Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna has been invited for the 2023 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge taking place in Charlottetown and Summerside, Prince Edward Island from Nov. 2 to 11.
McKenna, a Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizen from Whitehorse, is one of the 44 players who will compete for Team Canada Red & White, with McKenna on the roster for Team Red.
McKenna, 15, plays in the Western Hockey League (WHL) and leads the Tigers in points with 17 (five goals, 12 assists) in all 12 games played thus far in the 2023/2024 season.
McKenna is second in WHL rookie scoring while sitting 14th overall in the entire league. He’s the youngest player on the list, the club said in a statement.
“The Tigers would like to congratulate Gavin and his family for this incredible achievement in his career and are looking forward to seeing him represent the organization, the City of Medicine Hat and Canada at the U17’s,” the statement read.
“This summer we took the first step in introducing 66 young athletes to our Program of Excellence, which included preparations for short-term international competition,” said Benoit Roy, senior manager of hockey operations with Hockey Canada.“We are grateful for the commitment and input from our support staff to ensure our teams are ready for competition starting Nov. 2. We couldn’t be more excited for the 44 players we have selected to represent Canada at this prestigious tournament and believe they will give us the best chance to compete for a gold medal.”
Hockey Canada said it recognizes the teams’ support staff who will participate in this year’s tournament, with 10 individuals representing Team Canada Red and Team Canada White.
Team Canada will play on the opening day of the competition when Canada White hosts Czechia at Credit Union Place in Summerside at 12 p.m. (AST), followed by Canada Red facing Finland at 7 p.m. (AST) at the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown.
Red and White will meet in the lone all-Canadian matchup in the preliminary round on Nov. 3 in Summerside.
TSN and RDS will broadcast the medal games, while the preliminary-round games, quarterfinals and semifinals will be available by livestream at HockeyCanada.ca.
Contact Patrick Egwu at patrick.egwu@yukon-news.com