniors – Quinton Byram, Bowen Byram, Jamie Drysdale, Alexis Lafrenière, Connor McMichael, and Dawson Mercer.

“There are lots of guys who have experience and lots of guys who know what it takes to win a gold medal at the World Juniors,” said Cozens. “It’s going to be another really good team this year.

“We don’t know how everything is going to play out but it’s going to be exciting.”

Speaking on 7-Eleven That’s Hockey on June 16, TSN analyst Craig Button said he believes Cozens should be the captain of the 2021 team.

“To hear from a TSN analyst like that and a well-know guy and hear him say that about you feels pretty cool,” said Cozens. “You know, being the captain of a World Junior team would be an incredible honour and something I’d take with pride and humility.

“Whoever is the captain of that team will be a great leader and we will see who that is.”

The current NHL season was paused on March 12 due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was announced that training camps will open July 10 and the resumption of the season will happen later that month or in August. The next NHL season would begin in 2021.

Cozens said his goal for the 2020-21 NHL season was to contribute to the Buffalo Sabres, the team that drafted him seventh overall in the 2019 draft. Now he might be able to play at the World Juniors and still make the NHL club.

“My goal was to be in Buffalo at the start of next season and I didn’t plan on going to the World Juniors again because I wanted to be an important piece to Buffalo and play in the NHL,” said Cozens.

“This could be the best of both worlds where I get to represent Canada again at home in Edmonton and then after that go to Buffalo so that’d be awesome.”

The 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships returns to Canadian ice this December. Edmonton and Red Deer will co-host the annual tournament.

Last year’s tournament was held in the Czech Republic and Canada defeated Russia 4-3 to win gold and their 18th title overall. Cozens scored Canada’s first goal of the championship game.

Cozens is also one of 15 Western Hockey League players selected to the virtual camp.