Kings prospect Carter George named to Team Canada WJC Summer Showcase Roster

International honors are nothing new for goaltender Carter George.

In August of 2023, George was between the pipes for Team Canada at the Hlinka/Gretzky Cup in the Czech Republic, an early-season showcase event for draft-eligible prospects. George started all five games as Canada won the tournament in overtime against the host nation in the gold-medal game, with George stopping 29 of the 31 shots thrown his way in a 3-2 victory.

Fast forward to the end of the season and George was back in the red and white, participating at the Under-18 World Championships. George and Canada went unblemished throughout the tournament, with George winning his second gold medal in a 12-month span. This time, he added the Tournament’s Best Goaltender honor, as well as a selection to the Media All-Star team to his medal. A fine showing.

This summer, George takes the next step on the international stage.

The World Junior Championships is the marquee amateur hockey event for players aged 20 or younger. That tournament falls midseason, beginning on Boxing Day this December. The process starts now, though. George was one of four goaltenders selected earlier this week to Canada’s Summer Showcase roster, an event that will take place at the end of the month.

“You don’t get to represent your country too much, so I always think that’s a huge honor to be able to throw on the Maple Leaf,” George said at Development Camp, of any chance to play for Team Canada.

The World Juniors is another beast, because it encompasses the best Canadian players from 3-4 different draft classes. That’s evidenced by the goaltenders attending. Joining George at the showcase event are two netminders who were drafted in 2023 and one goaltender who has yet to be selected. Buffalo prospect Scott Ratzlaff is the only returning goaltender from last year’s roster, meaning there is much to play for when Team Canada hits the ice in a week.

For George, the international pedigree certainly merits his selection.

Back in May, skating among the best players eligible to be picked in the 2024 NHL Draft, George was a standout. He posted two shutouts in that tournament, wins over Czechia and Latvia, but it was actually a pair of games in which he surrendered a couple of goals that stood out most to the Kings in the draft evaluation process. In both the semifinals and the Gold Medal Game, Team Canada was outshot by Sweden and the United States respectively.

The difference, if you ask Kings Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti? Carter George.

“He willed them to win,” Yannetti said. “Not to burst the bubble of Canadian fans but they weren’t the best team there, they weren’t, the US was the best team and when they were fortunate enough to get that penalty call, in the end, they could have been down six or seven to two by that point. The fact that they weren’t is because [George] kept them in the game. He kept them in a game just even get to the gold-medal game. So he won, in my opinion, two games for them, and a goalie who can win games, the it factor, that’s the final thing for us.”

Photo by Gary A. Vasquez/NHLI via Getty Images

For George, playing the way he did in those games is just part of the job.

He’s not out to win individual accolades or be named to a tournament All-Star team. It’s nice, sure, but the award he’s most proud of from the U-18’s is his gold medal.

“You try not to look into that stuff too much, obviously they’re cool things to get, but at the end of the day, you’re more so looking to chase a gold medal as opposed to those individual awards,” he said. “Obviously it does put a little bit of a target on your back, I’d say and I kind of like that. I like when people are pushing me to get better and always chasing me, because it just motivates me to get even better and even push myself a lot more to elevate my game.”

Now his sights are ultimately set on jumping up another level, with the World Juniors on the horizon.

The showcase event caps off a very busy summer for George. He first played in the OHL Playoffs with Owen Sound before joining Team Canada for the aforementioned U-18 World Championships. Then came the NHL Draft in June, followed shortly by his first NHL Development Camp in July with the Kings. That’s three different teams, organizations, in three months, with a fourth to come as he joins Team Canada at the U-20 level.

His Development Camp experience was only three days, but it was his first taste of being an LA King, the team he grew up rooting for. Learning what it means to be a King, learning how the Kings try to play the game is something that stood out to him from that event. A good experience for a goaltender who appreciates that level of detail in his game.

“I think there’s two, maybe three things that really stood out to me,” George said of development camp. “There’s stuff I haven’t heard of before and it’s kind of part of their system here. Definitely felt weird at first but more repetition of doing them and applying them into my practices, it felt much better. I actually like that they explain the theory to you and explain the background behind the whys and all that and it makes total sense. I’m, definitely trying to add that to my game, definitely something I’ve been focusing on [during the practices].”

Now, George heads first to Windsor, Ontario for the first portion of the Canadian Summer Showcase. The first three days will be held in Windsor, beginning with a practice on July 29. The Canadian group will play a Red versus White game on July 30, before Canada takes on Sweden on July 31. The group then heads South of the border where they will spend three days in Plymouth, Michigan, combining with the annual event held in the USA. Canada will practice in Michigan on August 1 before playing exhibition games against Finland on August 2 and the United States on August 3.

Full Canada Summer Showcase Schedule
Monday, July 29 – Practice (WFCU Centre – Windsor, ON)
Tuesday, July 30 – Canada Red vs. Canada White
Wednesday, July 31 – Canada vs. Sweden
Thursday, August 1 – Practice (USA Hockey Arena – Plymouth, MI)
Friday, August 2 – Canada vs. Finland
Saturday, August 3 – Canada vs. United States

Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images