3 players to watch on Canada's world junior squad

Canada will head into the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship with a singular focus: Avenging last year's gold medal defeat.

The team fell to their rivals to the south in a shootout after blowing two two-goal leads, including a 4-2 third-period advantage.

This year - as always - Canada will enter as one of the favorites, but unlike years past, the roster isn't littered with top-10 picks, so the team will need to win by committee.

With that, here are three players worth keeping an eye on because they could play pivotal roles:

Kale Clague

Big things are expected of Clague largely because he's one of seven returning members from last year's team, but also because of his incredible jump in production.

Through 28 games with the Brandon Wheat Kings, Clague has amassed career highs in goals (10) and points (47), good enough to lead all WHL defenders.

Clague is expected to be on the team's top pairing alongside Nashville Predators first-round pick, and fellow returnee, Dante Fabbro - assuming he's healthy - and man the first power-play unit. Expect a lot of Team Canada's offense to go through Clague.

Tyler Steenbergen

Steenbergen is an example of a player who made it very difficult for Hockey Canada to ignore due to his incredible play this season.

The Swift Current Broncos forward wasn't invited to the summer evaluation camp, but after averaging over two points per game, including 35 goals in 27 games, his production couldn't be overlooked. Dating back to last year, Steenbergen has scored an incredible 86 goals in his last 99 games.

"Everyone talks about his ability to score goals, but what I like most, more than anything is, we challenged him at the beginning of last year to be a 200-foot player and now he's one of our better defensive players, one of our key penalty killers and one of our go-to guys if we have a lead with one minute left and stuff like that," Broncos head coach Manny Viverios said, according to TSN's Mark Masters.

The Arizona Coyotes 2017 fifth-round pick could enter the tournament as Canada's purest goal-scorer, and with the ability to play in all situations, expect to see a lot of Steenbergen.

Boris Katchouk

Similar to Steenbergen, Katchouk will be looked upon to aid the team in the goal-scoring department.

The Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick sits second in goals in the OHL with 27, along with 18 assists in 30 games.

Katchouk should slot in on the second line alongside Robert Thomas and returnee Taylor Raddysh. He'll also feature on the power play, where he showed his effectiveness in a tune-up against Denmark, scoring a goal with the extra skater.

At 6-foot-3, Katchouk stands with Brett Howden as Canada's biggest bodies up front and as such should be expected to be a net-front presence, play on the physical side, and provide offense.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)

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