de Gray invited to national camp

BRAMPTON, Ont. – Defenceman John de Gray of the Brampton Battalion is one of 44 players invited to the Canadian national junior team’s summer development camp, it was announced Thursday.rrde Gray, 18, is among 15 Ontario Hockey League players invited to the camp, to run from July 23-28 at Calgary.rrIt’s nice to get that news right before the draft,” said de Gray, who’s ranked 68th among North American-based skaters by the National Hockey League’s Central Scouting Service for the NHL Entry Draft at Vancouver on Saturday. I’ve been pretty tense lately, and that’s helped calm me down a bit.”rrde Gray, who’s eligible for the world junior tournament in 2008 as well, said he hoped the invitation will have an impact on draft day.rrI hope this invitation says a lot about my character,” de Gray said via telephone. All the guys who have been invited are character guys, and I hope teams take that into account.”rrde Gray is among 16 defencemen slated to be at the camp, including five from the team which won gold at the 2006 World Junior Championship at Vancouver.rrAll the guys who get invited are great players, and I want to go out and show I can play with them and make the team. I have to go there and compete, and you never know what can happen between now and December.”r rThe Markham, Ont., resident was a member of the Ontario team at the World Under-17 Challenge in January, 2005, and won a gold medal with Canada at the under-18 Junior World Cup in Slovakia last August.r rTo be chosen to any of those other teams was an honour, and obviously making the junior team would be the biggest step. I want to go as far as I can in hockey, and this is a big part of it.”rrIn its eight-year history, the Battalion has had three players on Canada’s national junior team, consisting of left winger Raffi Torres in 2001, defenceman Jay Harrison in 2001 and 2002 and centre Jay McClement in 2002 and 2003. Head coach Stan Butler of the Battalion held that position with the Canadian entry in 2001 and 2002.r rThe 2007 World Junior Championship is to be played in Sweden from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5.r