Chilliwack Chief Peter Reynolds is one of 66 skaters who’ve been chosen to represent Canada at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge.
Hockey Canada announced rosters Wednesday for the tournament which runs for Nov 2-9 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
Reynolds will be keeping interesting company at the tourney.
Of the 39 forwards who are making the trip, 37 are currently playing major junior hockey in the WHL, OHL or QMJHL. Reynolds and Dovar Tinling (Central Canadian Hockey League Hawkesbury) are the only junior A players.
Reynolds is the only player, period, from the BCHL.
He’ll be assigned to the roster of Team Canada Black, Team Canada Red or Team Canada White. The rest of the tourney field includes the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
Players were picked by Hockey Canada head scout Brad McEwen with help from a U-17 Program of Excellence management group led by Martin Mondou and including regional scouts Rob Simpson (Ontario), Jason Smart (West), Darren Sutherland (Atlantic), Shaun Sutter (West) and Darrell Woodley (Ontario).
“After a successful development camp with the top young players in the country, there were many difficult decisions made to select the 66 players that will compete at this year’s World Under-17 Hockey Challenge,” said McEwen. “We feel this group exemplifies the values of the Program of Excellence and will represent Canada with pride as we compete for a gold medal this November.”
More than 1,800 National Hockey League draft picks have suited up since the World U-17 Hockey Challenge (previously known as the Quebec Esso Cup) started in 1986.
The list includes including 14 first overall selections: Ilya Kovalchuk (2001), Rick Nash (2002), Marc-André Fleury (2003), Alexander Ovechkin (2004), Erik Johnson (2006), Patrick Kane, (2007), John Tavares (2009), Taylor Hall (2010), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, (2011), Nathan MacKinnon, (2013), Aaron Ekblad (2014), Connor McDavid, (2015), Auston Matthews, (2016) and Jack Hughes (2019).
See hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/national-championships/men/world-u17/2019 for more info.
