Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team roster announced

The 22 players will represent Canada at the U18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.

CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada, in partnership with the Canadian Hockey League, announced Tuesday the 22 players who will comprise Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team at the 2014 U18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup, Aug. 11-16 in Breclav, Czech Republic and Piestany, Slovakia.

The roster was finalized following a four-day selection camp at WinSport’s Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. The camp included daily practices and three Red-White intrasquad games.

Canada’s roster is made up of 13 forwards, seven defencemen and two goaltenders. Head coach Jody Hull (Petrolia, Ont./Peterborough, OHL) assembled the roster with support from assistant coaches Shaun Clouston (Viking, Alta./Medicine Hat, WHL) and Martin Raymond (Pierrefonds, Que./Drummondville, QMJHL), Ryan Jankowski, Hockey Canada’s head scout for men’s national teams, and Tim Speltz (Medicine Hat, Alta./Spokane, WHL), who is assisting the Program of Excellence management group.

“I am excited about the roster we have named today,” Hull said. “This was an intense, high-tempo camp, and there were some tough decisions to get down to the final 22 players. As a coaching staff, we’re confident we’ve selected the best team to travel to Europe and continue Canada’s great tradition at this event.”

Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team breakdown

• two goaltenders, seven defencemen and 13 forwards
• 22 players from the Canadian Hockey League
• eight players from the Western Hockey League (Barzal, Bear, Harkins, Hobbs, Merkley, Musil, Sawchenko, Soy)
• eight players from the Ontario Hockey League (Crouse, Knott, Konecny, Marner, Spencer, Stephens, Strome, Vande Sompel)
• six players from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (Beauvillier, Booth, Brisebois, Meloche, J. Roy, N. Roy)
• 22 players with experience in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence
• three players who won a bronze medal as under-agers at the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in Lappeenranta and Imatra, Finland (Barzal, Crouse, Konecny)

Canada has won the annual summer under-18 tournament six consecutive years, and has won 18 of 23 tournaments since 1991. It will play in Group B in Piestany with Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. Group A, which consists of the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and the United States, will play out of Breclav.

Canada will face the Czech Republic in a pre-tournament game in Breclav on Saturday, Aug. 9 before opening the tournament against Switzerland on Monday, Aug. 11. The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals on Friday, Aug. 15, with the gold medal game scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 16.

Webcasts of Canada’s games in Piestany at the 2014 U18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup will be available online. To watch, CLICK HERE.

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team, please visit www.hockeycanada.ca, or follow along through social media at www.facebook.com/hockeycanada, www.twitter.com/hockeycanada and www.twitter.com/hc_men.