Interesting new mentorship program announced yesterday by the NHL Players Association. Called the "Allstate All-Canadians" (and sponsored by the insurance company of the title), the program will see 42 of the top bantam-aged players from across Canada invited to a camp in Toronto in August, where they will be assigned a current NHL player as a mentor.
The NHLers participating in the program as mentors are goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere (Toronto), defenceman (and WHL grad) Shea Weber (Nashville), and forwards Mike Cammalleri (Montreal), Eric Staal (Carolina), John Tavares (NY Islanders), and Jordan Eberle (Edmonton, and another WHL grad).
The young players will learn from the pros about valuable off-ice things such as fitness, nutrition, and mental preparation - basically, what it takes to be a top NHLer besides the possession of on-ice skills.
Sounds like an interesting program....can't hurt these top 14/15 year olds to learn some things that might make them better players.
Anyway, 19 of the 42 players selected (you can see the complete list at the above link) are from the western provinces, and 18 of them were among the top 28 picks in last month's bantam draft. In fact, 16 of them were first round picks in the bantam draft.
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