With the last of three intrasquad games at Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team selection camp in the books, Hockey Canada has announced the 22 players who have been selected to wear the Maple Leaf at the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.
Included on the roster is Spruce Grove Saints defenceman Ian Mitchell. In his 1st year in the AJHL, Mitchell played in 54 regular season games and recorded 21 points. Ian Mitchell was recently identified on the 2016-17 NHL Central Scouting Futures List. The list of 290 players indicates likely draft-eligible targets for NHL scouts in the upcoming 2016-17 hockey season. Mitchell has committed to the Universty of Denver of the NCAA Division I. The 17 year-old also won Gold with Team Canada at the 2015 World Under-17 Challenge in November 2015.
Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team will be looking for its ninth-consecutive gold medal when it hits the ice in Breclav, Czech Republic, and Bratislava, Slovakia, Aug. 8-13. Canada has taken the overall honours 20 times in the tournament’s 25-year history.
Wearing the newly-released Team Canada jersey, Canada will play in Group B with Russia, Slovakia, and Sweden; Group A consists of the Czech Republic, Finland, Switzerland, and the United States. Canada will face the Czech Republic in a pre-tournament game on Aug. 6, and officially opens the tournament Aug. 8 against Slovakia. The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals on Friday, Aug. 12, with the gold-medal game scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 13.