Among the recent hockey notes was the announcement of the Ontario Under 17 team for the World Under 17 Hockey Challenge.
The event runs from December 29th to January 4th at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Among the 22 players selected for the Ontario team is Kincardine native Garrett McFadden who is a rookie defender for the Guelph Storm.
When the Attack were at Guelph in early October, Storm coach Scott Walker, a pretty good OHL defenceman in his own right, was quite enthused about McFadden’s start to the season.
If anything, Walker thought that McFadden was playing too conservative, but in the eyes of the coach, he stated the former Grey-Bruce Highlander is ahead of other gifted defenders that he’s coached in Guelph.
Meanwhile from an Attack standpoint, only assistant coach Drew Bannister will be part of the Under 17 team, serving on Roger Hunt’s staff.
Back in May, there were high hopes, with as many as 5 Owen Sound prospects showing well at the initial camp.
The absence of any Attack underagers though, is far from a disaster.
The reality is the group of Heeps, MacArthur, McNiven, Szypula & Walters have to get bigger, or better, or both, yet from my perspective, I’m pretty encouraged by what I see, Under 17 or not.
Furthermore, if recent memory serves me correctly; Jordan Binnington didn’t make Team Ontario. Nor did Zach Nastasiuk. And those two players turned out to be pretty good players for Owen Sound.
I’m Fred Wallace