At Team USA’s training camp for the World Junior Championship this week, all but three players were permitted to wear just visors on their helmets.
Center Clayton Keller, winger Kieffer Bellows and defenseman Chad Krys — all committed to play hockey at Boston University next year and all 17 years old — hit the ice at Agganis Arena in full shields or cages. At the international level, hockey players under 18 have to go with full coverage, while those over 18 can opt for the visor.
The three had been to the rink earlier this season as part of the United States National Team Development Program’s Under-18 squad. In a mid-October exhibition game against the No. 11 BU men’s hockey team, Keller, Bellows, Krys and company defeated the Terriers by a score of 7-4 and accounted for seven of their team’s 19 points on the night.
Two months later, the three were at Agganis as part of a different team, though the jerseys bore similar crests. And while the focus was on making Team USA, the trio said they appreciated getting to experience the facilities firsthand.
“It was amazing,” Bellows said. “ … When I took the tour here, I got to see them, but getting to actually use them and sit down in the locker room and look around and say, ‘Hey I’m gonna be sitting in this next year,’ it’s something special.”
Krys said that any time you get to come to a camp like this one, “where you’re playing with the best players in the country” under 20, there’s much to gain from it.
“Especially just playing every day and being around guys like that,” he said. “You learn from everybody, whether it’s on the ice, off the ice, take stuff from that, so I think there’s a lot of things you can take out of it.”
For Krys, whose father, Mark, played for BU from 1987 until 1991 and served as captain his senior year, there’s even more of a sense of ease.
“It’s definitely a pretty cool experience for me,” Chad said. “ … It’s a nice thing for my family. It’s a familiar spot for sure.”
It also gave his parents the chance to see him this week, he said with a smile.
In 24 games with the NTDP this season, Krys has a goal and 16 assists for 17 points, second among defensemen on the team.
“What don’t you like about Chad?” said freshman defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who’s also in Team USA’s camp this week. “I’ve known him for a while. I grew up playing with him, and we’ve kind of gone through all this stuff together, so we’ve kind of just helped each other figure it out along the way.”
McAvoy also noted that Krys is a “great skater” and a “very smart player.”
“He’s a guy that I played with last year the entire U-18 Worlds Tournament, and it was awesome playing with him,” he said. “I think we complemented each other very well, and that’s about it. I think the success we had in that tournament really shows the kind of player he is.”
For the offense, Keller, the playmaker, and Bellows, the owner of an incredibly powerful shot, are frequently paired together for the U-18s. The duo leads the team with 55 and 40 points, respectively, through 27 games this season.
“He can pass and shoot and he has a really hard shot,” Keller said of Bellows, who tops the team with 24 goals. “I try to find him all the time on the ice, and he’s able to put the puck in the net.”
Equally smitten with his linemate, Bellows noted that Keller’s vision is of an elite level.
“Playing with Clayton, he’s something special,” Bellows said. “He’s got hockey instincts. His hockey IQ is out of this world. I mean, the plays he makes, I can’t even imagine how he does them.”
Even Team USA head coach Ron Wilson had high praise for the center, saying he knew Keller would be good, but didn’t anticipate he’d be as good as he showed during camp. The coaching staff had him on the power play as well as the penalty kill for the duration of the four days.
Having the three of them together for camp and knowing they’ll be together at BU next year helped Keller throughout the week, he said.
“It’s been a lot of fun with those guys [and I] get to play the whole year with them,” Bellows said. “They’re two really good players — really great players — and they’re having a great tryout camp right now and I can’t say enough about them. They’re even better guys off the ice.”