{"id":630434,"date":"2026-07-25T01:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/630434\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T01:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:24:17","slug":"penn-state-mens-hockeys-smith-busch-selected-for-2026-world-junior-summer-showcase-penn-state-mens-hockey-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/630434\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State men&#8217;s hockey&#8217;s Smith, Busch selected for 2026 World Junior Summer Showcase | Penn State Men&#8217;s Hockey News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sophomore defenseman Jackson Smith and incoming freshman forward Shea Busch have been invited to the 2026 World Junior Summer Showcase by Hockey Canada, the first step in the selection process for Canada&#8217;s 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship team.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, a Calgary, Alberta, native, and Busch, a North Vancouver, British Columbia, native, will participate in practices and exhibition games against the United States, Sweden, and Finland. They\u2019ll then return to Penn State for the upcoming season and hope to be invited to the final selection camp in December.<\/p>\n<p>Smith is familiar with representing Canada in international tournaments, as he played a key role in winning gold at the 2025 IIHF U18 World Championship. Busch, however, has yet to be a part of Canada\u2019s World Junior pipeline.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rising sophomore defenseman and 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BlueJacketsNHL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@BlueJacketsNHL<\/a> First Round pick, Jackson Smith, has been invited to participate in the 2026 World Junior Summer Showcase for <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HockeyCanada?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@hockeycanada<\/a>!! \ud83c\udfd2\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6<\/p>\n<p>Congrats, Smitty!! \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/WeAre?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#WeAre<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/HockeyValley?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#HockeyValley<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/h7zIQZM6y5\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/h7zIQZM6y5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Penn State Men\u2019s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PennStateMHKY\/status\/2080707297135710627?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>After being selected No. 14 overall in the 2025 NHL Draft, becoming Penn State&#8217;s first ever first-round draft pick, Smith had a phenomenal freshman campaign.<\/p>\n<p>He solidified himself as one of the nation&#8217;s best offensive defenseman, notching 26 points, 11 goals, and 15 assists. Following the season, he was honored with accolades such as All-Big Ten Second Team and Big Ten All-Freshman Team.<\/p>\n<p>Busch, who was selected in the fourth round of that same draft to the Florida Panthers, had just as impressive a season for the Everett Silvertips of the Western Hockey League.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Incoming freshman and 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FlaPanthers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@FlaPanthers<\/a> fourth round pick, Shea Busch, has been invited to participate in the 2026 World Junior Summer Showcase for <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HockeyCanada?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@HockeyCanada<\/a>!! \ud83c\udfd2\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6<\/p>\n<p>Congrats, Shea!! \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/WeAre?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#WeAre<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/HockeyValley?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#HockeyValley<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BvDAMLRGEp\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/BvDAMLRGEp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Penn State Men\u2019s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PennStateMHKY\/status\/2080726031611175196?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although he suffered an upper-body injury that kept him out for several months of the season, he still played a major role in the Silvertips\u2019 first WHL championship in franchise history. He scored 7 goals and 6 assists in 16 postseason games.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Smith and Busch will showcase their talents in front of Hockey Canada\u2019s national team staff, NHL scouts, and representatives from their respective NHL teams as they compete for a spot on one of the most prestigious international hockey teams in the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">MORE HOCKEY COVERAGE<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.collegian.psu.edu\/sports\/men_hockey\/penn-state-hockeys-gavin-mckenna-tessa-janecke-ink-entry-level-professional-contracts\/article_7df3e479-9fc0-412e-b9e0-8a1ee7cc4ad3.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"Penn State hockey&#039;s Gavin McKenna, Tessa Janecke ink entry-level professional contracts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Penn State hockey's Gavin McKenna, Tessa Janecke ink entry-level professional contracts\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1662\" height=\"1247\" data- data-\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6919457fe89d9.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"150\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"tnt-summary\">Penn State&#8217;s brightest hockey stars are officially professionals. <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click here.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.collegian.psu.edu\/form\/letter_to_the_editor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                Submit<br \/>\n            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sophomore defenseman Jackson Smith and incoming freshman forward Shea Busch have been invited to the 2026 World Junior&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[19,5,6,285,19484],"class_list":["post-630434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-canada","tag-hockey","tag-ice-hockey","tag-national-hockey-league","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions-football"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116978009245285031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}