Reese Hamilton Named to Canada's World U17 Challenge Roster
October 23, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Calgary Hitmen News Release
Calgary, AB - Hockey Canada has announced the 44 players who will compete with
Team Canada Red and Team Canada White at the 2023 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, Nov. 2-11 in Charlottetown and Summerside, PE. Amongst those chosen is Hitmen defenceman Reese Hamilton who will be representing Team Canada Red.
Hamilton, a product of Whitewood, SK, played the 2022-23 season with the Saskatoon Blazers U18 AAA before making the 2023-24 Calgary Hitmen Roster. The 6'0", 170-pound defenceman finished his previous season with 31 points (8g, 23a) in 39 games and currently sits with seven points (2g, 5a) in 12 games with Calgary. The 2007-born defenceman was drafted in the first round (4th overall) by the Hitmen in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft. Hamilton was a part of Hockey Canada's Program of Excellence which took place this past summer.
The players chosen to represent their country were selected by Byron Bonora (Brooks, AB), U17 head scout, and Dave Brown (Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON/Erie, OHL), U17 lead with the Program of Excellence management group, with assistance from regional scouts Rob Simpson (Ontario), Pierre Cholette (Quebec), Darren Sutherland (Atlantic) and Darrell Woodley (Ontario)..
"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 (Sudbury, ON), 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."
The Canadian squads are in action on opening day, Nov. 2. Canada White hosts Czechia at Credit Union Place in Summerside at 12 p.m. AT, followed by Canada Red facing Finland at 7 p.m. AT 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.
More than 2,000 NHL draft picks have suited up since the inception of the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge (previously known as the Quebec Esso Cup) in 1986, including 16 first-overall draft picks since 2001 (Ilya Kovalchuk, 2001; Rick Nash, 2002; Marc-André Fleury, 2003; Alexander Ovechkin, 2004; Erik Johnson, 2006; Patrick Kane, 2007; John Tavares, 2009; Taylor Hall, 2010, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 2011; Nathan MacKinnon, 2013; Aaron Ekblad, 2014; Connor McDavid, 2015; Auston Matthews, 2016; Jack Hughes, 2019; Alexis Lafrenière, 2020; Owen Power, 2021).
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