By Andrew Chong, Editor /
With highly publicized events like the World Junior Championship and the men’s Olympic team roster announcement set for late December, it can be easy to overlook the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Timmins, Ont. will host the world’s best ’93-born (or younger) players in a seven-day, 10-team tournament from Dec. 26 to Jan. 4. This event is the first step in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence—many players will move on to the National U-18 Team or the National Junior Team.
The tournament features five regional Canadian teams as well as teams from Russia, Sweden, Finland, U.S.A., and the Czech Republic.
The list of Canadian U-17 alumni is vast and high-profile—so much so, that the majority of Canada’s 2010 Olympic roster will likely be made up of former U-17 Hockey Challenge participants: Jeff Carter, Drew Doughty, Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Getzlaf, Mike Green, Jarome Iginla, Vincent Lecavalier, Roberto Luongo, Patrick Marleau, Rick Nash, Scott Niedermayer, Corey Perry, Dion Phaneuf, Mike Richards, Brent Seabrook, Eric Staal, Joe Thornton, Jonathan Toews, and Duncan Keith.
Sidney Crosby and Jay Bouwmeester would have been on that list as well had they not both made the U-20 World Junior team as 16-year-olds. Steve Stamkos played on the U-17 team in 2007 at the Canada Winter Games (held once every four years; the men’s hockey event is played at the Games in place of the World U-17 Hockey Challenge).
NHL rookies John Tavares, Ryan O’Reilly, Matt Duchene and Evander Kane have also competed in the event. With the exception of Tavares, the other three competed at the U-17s as recently as the 2007/08 event. Projected 2010 first overall NHL Draft pick Taylor Hall had four goals in five games in that tournament to lead Team Ontario to a gold medal.
Elite NHLers from other countries have also made their big-stage debut at the U-17 Challenge: Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Evgeni Nabokov (Russia); Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, and Ryan Kesler (U.S.A.), and Daniel and Henrik Sedin (Sweden).
Past NHL superstars like Joe Sakic, Pavel Bure, and Mats Sundin have also participated.
Since 1986, the World U-17 Hockey Challenge has had more than 1,000 NHL-drafted players take part. When International Scouting Services released their early-season 2010 NHL Draft rankings, 23 of the top 30 prospects (and the entire top eight) were U-17 alumni.
So, based on history, it is very reasonable to suggest that the 2010 edition of the World U-17 Hockey Challenge will be a showcase of many future NHL stars.
In particular, Team Pacific forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Red Deer Rebels, WHL) from Burnaby, B.C. is one to watch; he is the highest-ranked Canadian prospect in the latest ISS rankings for 2011 (third overall). Winnipeg-native Michael St. Croix (Edmonton Oil Kings, WHL) will play for Team West and is ranked seventh by ISS for the 2011 Draft.
If you can’t be in Timmins to see the U-17 Challenge live, watch TSN on Jan. 4 for the medal games for a glimpse of the NHL’s future stars. |
