Tom Szczerbowski – USA TODAY Sports
After an incredibly disappointing Florida Panthers season, defenseman Brian Campbell finally has something positive to look forward to. The veteran blueliner will make his senior team debut for Team Canada at the upcoming 2013 IIHF World Championship, where he might have a chance to win something this year. Campbell represented Canada at the 1999 World Junior Championship, but has not been a member of any of their teams for international competition since then.
The fact that Campbell has not had this opportunity before is startling at first, but make sense considering most teams he has been on in his career have been in the playoffs at this point in the season, making him unable to head to the tournament. This season Campbell finished third on the Panthers in scoring, with eight goals and 27 points. While there weren’t many positives for the Panthers, they can have hope for the future after seeing Campbell find the back of the net twice as many times in 2013 as he did the previous season, despite the fact that the lockout cut the season in half. It was the second-highest goal total of his career, and he played a vital role in helping out the numerous young defense prospects that the Panthers worked into the lineup.
This is the first time in the past eight seasons that Campbell has not been part of a playoff team, and the opportunity to keep playing while representing Canada was a great fit for him and should set him up to have a big impact.
Jonathan Katje is an NHL senior writer for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter or add him to your circles on Google Plus.
