U18 Worlds Preview: Canada vs. Sweden

With a historical past spanning greater than three many years, the Hlinka Gretzky Cup is
an annual summer time hockey custom, being performed in 5 international locations since
Yokohama and Sapporo, Japan hosted the 1991 Phoenix Cup.

So it’s becoming, because the event returns to Canadian ice for the third
time, that Red Deer performs host.

The metropolis’s ties to the event run deep – the Red Deer Rebels of the Western
Hockey League (WHL) have despatched extra gamers to

Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team than another Canadian junior membership; Team Canada ahead Kalan Lind is the
18th Rebel to put on the Maple Leaf.

There’s a pleasure that comes with representing the crew … and town.

“I used to be drafted by Red Deer once I was 14, and being from B.C. I did not know
precisely the place it was; now, 23 years later, I nonetheless dwell right here at the moment,” says
former Rebels captain Colin Fraser. “Red Deer is a smaller metropolis that simply
loves hockey and all the time has.”

Fraser was a part of Team Canada on the

2002 Eight Nations Cup within the Czech Republic and Slovakia, scoring twice and including an help in
5 video games to assist Canada to gold. The roster that 12 months included names like
Phaneuf, Seabrook, Richards and Perry.

He captained the Rebels within the final of his 4 seasons in Central Alberta
in 2004-05, the identical 12 months he received gold with Canada on the

2005 IIHF World Junior Championship, arguably the most effective Canadian crew ever on the World Juniors.

“In the second, you virtually take it as a right; you look again now and also you
notice as an previous man how fortunate you have been to get the prospect to play with and
towards all these superstars, all-stars, Stanley Cup champions and Olympic
Gold medallists,” says Fraser, who himself received Stanley Cups with Chicago
(2010) and Los Angeles (2012).

Working at the moment as a Western Canada scout for the Blackhawks based mostly out of Red
Deer, Fraser sees the event because the official begin to the scouting
season and the lead-up to the 2023 NHL Draft.

“On that facet of issues, the significance of seeing the highest draft picks for
subsequent season right here, all underneath one roof and enjoying towards one another it
actually will get issues off on foot,” he says. “It allows you to see the place
they’re at the start of the season.”

Another former Rebels captain has a novel perspective on the connection
between hockey, Red Deer and Team Canada.

Brandon Sutter is a Red Deer native who performed 205 video games throughout components of
4 seasons with the Rebels, a crew owned by his father, Brent (who additionally
serves as Rebels president and basic supervisor). Sutter was a part of Team
Canada on the

2006 U18 Junior World Cup, posting two assists in 4 video games as Canada received gold.

“It’s a community that just loves hockey,” says the Vancouver Canucks
ahead, who additionally performed in a pair of IIHF U18 World Championships and the

2008 IIHF World Junior Championship. “On weekends, folks love spending time on the Centrium – it’s simply variety
of what you do. You develop up enjoying minor hockey right here and once you get
older you notice what a draw junior hockey is, it actually brings lots of
folks collectively.”

Sutter recollects the 2006 summer time U18 event as certainly one of his first nice
worldwide experiences. He factors to the brand new experiences and the timing
of the occasion within the late summer time as to what made it a really distinctive occasion.

“When I performed it was in Piestany, and that was like a special world – it
was a very cool expertise,” he says. “I bear in mind going to the
[selection] camp in the summertime; it was type of the primary time I obtained to go
to a camp with all these guys from throughout Canada, lots of the blokes from
out east you possibly solely knew by title.

“All these [U18 world championship] experiences have been nice, however that
[summer U18] event was the one the place each child was accessible. It was
all the time the cream of the crop of your age throughout Canada, so it was fairly
cool to be on that crew the place you actually earn your spot.”

Sutter is pleased with the work his father and brother (Merrick, the Rebels’
senior vice-president) have achieved. They have been integral to town and
franchise internet hosting a few of the largest occasions in Canadian junior hockey.

“Just the best way Dad and Merrick have actually taken care of the group
and have promoted totally different Hockey Canada and CHL occasions, it’s fairly
distinctive,” Sutter says. “Not many communities of 100,000 folks get these
sorts of experiences.”

“Brent and Merrick do such knowledgeable job of bringing in occasions like
the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, the World Juniors [and] the Memorial Cup to this
space; they actually put Red Deer on the map for hockey,” Fraser provides. “I
think about myself actually fortunate to have performed for Brent – I realized lots of
the values, work ethic and simply the intangibles of easy methods to be a
skilled. He does that as a coach and the group does all these
issues to try to make you a greater professional.

“If the Rebels are doing something, it’s always top notch – no short cuts.”

REBELS TO PLAY WITH CANADA’S NATIONAL MEN’S SUMMER UNDER-18 TEAM

2022 – Kalan Lind
2015 – Josh Mahura
2014 – Adam Musil
2013 – Haydn Fleury
2012 – Kayle Doetzel
2011 – Matt Dumba
2010 – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
2009 – Alex Petrovic
2006 – Brandon Sutter
2002 – Colin Fraser, Dion Phaneuf
2001 – Derek Meech
2000 – Jeff Woywitka
1998 – Ross Lupaschuk, Kyle Wanvig
1997 – Stephen Peat
1995 – Arron Asham
1994 – Mike McBain