Murray, Simpson wrap up U-18 play

Published 12:24 pm Thursday, April 22, 2010

Canada’s entry into the U-18 World Championships in Belarus finished up play today. The Canadians had a disappointing tournament, missing out on the medal round and narrowly avoiding relegation from the top division.

Everett defenseman Ryan Murray and goaltender Kent Simpson were part of that team. Their final statistics can be found at the IIHF website. To sum up, Murray played in all six of Canada’s games without registering a point, and Simpson only played parts of two contests.

So all-in-all, an uneventful first experience with Hockey Canada for both Murray and Simpson. It’ll be interesting to see where Murray stands in the pecking order come the summer when Canada picks its team for the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Canada will have a full complement of players to choose from since no one will be unavailable because of the Canadian Hockey League playoffs. However, he won’t have to compete against the 1992-born players as they’re no longer eligible at the U-18 level (I believe). Murray was the only 1993-born player to make Canada’s World Championships team.