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This article was published 4/5/2016 (1599 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To absolutely nobody’s surprise, Mark Scheifele cannot get enough.

The 23-year-old centre, just finished with a strong leap forward as a front-line NHL player, is already back on the ice, playing for Team Canada at the world hockey championship in Russia.

Team Canada starts the tournament Friday in St. Petersburg with an 8:15 a.m. game against the U.S.

Scheifele’s third NHL season with the Winnipeg Jets produced career-bests of 29 goals and 61 points, though there was some heartbreak to the year as the Jets struggled for long stretches and eventually missed the Stanley Cup tournament.

So what’s in a trip to Russia for the Kitchener, Ont., native, who was the Jets’ first draft pick after the 2011 relocation.

"Well, I’m a hockey player," Scheifele said over the phone from St. Petersburg Wednesday. "I want to play as much as I can. Obviously, you want to be playing at this time of year, in the Stanley Cup playoffs and fighting your way with your club team through the playoffs.

"When you’re not doing that, you want to be playing and to be able to represent your country, come overseas and play in this tournament, you can learn a lot of things from it.

"I just think the more hockey you play, the better you are."

This will be Scheifele’s second go-round with the world championship. He played for Canada as a 21-year-old in 2014 when he earned a bigger role as the tournament went on, winding up with two goals and four assists in eight games.

"You kind of know what the tournament’s like," Scheifele said, asked what 2014 was worth now. "There are a lot of guys on the teams that play over here in the European leagues. There’s a different style of game. I know from my first year, any team can win on any given night.

"You can’t take nights off. This is a tough tournament to win for sure."

Another exposure to the wider Olympic ice surface also has value, Scheifele said.

"I don’t mind it," he said. "It makes it a little different. There’s a little more space when you’re carrying the puck sometimes. But it’s also tougher to penetrate through the middle because teams will just sag back and sit in the slot and it can be tough to get the puck into that area and create a good, quality scoring chance."

Team Canada, under head coach Bill Peters of the Carolina Hurricanes, has sent a deep roster of forwards— including the likes of Matt Duchene, Corey Perry, Brad Marchand, Ryan O’Reilly, Connor McDavid — but a very young defence, all 23 or younger with the exception of former Manitoba Moose Chris Tanev, 26, of the Vancouver Canucks.

"It’s an awesome team," Scheifele said. "We have a really good group of guys here. We have a lot of skill, a lot of offensive talent. And I think we definitely have a chance to win it."

"Hopefully I can be a guy that contributes and play a big role."

That’s exactly what he’s got in mind, because another thing Scheifele can accomplish at this tournament is give the management team of the World Cup of Hockey’s Team North America (Peter Chiarelli, Stan Bowman) further reason to include him for this fall’s tournament.

"Yeah, that’s on my mind," Scheifele said. "I want to be on that team and make an impression that I can be on that team and play, that come the fall I can have a good tournament and continue to show what I can do."

Scheifele’s continued development is only good news for the Jets in seasons ahead, a future that took a good turn with last Saturday’s NHL draft lottery move from No. 6 to No. 2 in this year’s first round.

"That was pretty awesome for us," Scheifele said. "I definitely think we were the winners out of that one. To be able to jump up that many spots, it looks like we’ll get a really good player with one of those first picks. It’s definitely exciting for our organization."

For the world championship, which runs to May 22, Team Canada flew to Prague, Czech Republic last Friday and had a Monday exhibition game before moving into St. Petersburg Wednesday.

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Scheifele said line combinations so far are up in the air, though he has skated some with Winnipegger Mark Stone.

Stone, who plays for the Ottawa Senators, is fine after being clobbered by Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien in a game against the Jets in March.

"He’s doing good," said Scheifele with a chuckle. "We definitely talked about that. He’s a strong body for getting up after that hit."

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca