LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Thatcher Demko said one of the most enduring lessons he learned at the USA Hockey national junior evaluation camp last year was that roster spots aren't won or lost in August.

The goaltender would do well to remember those lessons this year, as the first few days of camp aren't anything he's likely to brag about.

"It's been alright," Demko told NHL.com. "I don't think I've played my best yet."

Demko allowed two goals on seven shots playing the first 30 minutes Monday in USA White's 4-3 loss to Finland. In parts of three games, he's allowed eight goals on 27 shots.

"It's hard for goaltenders to come in the middle of summer," United States coach Mark Osiecki said. "You don't know how much they've been on the ice, what kind of game action they've seen, bodies in front of them and the speed factor of it. It's hard to adjust and it's going to take some time. He's been average; he knows that."

Pressure to win is nothing new for Hockey Canada. But that pressure will only be heightened this year.

The Canada national junior team summer development camp gets underway Sunday just outside Montreal in Brossard, Quebec. It's there that 41 players will take their first few steps to earn a chance to play in the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship, which begins Dec. 26 in Montreal and Toronto.

Canada coach Benoit Groulx of the Gatineau Olympiques in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League knows this. But four months before the start of the tournament, he's not worried about the pressure.

In fact, he's embracing it.

"A lot of people are talking about pressure, and I think pressure is good," Groulx said. "It means we have a chance to win, it means we have a good team. There are teams who come to this tournament who say they have no pressure, but that means they don't think they will win. So for us, it's a positive. We are very aware of how big this will be, and that will be on the agenda for our week with the players. We're going to talk to them about it, but the players are also very aware of all that."

Mark Osiecki has been an assistant coach with the United States at the World Junior Championship on three occasions. The U.S. has won a medal each time.

This year Osiecki is in charge, and he'll get his first look at some of the players he'll have on his roster at the 2015 WJC at the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. The camp will run Aug. 2-9, and feature practices and games against Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic.

Osiecki won gold medals working on the staff of Dean Blais in 2010 in Saskatoon and Phil Housley in 2013 in Russia, as well as a bronze as an assistant to Keith Allain in Buffalo in 2011. He told NHL.com that his team-building formula will blend what he learned from each of his former bosses.

"There's a lot of different ways and different personalities that can work," Osiecki said. "I was in Lake Placid a couple different times but not on the staff with Ron Rolston, saw how he handled things, then worked with Dean Blais, Keith Allain and Phil Housley, and they're all different in how they approached it. A lot of different ways worked well. That's what's going to be interesting about this team going into it. "

NHL Central Scouting's top three North American skaters for the 2014 NHL Draft were among the 41 players invited Monday to attend Hockey Canada's national junior team summer evaluation camp.

The camp will be held Aug. 3-8 in Brossard, Montreal, and Sherbrooke, Quebec, and is one of the first steps in building the team that will represent Canada at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship, which will be played in Montreal and Toronto.

Centers Samuel Bennett of the Kingston Frontenacs and Sam Reinhart of the Kootenay Ice, along with defenseman Aaron Ekblad of the Barrie Colts, were three of the 13 members of the 2014 draft class invited to the camp, including eight of Central Scouting's top nine North American skaters.

Jim Johansson, like the rest of the hockey world, watched the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final and saw how the game needs to be played to be successful.

"You saw in the NHL playoffs, whoever came over the boards for the Los Angeles Kings was pretty hard to play against," said Johansson, the assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey and the general manager of the United States for the 2015 World Junior Championship. "The World Juniors has become that. The skill level is really high across all the countries. It comes down to goaltending and the guys that are really hard to play against as a 23-man team unit and keep coming in waves."

Those skilled, competitive players are what he's looking for to fill the roster for the United States at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship. That starts with USA Hockey's National Junior Evaluation Camp, which will be held Aug. 2-9 at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Hannu Jortikka on Tuesday was named coach of the defending gold medal-winning Finnish National Junior Team for the 2015 World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.

The International Ice Hockey Federation made the announcement. Jortikka signed a two-year contract that covers the 2015 WJC and 2016 WJC in Helsinki, Finland.

USA Hockey will host its annual summer junior evaluation camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., from Aug. 2-9. The camp is one of the first steps toward the building the roster for the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Approximately 45 players will be invited to the camp, which will feature practices and exhibition games against Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. The players will split into two teams, USA White and USA Blue; the roster will be trimmed after three days and the remaining players will be combined onto one team.

Benoit Groulx was announced Thursday as coach of Canada for the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Groulx, who coaches the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, was an assistant to coach Brent Sutter on Canada's 2014 WJC team that finished fourth after losing to Russia in the bronze-medal game.

Canada will be the prime-time feature on the first day of the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship, which will be held in Montreal and Toronto from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2015.

The host country will start the tournament against Slovakia at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 26 at Bell Centre in Montreal.

The United States also will play its first game Dec. 26 at Bell Centre, at 3 p.m. ET against defending champion Finland.

Canada, the United States, Finland, Slovakia and Germany will play in Group A, which will see all its preliminary-round games played at Bell Centre.