Mitchell Vanderlaan, of the Fort MacMurray Oil Barons, has been named to be a part of Team Canada West for the 2014 World Junior A Challenge. Vanderlaan is the ninth member of the team to be named, and the annual tournament is something that hockey fans look forward to all year long. Being named to the team is a big honor, but one that is well deserved for the hockey great. While Vanderlaan is the forward for the Fort MacMurray Oil Barons he will have to miss the last 3 home games of the season for his team because he will be participating in the annual tournament instead. Since the annual World Junior A Challenge was first started the USA has won the trophy 5 times and Canadian teams have won it 3 times, and hopefully Mitchel Vanderlaan can make this 4 times as part of Team Canada West this year.
As a participant in the 2014 World Junior A Challenge and member of Team Canada West Mitchell Vanderlaan joins the ranks of players like Colton Parayko and Carson Cooper, who are both previous members of the Oil Barons and who represented the team in the 2011 tournament where they won the gold. Vanderlaan has shown what he is made of during the 2014 hockey season so far, and Fort MacMurray fans hope he will go even farther and bring home gold from the tournament. The first game in the 2014 World Junior A Challenge will be an exhibition game against the USA. This will be followed by a game against Denmark, and then one against Russia.