International Hockey
Changes Ahead for World Under 17 Hockey Challenge
As Hockey Canada announced a while back, the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge will have some changes coming for the 2015 event. The holiday tournament will go from five Canadian teams to three, and from 10 teams overall down to eight teams. This will be the last year Canada will enter teams from it’s traditional areas: West, Pacific, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic. Beginning next season, Canada will be represented by three national teams – Team Black, Team Red and Team White. The teams will be comprised using a combination of the top 66 under-17 players from across the country. Gone are the geographic boundaries. Canada will now be mixing players from geographical areas. If the format was being used this season, Travis Konecny could have found himself matched up against a player like Dylan Strome.
I like the idea of reducing from five teams down to three teams. I think the idea of mixing players from various geographic areas is also interesting, but I do have one minor concern. I’d like to see teammates from league rosters remain teammates in this event. I don’t want two Oshawa Generals players competing against each other in a puck battle in a corner. That’s not going to help achieve the highest level of competitiveness. Using this year as an example, Sudbury has sent goaltender Troy Timpano and Dman Kyle Capobianco. Oshawa also has two players on this year roster, as does Belleville. I think those pairs should be kept together.
To help in the selection process of choosing the correct players for the 2015 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, Hockey Canada will hold a national under-17 camp in July 2014. The best 100 players born in 1998 or later will be invited to the camp to be held in Calgary.
One change that I have not seen confirmed but I’m told should happen, is Hockey Canada moving the World Under 17 Challenge tournament to November. I heard this news last weekend from a few NHL scouts and a reliable media source. I also heard talk of the tourney being held in Calgary each year but that seemed to be a lot further from being a lock than the other chatter.
I love the idea of the tournament being held in November. I struggle to attend all the events I want to attend with the current busy post Christmas schedule.
This obviously helps TSN as well with no overlap with the World Jr Championship. Given the recent NHL rights news, I won’t be surprised if TSN shows a lot more games from the World Under 17 Challenge next season. I’m also guessing TSN will pickup the CHL package next season. Sportsnet’s current deal expires after this season so it’s a no brainer for TSN to fill there NHL programming void with the entertaining CHL product. It’s a nice marriage with the Hockey Canada events if this becomes reality.
Thumbs up from me on the changes. I was already looking forward to next year with it’s strong 2015 NHL Draft class, this just adds to a fun year ahead.