5 T-Birds prospects to play in 2016 Western Canada U16 Challenge Cup
Oct 6, 2016, 12:59 PM | Updated: 3:15 pm
The 2016 Western Canada U16 Challenge Cup featuring the top under-16 prospects from the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan is set to run from Oct. 19-23.
Five T-Birds have been selected to play in this year’s tournament. 2016 Bantam Draft picks Layton Ahac (third round, 66th overall) and Alex Swetlikoff (third, 62nd overall) will suit up for Team British Columbia, Eric Fawkes (second, 40th overall) and Nakodan Greyeyes (sixth, 117th overall) will represent Team Manitoba, and Jake Lee (first, 18th overall) will play for Team Alberta.
The tournament churns out elite talent every year, including the likes of recent T-Birds stars Mathew Barzal (2012), Ryan Gropp (2011), Ethan Bear (2012) and Keegan Kolesar (2012). Two of Seattle’s top 16 year olds this year, center Elijah Brown and backup goaltender Carl Stankowski, led Team Alberta to the gold medal in the tournament last season. Kabir Gill, a defenseman who had an outside shot to make the team this year, played for Team British Columbia last fall.
Every year, the Challenge Cup is a good indicator of the next class of top-level talent that will be entering the WHL. The five Thunderbirds prospects who will be participating all had a strong first training camp with Seattle and have a legitimate shot to make the team next year when there will be high turnover among the forward and defense groups.
If you look down the list of past Challenge Cup All-Stars and participants, it’s a who’s who of WHL stars and future NHL draftees. In addition to the T-Birds mentioned above, players like Matt Dumba, Jake Virtanen, Brayden Point, Nick Merkley, Tyler Benson and Nolan Patrick have taken part.
With an impressive contingent set to participate this year, the T-Birds pipeline appears stocked with talent in the 2001-born age group.