CALGARY, Alberta – Twenty-two players have been selected to Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team as it looks to defend its gold medal at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, Aug. 5-10 in Edmonton, Alberta. Of the 22 players, four are alumni of the Greater Toronto Hockey League.

GTHL ALUMNI (4) 

• Jack Ivankovic (Mississauga Senators)
• Jake O’Brien (Toronto Jr. Canadiens)
• Ethan Czata (Mississauga Rebels)
• Luca Romano (Toronto Jr. Canadiens)

Two goaltenders, seven defencemen, and 13 forwards — representing eight Members — were selected by head scout Byron Bonora (Brooks, AB)  and Dave Brown (Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON/Erie, OHL), the U18 lead for the Program of Excellence management group, with input from Scott Salmond (Creston, BC), senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations.

Head coach Kris Mallette (Kelowna, BC/Kelowna, WHL) and assistant coaches Gordie Dwyer (Dalhousie, NB/Acadie-Bathurst, LMJHQ) and Ryan Oulahen (Newmarket, ON/North Bay, OHL)also provided input.

Among the 22 players are five who won a gold medal with Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team at the 2024 IIHF U18 World Championship (Desnoyers, Hamilton, Ivankovic, McKenna, Schaefer) and seventeen that suited up at the 2023 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, including nine who won gold with Canada White (Czata, Desnoyers, Guite, Hopkins, Huang, Ivankovic, Reid, Schaefer, Schmidt).

“This is a group of accomplished athletes that have earned this opportunity to represent their country and defend a gold medal,” Brown said. “The opportunity to play for Canada on home ice isn’t something that happens often, and we’re excited for this group and what lies ahead.”

Prior to the start of the tournament, Team Canada will take on Slovakia on Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. MT/9 p.m. ET at Bill Hunter Arena, and Czechia on Aug. 3 at 7 p.m. MT/9 p.m. ET at the Downtown Community Arena.

Canada opens the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup against Switzerland on Aug. 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET/9:30 p.m. ET. It will also face Slovakia and Sweden in the preliminary round before the tournament concludes with the medal games on Aug. 10.

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast all games from Edmonton; please check local listings for more details.

Canada has won 24 gold medals in 32 years of summer under-18 competition, along with three silver medals and one bronze.

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca.