Silvertips’ Murray picked to attend Team Canada selection camp

Ryan Murray hasn’t played in a hockey game in more than a month.

Hockey Canada, it seems, is unconcerned.

The Everett Silvertips captain was one of 41 players picked Monday to attend Canada’s selection camp for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championships.

Murray, Everett’s defensive lynchpin, has been out since Oct. 19 because of a sprained ankle. Although Murray has returned to practices and the Tips hope he’s ready to return to games this weekend, that leaves little time for Murray to get up to speed. Canada’s selection camp begins Dec. 10 in Calgary, Alberta. If Murray returns Friday when the Tips travel to Portland, he will have a maximum of four games with Everett prior to tryouts for team Canada.

Nevertheless, it’s believed Hockey Canada will give the 18-year-old from White City, Saskatchewan, every chance to make the team. Murray has been involved with Hockey Canada at every age level, and he twice captained Canada’s under-18 team at major tournaments. Murray was one of the final cuts from last year’s team, despite being the youngest player invited to try out. Vancouver Giants head coach Don Hay, who is also coaching Canada’s team at World Juniors, checked in with Murray when the Giants passed through Everett two weekends ago.

Murray was one of 16 players from the WHL who received invites. Portland had the most players invited: forwards Ty Rattie and Brad Ross and defenseman Joe Morrow. The other WHL teams to have more than one invitees were Brandon, which had forwards Michael Ferland and Mark Stone summoned, and Red Deer, which saw defensemen Mathew Dumba and Alex Petrovic get the call.

The other WHL players invited were: goaltender Tyler Bunz (Medicine Hat); defensemen Brenden Kichton (Spokane) and Mark Pysyk (Edmonton); and forwards Brett Bulmer (Kelowna), Brendan Gallagher (Vancouver), Quinton Howden (Moose Jaw), Mark McNeill (Prince Albert) and Max Reinhart (Kootenay).

Among those who were unexpectedly left off the invite list were defensemen Dylan McIlrath (Moose Jaw) and Duncan Siemens (Saskatoon), both first-round NHL draft picks.

World Juniors are Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta. If Murray makes the team, he will likely miss between seven and 11 of Everett’s games.

Around the WHL

Edmonton, which found itself over the overage limit when it traded for Everett winger Tyler Maxwell, released overage forward Josh Lazowski to make room. … Moose Jaw overage forward Sebastian Svendsen left the team and returned home to Denmark. Svendsen had two goals and two assists in 11 games with the Warriors. … Portland’s Ty Rattie was named the WHL Player of the Week. The 18-year-old forward had seven goals and five assists as the Winterhawks went 3-1.

League leaders

Points — Mark Stone (Brandon) 58; goals — Emerson Etem (Medicine Hat), Ty Rattie (Portland) 27; assists — Stone, Sven Bartschi (Portland) 34; penalty minutes — Jesse Mychan (Everett) 90; wins — Andrey Makarov (Sasktoon), Mac Carruth (Portland) 16; goals against average — Nathan Lieuwen (Kootenay) 1.78; save percentage — Lieuwen .938.

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.