Canadian National Junior Team coach Benoit Groulx has made it clear the type of player he feels will fit his profile to serve on the final roster for the country at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

He'll begin the arduous process of forming that 22-man unit Thursday when Hockey Canada's selection camp begins in earnest with a practice at MasterCard Centre in Toronto. Groulx will hold practices Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The team will hold a morning skate Saturday before traveling to Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto for an exhibition match against CIS at 7 p.m. ET.

What type of player is Groulx seeking in attempt to end a five-year gold medal drought at the tournament?

"Recent history has shown us that being a hundred-point guy on a first line is no longer enough at the Juniors," Groulx said. "Our players have to raise their game. These are players who will one day be in the National Hockey League. They have the talent, but can they elevate their play? That's the message we're sending. The level we've competed at these last few years simply wasn't enough."

One of the goals set by the USA Hockey staff entering the U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., was to find some forward lines and defense pairings that could carry into the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

After a week that started slowly and finished with a 3-0 win against the Czech Republic on Saturday, the belief is they might have met some of those goals.

"I think the whole key was trying to find some chemistry and I think we found it with some of the forward lines," United States national junior team coach Mark Osiecki said. "That's a nice thing to come out of here with, having a good gauge with where some of the chemistry is."

BROSSARD, Quebec -- Nick Paul is on the rise.

Literally.

The Ottawa Senators prospect and hopeful member of the Canadian national junior team has grown almost an inch since the start of last season and put on 20 pounds. A wing for the North Bay Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League, Paul is now almost 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds.

Even with what looks to be the wingspan of a small aircraft, he wasn't really picked up on Hockey Canada's radar until he lit it up in the OHL playoffs last spring, posting 12 goals and 18 points in 22 games.

"Nick performed real well for North Bay last year in the playoffs and actually made a statement to us about belonging here," said Ryan Jankowski, Hockey Canada's head scout.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- When Mark Osiecki arrived here in August 2009 as an assistant coach for the United States national junior team that would be playing in the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship in Saskatoon, he looked at the defense that was assembled and wasn't sure how things would fit together.

Five months later, one of those defensemen, John Carlson, scored the overtime goal in the gold-medal game against Canada. The primary assist was credited to another defenseman, John Ramage.

Osiecki is back in Lake Placid, this time as the coach of the team that will go to Montreal and Toronto for the 2015 WJC, and as he looks at the eight defensemen remaining in camp, there's a familiar feeling: He's not sure how things will work themselves out.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- J.T. Compher almost certainly has skated his last shift during the U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp this week due to an injury to his left hand sustained Wednesday blocking a shot against Sweden.

But there was no chance Compher was leaving town. Playing or not, the Buffalo Sabres prospect is too important to the process of building the team that will play for the United States at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

"With the guys that are here now, you're trying to build more and more identity in the locker room and let [the players] do that," said Jim Johansson, assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey and the general manager of the United States WJC team. "He's got a pretty long history with a lot of guys in that room of being a leader on and off the ice. It's important for him to be here."

BROSSARD, Quebec  -- Come Christmas, Canada national junior team coach Benoit Groulx knows what he would like to find under the tree.

The presence of some blue-chip prospects to help boost Canada's chances of ending a five-year gold medal drought (and two years without a medal) would be at the top of his list, but whether he gets them has nothing to do with naughty or nice.

It's going to depend on how top picks like forwards Sam Reinhart, Curtis Lazar, Max Domi and Bo Horvat and defensemen like Aaron Ekblad, the top pick in the 2014 NHL Draft by the Florida Panthers, and Darnell Nurse fare with their NHL teams and where their general managers think it is best for them to play.

If they're good enough to contribute at the NHL level and benefit from playing and practicing there on a daily basis, Groulx and Canada will be out of luck.

Such is the lot of the coaches for the big hockey nations.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Jack Eichel, the 17-year-old center expected to be one of the top two picks at the 2015 NHL Draft, says his life is consumed by hockey.

That statement has been true for a long time, actually.

"I started playing when I was around 3," Eichel said. "I was pushing a crate around the Janas Rink in Lowell, Mass. My dad used to get me out of school when I was in elementary school, kindergarten, and I would skate with him. He would come pick me up and we'd play pickup and stuff. Since then he's given me as much hockey as I wanted."

Eichel has taken advantage of all that ice time, developing into a prospect ready for the NHL as soon as the 2015-16 season.

BROSSARD, Que. – When it comes to playing the "Canadian way" at the most recent World Junior Hockey Championships, other countries have done a better job of that than Canada, according to Canadian coach Benoit Groulx.

While adressing the players at Hockey Canada's summer development camp, Groulx, the national team coach for the upcoming 2015 World Junior tournament, said Finland won the gold medal last year by playing "the Canadian way."

Canada, meanwhile, failed to medal for the second straight year and the memories of Canada winning five-straight gold medals – the last in 2009 – seems very long ago.

BROSSARD, Quebec – It is rare for the starting goaltender of the Canadian National Junior Team to return for a second year on the job.

Since Marc-Andre Fleury, now with the Pittsburgh Penguins, did it at the IIHF World Junior Championships in 2003 and 2004, only Arizona Coyotes prospect Mark Visentin has started at least half of Canada's games in back-to-back years at the WJC. He started four games each in 2011 and 2012.

Montreal Canadiens prospect Zachary Fucale is hoping to add his name to that list.

The goaltender for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League started the final five games of the 2014 tournament for Canada and is back this year to try to secure the starting job for the 2015 WJC, which is being held on Canadian ice in Montreal and Toronto.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Auston Matthews is a tremendous example of the spread of hockey to non-traditional markets.

Matthews grew up in Scottsdale, Ariz., but during the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp this week, the 16-year-old forward is proving to be just as good, if not better, than players who grew up in more traditional hockey climates. He's also staking his claim to a roster spot for the United States at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

"We're seeing a wonderful hockey player," said Jim Johansson, assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey and the general manager of the United States for the 2015 World Junior Championship. "Sturdiness, skating ability, compete level all have been excellent. I think the interesting part for us is it's a lot of hockey in a short time and yet to me it looks like he's, if not getting stronger, he's right on par with what the start of this camp was. Guys get worn down in this camp and that's part of it. I think what you're seeing is a very talented hockey player."