On Friday afternoon Hockey Canada announced that New Jersey Devils Dawson Mercer and goaltender Nico Daws have made the initial 22-man roster for the upcoming World Championship. The 23-year-old Daws is one of three goaltenders listed on the roster including two St. Louis Blues Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer. The tournament opens in Czechia on May 10 with Canada playing their first game on May 11 against Great Britain.
It will be the first time Daws represents Canada at the Men's championship, while Mercer won silver with Canada in 2022.
The netminder has only represented Canada once before in his career playing two games at the 2020 World Junior Championship, also in Czechia, and winning the gold medal. Daws spent time in both New Jersey and with the Utica Comets this season, playing 21 games with the Devils and another 10 in Utica.
Mercer has represented Canada on multiple occasions, winning a World Junior championship gold medal in 2020, as well as taking home a silver medal at the 2021 tournament.
Along with Daws and Mercer, the Devils will also be represented by Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler and Akira Schmid with Switzerland, Luke Hughes with Team USA and Simon Nemec with Slovakia, while Ondrej Palat and Tomas Nosek are both participating in their Czech training camp tournament, as is Alexander Holtz with Sweden.
