Two Buffalo Sabres prospects are set to get a long look for Canada at the World Junior Summer Showcase, which begins this weekend in Windsor, Ontario.
Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland will each take part in the annual event, with 10 games scheduled over six days. On Canada’s 32-player roster are 2025 goalie prospect Samuel Meloche and 2026 top pick Daxon Rudolph.
Meloche, 19, brings a solid resume into camp. The 6-foot-3, 198-pound netminder started 51 games for Rouyn-Noranda in the QMJHL in 2025 and was the Huskies’ primary starter last season. He finished 33-13-3 with a 2.75 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage, then went 10-7-0 in the QMJHL playoffs.
Jack Ivankovic of the University of Michigan, who has played in the last two WJC’s for Canada, is the likely starter for the host country. That still leaves Meloche with a real shot at the backup job as he competes with Ottawa 2025 draftee Lucas Beckman and undrafted William Lacelle.
Rudolph, meanwhile, arrives with plenty of momentum. The 18-year-old was the fourth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft last month and is one of six first-round picks among the 10 invitees to the showcase. Only two of those first-rounders, Keaton Verhoeff and Cameron Reid, were on Canada’s roster last December, which gives Rudolph a strong chance to crack the squad.
Another Sabres prospect, 2025 first-rounder Radim Mrtka, is expected to begin his professional career in Rochester this fall and looks like a lock to represent Czechia for the second straight year. The question there is whether Buffalo will release him for the tournament, after the Sabres kept 2024 top pick Konsta Helenius from doing so with Finland last year.
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