Canadian Xenophobia?

Brandon Pirri is finally getting his due. After being oddly spurned last season by Hockey Canada for even an invitation to the tryout camp for the Canadian junior team, and being an even more odd omission from the summer camp in Newfoundland this year, he's been granted a release by the Chicago Blackhawks to accept an invitation to this year's camp in Toronto.

Louis Leblanc, recently of Harvard, is getting another crack at making the team as well, after being one of the final cuts last year.

What do they have in common? Well, neither one is still playing in college - Pirri is the only Canadian invitee with a professional contract playing in a professional league, and Leblanc has made the jump to the QMJHL after signing a deal with the Canadiens.

Now, they're not the only college affiliated invitees that are going to be in Toronto. Hockey Canada also announced that Jaden Schwartz of the... Saskatchewan Hockey Association? And uh, Riley Sheahan of the... Ontario Hockey Federation? What the...?

Yup, that's exactly how team Canada announced its four collegiate invitees on Monday - by excluding their affiliation with their programs: Colorado College for Schwartz, Notre Dame for Sheahan, Minnesota-Duluth for Dylan Olsen, and Miami for Reilly Smith. The "don't care" attitude rolled on when the roster was published - colleges grudgingly admitted, though little care was used to get them right. Schwartz is listed at Hockey Canada's website as belonging to "Colorado (WCHA)." Well, at least they got the league right, even if he's apparently playing in Boulder for the non-existent Buffs. Sheahan is given "Notre Dame (NCAA)" as his team, which would be akin to saying that Leblanc was from "Montreal (CHL)." Someone was really paying attention to detail there.

OK, we get it, Hockey Canada. You don't like us. You've made that abundantly clear. If Schwartz, Sheahan, Olsen, or Smith make the team, they'll be the first college players to wear the Maple Leaf in the World Junior Championship since Wisconsin's Cody Goloubef in 2009 - the second straight year that only a lone Badger was on the squad.

Now, we're not suggesting that Canada needs more collegians to successful. Most of the best young Canadian players do play in major junior, after all. But the degree to which good, qualified Canadians who come south of the border to ply their trade in the NCAA are being spurned is, quite frankly, a joke.

Brandon Pirri can't even get a phone call when he's in Troy, but the second he signs a pro contract, suddenly he's worthy for potential inclusion even though the summer camp is usually a prerequisite for making the team down the road? Yeah, there's nothing fishy there. Is there any possibility that Pirri, Leblanc or Denver's Patrick Wiercioch could have been big parts of a gold-medal winning Canadian team last year? Instead, the home team got to watch a team made of a healthy mix of collegians (like Jerry D'Amigo) and major juniors (like Cam Fowler) from the US strike gold.

That's a lesson the Canadians should take to heart. We've got our own stakes in the CHL-NCAA war, but we aren't about to exclude guys like Jeremy Morin, Brandon Archibald, and Emerson Etem just because they chose major junior over college. That's because we're putting together our best team of players under the age of 20 - not the best Americans playing in the United States.

The US camp roster won't be released until next Tuesday, but we can get a pretty good idea of what it will look like by looking at the 42 players that were at the summer camp that was held in Lake Placid. Of that group, 27 (64.3%) are currently playing in the NCAA. 12 (28.6%) are currently playing in the CHL. Two (D'Amigo and Kyle Palmieri) are playing in the AHL, with one (goaltender and North Dakota commit Zane Gothberg) still in Junior A.

Compare that to the Canadian roster just released. Of the 39 names on the list, a whopping four (10.3%) are from the NCAA. Pirri is the lone AHL representative. The rest - 87.2% - are from the CHL. That's not to say that the gulf is altogether unexpected. Like we said, most of the best young Canadians do play in the CHL. But look at the last four Canadian WJC rosters. Of 88 roster slots available, a grand total of four (Goloubef in 2009, Kyle Turris in 2008, and Jonathan Toews and Andrew Cogliano) went to collegians. That's 4.5%.

4.5%? That's the only slice of good Canadians that play in the US? How can that be? There were four collegians on the Canadian Olympic team this year - Dan Boyle from Miami, Dany Heatley from Wisconsin, Toews, and Duncan Keith, who played at Michigan State, and the talent pool was not as restrictive, at least not by age, for the Olympics. Two of their captains, Chris Pronger and Sidney Crosby, at least flirted with the idea of playing in college (Pronger committed to Bowling Green before choosing major junior, while Crosby played at Shattuck-St. Mary's, a Division I pipeline, to get away from hostile crowds at home).

Plenty of worthy Canadians choose the college route today. Are they being punished for their choice? The attitude emanating from Hockey Canada seems to indicate as much - the four current collegians in camp seemingly being extended an invitation only grudgingly. Was a potential spot playing in the World Junior Championships a reason for Pirri to leave Troy, or for Leblanc to leave Boston? It almost certainly wasn't the deciding factor but it could have at least been a cherry on top. The WJC gets a tremendous amount of attention in Canada. Playing on the team is considered a huge honor.

The whole CHL-NCAA war is foolish anyway. Hockey Canada doesn't need to be feeding it, nor should they be punishing Canadians who decide that more time in the weight room and more time reviewing video is a better route to the NHL, or those who decide that a real education rather than false promises of an education are better for their own personal growth. We're not demanding more collegians on the Canadian junior team. USA Hockey isn't punishing Americans who play in Canada. There's just no reason for Canadians playing in the NCAA to be treated like lepers.