Rookies tapped to play for Canada in U17 worlds
The Saskatoon Blades’ youth have been served notice.
And that’s a good thing. Kyle Crnkovic and Aidan De La Gorgendiere have both been selected to represented Canada at the upcoming World Under-17 Hockey Challenge next month in New Brunswick.
“It’s a great honour for those two young men and their families,” said Blades head coach Mitch Love, whose team returns to action at home on Wednesday night against the Calgary Hitmen.
Game time is 7:05 p.m. at the Sasktel Centre.
“Any time you can represent your country, it’s a great feat for them and, as an organization, it’s great for us,” Love said after practice Tuesday. “It’s something for us to watch there in November at the tournament at St. John, and those good young players who have been recognized by Hockey Canada tells you that hopefully the future is brighter here.”
De La Gorgendiere and Crnkovic are both in their WHL rookie seasons after being selected fifth and 10th overall, respectively, in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft.
“It’s a huge honour,” said De La Gorgendiere, who has one assist, two penalty minutes and a plus-2 rating while playing in all 10 games this season for Saskatoon.
“I’m looking forward to putting the maple leaf jersey on. Me and Kyle have been pretty close friends for a few years now. Just having a buddy on the team is going to be awesome. It’s really cool.”
Crnkovic has yet to play a game this season after injuring his shoulder in training camp, but he’s expected to return to the ice any day now, possibly even by this weekend.
“To have the chance to represent your country, it’s going to be an awesome honour and I just can’t wait for the experience,” said Crnkovic, a forward from Chestermere, Alta.
“It’s been tough (sitting only the sidelines). Obviously, you want to be out there, but the guys have been doing awesome and I can’t wait to get back and hopefully help them (Blades) keep doing well.”
Crnkovic scored 36 goals and 64 points in 30 games last season for Northern Alberta Xtreme’s midget prep team of the CSSHL. He added another 12 points in five playoff games en route to a league championship. Crnkovic was also the leading scorer at the 2017 WHL Cup last year.
De La Gorgendiere spent last season with Yale Academy’s midget prep team, scoring 17 points and adding 38 penalty minutes in 19 games. He was a member of WHL Cup champions Team British Columbia in 2017.
De La Gorgendiere says he’s happy to be able to share the World U-17 Challenge experience with Crnkovic, a former rival turned friend and teammate.
“We played bantam against each other and our teams were rivals,” said De La Gorgendiere. “When we both got drafted here, we became a bit closer. We’ve become really close over the last two years.”
Canada will be split into three teams: Canada Black, Canada Red and Canada White. They will complete against national teams from Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic and the United States.
“He’s an awesome guy and we’re pretty good buddies,” Crnkovic said of De La Gorgendiere. “To represent Canada together would even be more awesome.”
Crnkovic and De La Gorgendiere will be joined in New Brunswick by Blades associate general manager Steve Hildebrand, who will be serving as director of operations for Canada White. Blades’ equipment manager Chad Scharff will be doing his second shift at the World U17 Challenge with Canada Black and Saskatoon’s mental performance coach Josh Hoetmer will also join Canada Black.
This year’s tournament takes place in Saint John and Quispamsis, N.B.
Crnkovic and De La Gorgendiere will leave on Oct. 29 for the tournament, which runs from Nov. 3-10.