August 8, 2005

Cogliano Set to Join World Junior Camp this Week

TORONTO - With the glow of the previous week's NHL Entry Draft still fresh on his mind, Andrew Cogliano of will be departing for Whistler this week to join up with 43 other hopefuls to make the 2006 installment of the Canadian World Junior Team. Cogliano is yet again the exception - and not the rule: he will be the only attendee at the development camp to be selected from the ranks of all Canadian Junior A teams. Additionally, Cogliano will be one of the top ranked players from the Greater Toronto Area at the camp, with only Mississauga's Ryan O'Marra (Erie Otters) taking a higher draft order.

In his last appearance on the National scene, Cogliano led the World with 9 points in 5 games in Canada's gold medal effort at the 2004 Under 18 World Junior Cup in Breclav, Czech Republic last August. Sixteen of those players will reunite at this camp in hopes of making the World Junior squad for the Championships being held in British Columbia at the end of this December. Hockey Canada will continue to monitor the players from the camp with their regular season teams as well as other potential candidates. One of those potential candidates could be Sidney Crosby, who due to commitments to the Pittsburgh Penguins, had to withdraw from the camp roster this past weekend. Whether or not Crosby will be released from NHL play to take part in the team was not discussed by either the Penguins or Hockey Canada.

Buzzers Coach and General Manager, Chris DePiero, wished Andrew well for the coming weeks. "He's going to have a great few weeks coming up - first with the National Team and then reporting to Michigan. The whole of the Buzzers organization is behind him and wishes him well - from the players, the first Mike to last Mike [there are over 8 "Mike's" on the team], and everyone in between were all there behind him cheering on his successes. May they never end."

Cogliano will have no time to rest after the camp. Immediately following the camp he will be reporting to his new hockey home, The University of Michigan, where he will don another "M" - this time for the NCAA Division I Wolverines and take part in their training camp and start attending classes in Ann Arbor, MI. The Wolverines start their season with a weekend set of exhibition games starting October 1st and culminating on October 2nd with a match up against the University of Toronto Blues. The Wolverines then kick off their regular season the following weekend with a home stand against Quinnipiac.

Hockey Canada World Junior Camp Roster
http://www.hockeycanada.ca/e/teams/mens/junior/2006/rosters/can_dev.html