A Kelowna Rockets prospect and two members of the B.C. Major Midget League champion Okanagan Rockets have played their way on to Hockey Canada’s radar.
Dillon Dube, Tyson Jost and Jake Kryski are among 96 players who have been invited to Canada’s national under-17 development camp this summer in Calgary.
Dube, a first-round bantam pick of Kelowna in 2013, played last season with the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox, Sask., where he scored 21 goals and added 42 assists is 44 games, and scored another 13 points in 12 playoff games.
As a 15-year-old rookie, Jost—a native of St. Albert, AB—set new BCMML and team records for goals (44) and points (88) during the regular season and was a key playoff performer on the road to the Okanagan Rockets winning bronze at the Telus Cup.
Kryski, from Vancouver, scored 16 goals and added 32 assists in 37 games and, like Jost, was a key contributor in the B.C. playoffs with 11 points in seven games.
The camp, to be held July 29 at Aug. 4, will serve as part of Canada’s new under-17 structure, focusing on player development. Scouts will continue to watch these players, along with other 1998-born players across the country, and 66 will be selected to represent Canada at the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, scheduled for Oct. 31 to Nov. 8 in a yet-to-be-determined location.
The tournament will be the first to feature three Canadian national teams (Black, Red and White). From 1986 to 2014, Canada was represented by five regional teams: Atlantic, Ontario, Pacific, Quebec and West.
Current Kelowna Rockets assistant coach Dan Lambert served as coach of Team West last year at the U17s. He will return as a coach again this December for one of three of Canada’s teams.
