Sarnia Sting rookie forward Jacob Perreault has been invited to represent Canada at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, set for November 3-10 in New Brunswick.
The 66 players will be divided into three teams (Canada Red, Canada Black and Canada White) and will compete against the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States in their quest for a gold medal.
The 5 foot 11 inch, 195-pound Perreault has proven to have a scoring touch early in his OHL career with the Sting, notching five goals and two assists in just nine games played. Perreault also helped lead his minor midget Chicago Mission team to a national title this past April.
In July, 112 players were invited to participate in Canada’s national under-17 development camp and introduced to the Hockey Canada Program of Excellence.
The tournament opens Saturday, Nov. 3 at in Quispamsis when Finland takes on Sweden at 3:30 p.m. AT, followed by Team Canada Red, silver-medalist last year, facing off against Russia at 7:30 p.m. AT.
The United States will kick off the action at Harbour Station in Saint John on Sunday, November 4 when it plays the Czech Republic at 12 p.m. AT, followed by an all-Canadian match-up between Team Canada Black and Team Canada White at 4 p.m. AT.
More than 1,700 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 13 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; and Auston Matthews, 2016).
