As the 2018 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship draws near, Hockey Canada has trimmed its selection camp roster down from 33 to 27 players.

One of the six players in the first set of cuts was the lone Saskatchewan-born player on the camp roster - Shaunavon's Kole Lind.

The Kelowna Rockets forward was one of three forwards to get released from camp - Cody Glass (Portland Winterhawks) and Jonathan Ang (Peterborough Petes) were the other two sent home.

Defencemen Dennis Cholowski (Prince George Cougars) and Logan Stanley (Kitchener Rangers), as well as goalie Samuel Harvey (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies), rounded out the first set of players returning to their respective junior teams.

Swift Current Broncos forward Tyler Steenbergen is one of the 27 players still on the camp roster.

Five more players will be cut later today, as an exhibition game between Canada and Denmark this afternoon will be the last opportunity for players to make their case for one of 22 roster spots (13 forwards, 7 defencemen, 2 goalies).

Lind, who has 36 points (13 G, 23 A) in 23 games with Kelowna so far this season, now looks to jump back into the WHL schedule with just two games remaining before the Christmas Break.

He and the Rockets are on the road in Prince Albert tonight taking on the Raiders, before finishing up a lengthy eastern road trip Saturday night in Saskatoon against the Blades.