As always, the two rosters are a collection of top WHL 16 year olds and top WHL prospects. The rosters, with current club and/or WHL affiliation....
Team Pacific:
Forwards:
Anthony Ast (Vancouver Giants)
Tyson Baillie (Kelowna Rockets)
Greg Chase (Calgary Hitmen)
Jaedon Descheneau (Kootenay Ice)
Jackson Houck (Vancouver Giants)
Morgan Klimchuk (Regina Pats)
Curtis Lazar (Edmonton Oil Kings)
Jay Merkley (Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Matt Needham (Kamloops Blazers)
Nicolas Petan (Portland Winterhawks)
Sam Reinhart (Kootenay Ice)
Torrin White (Moose Jaw Warriors)
Chase Witala (Prince George Cougars)
Defencemen:
Kyle Burroughs (Regina Pats)
Macoy Erkamps (Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Mason Geertsen (Edmonton Oil Kings)
Keegan Kanzig (Victoria Royals)
Jesse Lees (Kelowna Rockets)
Josh Morrissey (Prince Albert Raiders)
Ayrton Nikkel (Brandon Wheat Kings)
Goaltenders:
Eric Comrie (Tri-City Americans)
Tristan Jarry (Edmonton Oil Kings)
And Team Western:
Forwards:
Denis Bosc (Steinbach Pistons (MJHL) - WHL property of Swift Current)
Jarrett Fontaine (Prince George Cougars)
Alex Forsberg (Prince George Cougars)
Carter Hansen (Moose Jaw Warriors)
Kurt Keats (Winnipeg Blues (MJHL) - WHL property of Moose Jaw Warriors)
Remi Laurencelle (Winnipeg Wild (MMHL) - WHL property of Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Craig Leverton (Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Geordie Maguire (Winnipeg Wild (MMHL) - WHL property of Everett Silvertips)
Jonathan Martin (Kootenay Ice)
Cory Millette (Red Deer Rebels)
Christian Stockl (Winnipeg Wild (MMHL) - WHL property of Saskatoon Blades)
Jordan Tkatch (Prince George Cougars)
Nick Zajac (Saskatoon Blades)
Defencemen:
Madison Bowey (Kelowna Rockets)
Kayle Doetzel (Red Deer Rebels)
Colby Harmsworth (Saskatoon Contacts (SMHL) - WHL property of Calgary Hitmen)
Kevin Pochuk (Winnipeg Wild (MMHL) - WHL property of Red Deer Rebels)
Paul Stoykewych (Winnipeg Blues (MJHL) - WHL property of Portland Winterhawks)
Spencer Wand (Kootenay Ice)
Colby Williams (Regina Pat Canadians (SMHL) - WHL property of Regina Pats)
Goaltenders:
Austin Lotz (Everett Silvertips)
Mack Shields (Saskatoon Contacts (SMHL) - WHL property of Calgary Hitmen)
WHL clubs with the most players in the tournament are:
Kootenay Ice: 4
Lethbridge Hurricanes: 4
Prince George Cougars: 4
Calgary Hitmen: 3
Edmonton Oil Kings: 3
Kelowna Rockets: 3
Moose Jaw Warriors: 3
Red Deer Rebels: 3
Regina Pats: 3
Everett Silvertips: 2
Portland Winterhawks: 2
Saskatoon Blades: 2
Vancouver Giants: 2
Brandon Wheat Kings: 1
Kamloops Blazers: 1
Prince Albert Raiders: 1
Swift Current Broncos: 1
Tri-City Americans: 1
Victoria Royals: 1
Medicine Hat, Seattle, and Spokane do not have any players or prospects on this year's teams.
And one other note - every year Team Western seems to have some non-WHL-roster players on their team, while Team Pacific seems to always be 100% WHL roster players. This year is no different. For some fun trivia though, there are 25 WHL rostered 16 year olds who did NOT make the U-17 teams; five of those are American (thus not eligible for Team Pacific or Team Western) and the other 20 are all from B.C. or Alberta.
In other words, Team Western picked every single eligible 16 year old from WHL rosters. They HAD to fill out their roster with players from the midget leagues.
5 comments:
What doesn't make any sense is why does Team Pacific get choosen from an area BC/Alta with a combined population of 9 million people. Yet Team West is chosen from an area of 2 million combined? How the heck is that fair?
Of the 11 million people in western Canada, Saskatchewan and Manitoba make up about 18% of the population yet 28% of the 16 yr olds in the WHL this year come from that population base. Yet in spite of those impressive numbers they have to take kids on midget teams to complete their roster. Maybe they should split Alberta in half and level the playing field. No way should a disparity like that be allowed to happen. While Saskatchewan and Manitoba continue to produce players for the WHL at the highest per capita rate of any region in Western Canada, when they build teams for this type of tournament they get the short end of the stick.
I'd agree, but Team West has won before, whereas I'm not sure Team Pacific has. I know Team West won with the '88 age group with Toews, etc.
You are correct - West has actually won the tournament twice, in 2005 (when they beat Pacific in the final) and 1998. Pacific have never won.
Complete results for all the years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_U-17_Hockey_Challenge
Pacific has finished 2nd five times and 3rd four times, for nine total medals in 19 years. West has won the thing twice and finished 3rd once, for three total medals in that time.
Obviously Pacific has been more consistently competitive at the tournament, but West can be proud of those two gold medals too since only Ontario, Quebec, and USA have more championships - and those three teams draw from quite significantly larger populations than West does.
You missed Tyler King in Spokane for some strange reason he was left off Team West's roster.
Some years they go with 11 SK players and 11 MB players... maybe King was the odd man out here since all the SK forwards are all up in the WHL already.
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