The Hlinka Gretzky Cup is just around the corner, and Canada has announced their under-18 men’s hockey roster for the 2025 team.
On Friday, Hockey Canada revealed the 25-player roster that will represent the country from August 11-16 in Brno, Czechia, and Trencin, Slovakia, as Canada aims to grab its fourth-straight gold medal at the tournament.
Many of their selected players have gold-medal experience at the U-18 or U-17 level.
Of the players selected, forwards Beckham Edwards and Alessandro Di Iorio, and defencemen Carson Carels, Ryan Lin, Daxon Rudolph and Keaton Verhoeff were part of Canada’s gold medal-winning side at the 2025 IIHF U18 World Championships in April and May.
Meanwhile, forwards Thomas Rousseau, Cooper Williams, and Dimina Zhilkin and goaltender Jason Schaubel will all be making their international debuts.
Also featured on the side is Landon DuPont of Calgary, Alta. DuPont is the only player born in 2009 on the roster and the most recent player to be granted exceptional status in the CHL, suiting up for the Everett Silvertips in the WHL last season at only 15 years old.
Medicine Hat Tigers twin brothers Markus and Liam Ruck of Osoyoos, B.C., were also named to the squad.
The Hlinka Gretzy Cup is an invitation-only, best-on-best tournament at the Under-18 national level. In the last 32 years of the Under-18 competition, Canada has claimed 25 gold medals, three silver and one bronze.
Canada beat Czechia 2-1 to win last year’s tournament in Edmonton.
Canada will open the preliminary round of the tournament against Finland on Aug. 11, followed by matches against Switzerland on Aug. 12 and Czechia on Aug. 13. The medal games will take place on Aug. 16.
The roster was selected by general manager Alan Millar, Yanick Lemay, director of hockey operations Benoit Roy, head scout Byron Bonora and senior vice-president of hockey operations Scott Salmond.
“Our selection camp was highly competitive and provided an opportunity for our players to showcase themselves against the top talent in the country, and we believe we have assembled a roster that will compete for gold and wear the Maple Leaf with pride in Czechia and Slovakia,” Millar said Friday in a statement.
Mathieu Turcotte, who has coached the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada for the past two seasons and was an assistant coach of the victorious under-18 team in Frisco, will be Canada’s head coach in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
— With files from the Canadian Press
