Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Dysin Mayo named to Canadian team for world hockey championship

Sometimes in sports, you have to take the consolations as they come. Dysin Mayo is the latest Island hockey player to do so this spring after his club missed the playoffs.
web1_mayo
Arizona Coyotes goalie Scott Wedgewood makes a save on a shot by New York Rangers right wing Julien Gauthier as Coyotes defenseman Dysin Mayo, right, applies pressure. ROSS D. FRANKLIN, AP

Sometimes in sports, you have to take the consolations as they come. Dysin Mayo is the latest Island hockey player to do so this spring after his club missed the playoffs.

The Arizona Coyotes defenceman has been named to the Canadian team for the 2022 IIHF world championship, beginning this week in Helsinki, Finland.

That follows Victoria product Adam Cracknell playing for Canada in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics after the NHL bowed out. In junior, Brayden Schuurman and Kalem Parker of the WHL Victoria Royals and Matthew Wood of the BCHL Victoria Grizzlies played for Canada in the recent IIHF world Under-18 championship in Germany after their club teams were eliminated from the playoffs.

The IIHF operates on its own schedule, not that of North American hockey, so that gives Hockey Canada very little time to put together national sides for world championships held in the spring. The short notice of these situations can make for a hectic process.

“I was not expecting this honour and it left me scrambling,” said Mayo, from Langford, and is out of the Juan de Fuca Minor Hockey Association.

Mayo’s second child, daughter Eloise, was born only a few days before he received the call.

“It was a very busy time for us but how do you turn down Hockey Canada?” said Mayo.

“Family comes first, but we were able to get things arranged, although [wife] Brittney will have her hands full.”

Through the familial and professional whirlwind of emotions, Mayo found himself at Sky Harbour Airport in Phoenix on Saturday en route to Helsinki via Chicago and Munich.

The selection to the Canadian team culminates a remarkable rise in just one season for the 25-year-old Islander. “I was cut in [Coyotes] training camp and wasn’t even on the radar at the beginning of the season,” he said.

“Now I will be putting on the Canada jersey. I’m still amazed about what has happened, from the start of the season, to now this. Any chance to put on the Maple Leaf, you take. I was not expecting this. I am so grateful for this opportunity to play internationally for Canada.”

It comes with challenges, especially for North American defencemen. The wider European ice surface is a boon for offensive players, but not so much for defensive players, who must readjust their angles when looking to thwart rushes.

“There is not much time and space in the NHL and it tends to be more chip and chase. European hockey is more about puck control and possession,” said Mayo.

Mayo had four goals and 12 points in 67 NHL games for the Coyotes this season after being called up from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. That completed a climb from Rapid City, South Dakota, of the ECHL to Tucson in the AHL to Phoenix in the NHL. And, now, internationally for Canada. You just have to be ready for when the time comes, said Mayo. Ready he has been, throughout his career.

Defending-champion Canada opens group play Friday at 10 a.m. PT against Germany. All the Canada games will be broadcast on TSN.

ICE CHIPS: It has been a busy year for Island hockey players on Canada duty. Beside Mayo, Cracknell, Schuurman, Parker and Wood, New York Rangers-signed goaltender Dylan Garand of Langford is on the Canadian world junior team and blueliner Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton won women’s gold at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com