Marner to play for Canada at World Championship, Rielly will not

According to Andi Petrillo, Mitch Marner will join Team Canada at this year’s IIHF World Hockey Championship in Paris, France and Cologne, Germany. Petrillo also went on to report that Morgan Rielly will not be joining Canada, as he’ll opt to take the time to rest after an intense season.

Yesterday, Auston Matthews, Nikita Zaitsev, and Frederik Andersen all said that they would not be playing at the tournament, which will begin on May 5.

I personally don’t think it’s a big deal if a player does or doesn’t go to this tournament, because the season is a grind and, more often than not, they’re banged up at the end of it and don’t want to risk making it worse. But still, this will be a good experience for Marner who had himself an excellent rookie season. It’ll also make the tournament more interesting to watch for Leafs fans.