Kenai River Brown Bears forward Brandon Lajoie has been named to the 24-man roster for Team North American Hockey League at the 2019 Sirius Junior Club World Cup from Aug. 23 to 31 in Sochi, Russia.
The tournament brings together world-class junior hockey clubs from various countries.
Lajoie, 17, from Eagle River, joined the Bears for 29 games last season and had two goals and four assists. The roster has one player from each of the 24 NAHL teams that competed last season. Each team can only have five players with 1999 birth years.
The team will be led by Scott Langer, head coach of the Aberdeen (South Dakota) Wings. The assistant coach will be Rocky Russo, who is the head coach of the Amarillo (Texas) Bulls.
Team NAHL will play in Pool B against Oulun Karpat of Finland, Red Bull Salzburg of Austria and HC Ocelari Trinec of the Czech Republic.
The NAHL also has announced the schedule for the upcoming season.
The Brown Bears will begin their season with four games at the NAHL Showcase from Sept. 18 to 21. The event attracts more than 330 professional, college and junior scouts. It’s one reason the NAHL set a new high with 334 NCAA commitments duing the 2018-19 season, with 70 percent of those being Division I. Six players who had played in the NAHL also were taken in the most recent NHL Draft.
The home opener for Kenai River will be Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. against the Janesville (Wisconsin) Jets at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
