Congrats to Goloubef!

Cody Goloubef, the Jackets 2008 2nd round pick, was just name to the World Junior Canadian squad.

The 6-1 194 lb native of Oakville, ON plays for the Wisconsin Badgers of the WCHA. He has 2g, 4a for 6p in 18g. He was the youngest player in the NCAA D1 hockey last season.

What I didn't know was that Goloubef was almost a Buckeye:

Growing up, I always wanted to go the NCAA route,” he said. “When I got drafted to Sarnia I thought about it for a little bit but it’s the real deal down here. There’s nothing else like it out there and this is the right place for me. I never really looked towards the CHL because I knew what I was going to get when I got here.”

The University of Wisconsin became Goloubef’s school of choice over Boston University and Ohio State partly because of the coaching staff, specifically assistant coach Mark Osiecki.

“For me, it really came down to the coaching staff, all of the facilities and the gut feeling that I got when I was down at the university,” he said. “I just felt the most comfortable with Coach Os (Osiecki). I knew that I had to learn to play in my own zone and I felt that he was the best guy to help me out there. So I decided that in order to benefit myself, I was going to come to Wisconsin. I chose the school that I felt looks the best in my eyes and where I felt that I could develop the best as well. So it was just the kind of deal that I couldn’t turn down.”

Also here is a bit on his game:

Goloubef is an intelligent defenseman blessed with superb offensive skills and displays tremendous poise with the puck. He possesses a big shot and can get it to the net. He has excellent on-ice vision, follows plays very well and has little trouble finding and getting passes to his teammates. In addition, he can make really nice outlet passes. While his decisions with the puck are very good, he’ll need to be able to make them quicker to have success both at the collegiate level and beyond.

Its always a good thing when a Jacket prospect gets named to the WJCs. Its extra special when one goes the Canadian team as its an ultra-competitive squad to make and if you recall, Steve Mason won tournament MVP backstopping that team to the gold medal last year.

With Goloubef named that brings the "official" total to two with Ted Ruth playing for the USA. Of course its expected that both Nikita Filatov and Maksim Mayorov will be named to Team Russia over the next several days.

The only bummer was that Jackets 2008 5th round pick Matt Calvert was cut from the team. Calvert has been battling an injury and was not able to participate in the selection camp.

I look forward to watching all of these players in this year's tourney.

Remember all US games will be televised on the NHL Network. Also this tourney starts on December 26th. The full scheduled can be found here.

Congrats Goloubef!!

-LTL