Team Canada WHKY Summer Camp Primer

If you want to learn about a prospect in men’s hockey you’ll more than likely find about five articles written about them in the past month (goalies are like once every two years). In women’s hockey it’s rare with The Women’s Hockey News starting to get into the prospect space it’s still not whole lot. If you’re looking for another take on some of the names headed to the Summer Camp you’ve come to the right place. The U22/Dev Team

Starting with the goalies we have two familiar names, Eve Gascon & Hannah Murphy. Gascon you know from her impressive resume as one of the top U20 prospects in WHKY. From her impressive U18 play, to playing in the QMJHL, to being an elite goalie on the QCHL men’s side all Gascon is done is earn well deserved hype. Murphy has been one half of a very impressive duo for Colgate University & is getting another Dev camp. She represents a shift happening in WHKY where organizations are favouring bigger goalies as Murphy stands at 5’ 10” which is similar to PHF standout Corinne Schroeder & Team Canada senior squad goalie Kristen Campbell. More evidence the shift is happening is 5’ 11” 20yo Hanna Zukow getting an invite. She plays out of Stonehill College in the NCAA after transferring from Mercyhurst took the no. 1 job & had a very good year. Now she’ll get the chance to prove herself among some of the best U22 talent in North America.

If you look at the defensive portion of the roster there’s two names I want to bring attention to. First is Boston University’s Brooke Disher. Captain of the Canadian U18 team that won Gold in 2022 Disher had her freshman year with BU & finished in a tie for first for defensive points on the team. She’s the future of that blueline & really pushes the play offensively in a way not many others are comfortable doing let alone able to do. There’s definitely work to be done in the defensive zone but the offensive talent she’s shown will take her far. The other name is Ava Murphy who you’ll notice is the only ’05 birthyear on the defensive roster. She’s just that special and is one of the best two-way defenders already. She’ll cover for her teammates and then make offensive plays herself. It’s notable she’s the only ’05 on defense at the Summer Camp.

If you watched the 2023 U18 WWC you’ll see a lot of noticeable names on the list that won Gold this past January. If you’ve followed my work in the past you’ll notice a familiar name in Alex Law the Boston University commit. In the 2022 U18’s Law was an impressive two-way forward who just wasn’t lucky enough to see the puck go in the net off her offensive creations. In 2023 we saw Law as the majorly impactful two-way forward she is playing a huge part for Canada in winning Gold. A name to keep an eye on is Maddi Wheeler who appears to have the same support from the Team Canada staff as she does from me. She had a noticeable Fall Festival last year for Team Canada & looked prime for a breakout in the NCAA but it didn’t happen on a stacked University of Wisconsin team that did win the National Championship. With Shirley & Compher graduated there’s room in the top six for Wheeler to shine as we’re all waiting for.

While Wheeler will be looking to play a big part in defending the NCAA title Ohio State will be looking for revenge with an impressive class of freshmen coming in with a very noticeable name in Jordan Baxter. While her U18 WWC wasn’t explosive offensively she’s a speedy forward who can bring it with the right amount of ice time which she did when she helped lead Team BC to 2023 Canada Games Gold in dominating fashion by being 2nd in tournament for primary points & even strength points. If Ohio State is able to let her loose this could be a NCAA Rookie of the Year type performance incoming. And speaking of impressive NCAA freshmen performances how can we not talk about Jade Iginla of Brown University? Iginla had 17 goals in her freshman year on a team whose next highest goal scorer only had 5. You need goals to win games & Jade certainly has her dad’s shot scoring from nearly anywhere with not much effort. She’s also very capable of driving play, loves driving the center of the ice & just keeps getting better on zone entries. Now there’s a lot of great names on this roster but we’ll end with one final one, Abby Newhook. It was the Bilka & Newhook show at Boston College this year as they were the only ones to hit the +30 point mark while none of their teammates even touched 20 points. Newhook is slowly reaching power forward status & this will be a big chance for her to show all the hype she received years ago is about to come to fruition.

The U18 Team

What a fun goalie group this is! You have returning Team Canada U18 1G in Hannah Clark who should be setting the bar for all the others to try to reach. Then there’s Rhyah Stewart who you may remember from the 2023 Canada Games who was massive in upsetting Team Ontario to reach the Gold Medal Game vs Team BC where she did what she could to keep the game close. Very interested to see what improvements she’s made to her game in terms of the technical part. Then there’s also Rebecca Noble who was the Team BC 1G who won Gold at the Canada Games. Those are the more notable names but don’t worry very close attention will be paid to the other three.

How do you start any conversation about Team Canada’s defense without first talking about Chloe Primerano? U18 CSSHL MVP & 1st Team All-Star in a league filled with U18 WWC Gold Medalists as well as being the MVP (unofficially) of the 2023 Canada Games Women’s tournament. Primerano isn’t just another elite defender waiting to show her talent, she’s a revolutionary defender. Piper Grober & Ava Murphy were the go to defenders for Canada at the ’23 WWC for good reason. With both gone Canada will be looking towards Emma Venisuo who will be looking to take on a top pairing role & deal with the best opposing players at the U18 level. Venisuo has the puck moving & offensive talent Team Canada loves to have on the backend. Another returning defender from the 2023 Gold Medal WWC team & was on Team BC at the Canada Games is Gracie Graham. Just like Venisuo Team Canada will be looking to Graham to provide experience & take on a larger role this time around. She’ll be a great match for either Primerano or Venisuo providing a level of defensive play that will allow either to really exert their offensive talent. Also want to point out Brooklyn Nimegeers who lead Team Saskatchewan in points at the 2023 Canada Games as a defender. Lot of Canada Games high performers on this roster.

On forward there’s just so much intriguing talent & so many intriguing players that this article could go on forever. If you paid attention to the 2023 Canada Games there are so many recognizable names not to mention all the returnees from the 2023 U18 WWC such as the most notable in Caitlin Kraemer. Might be one of the quietest tournament rampages we’ve seen in awhile. She beat Marie-Philip Poulin’s record for goals in a single U18 tournament. She scored 10 goals in 5 games including a 1st period hat trick in the Gold Medal Game. She essentially singlehandedly stomped out any hope Sweden had of making the game competitive before people realized what was happening. At the 2023 Canada Games there were a lot of players making a name for themselves & one of those was Claire Murdoch. This girl only does primary points, at least that’s all she did at the Canada Games where she posted 9 primary points tied for 3rd with Kraemer & Alex Law. Will be very interesting to see if Murdoch/Kraemer becomes a dynamic duo at the Fall Festival. As Kassidy Sauve pointed out the Emily Clarks of the game are underappreciated & the last two years that role has been Alex Law’s. Now with Law gone Team Canada has found her clone in her teammate Dorothy Copetti. She’s an incredibly hard working, two-way forward who doesn’t give up & doesn’t care about making sacrifices to help win. As an ’07 this will be a great opportunity for her to follow the Law development path on the team.

Manitoba had a weird 2023 Canada Games where they weren’t really competitive with the top tier teams but blew out the teams just below them. Part of the Manitoba dominance in those games came from Sara Manness. The ’07 forward is one of the more intriguing players there as she lead Team Manitoba & if she’s on a better team will she show well enough for a roster spot? If you’re looking at the roster & wondering if that last name means she’s related to that player then yes you’re suspicion is correct in that London McDavid is a cousin of Connor McDavid. On a deep Team BC at the Canada Games she did go pointless however in the CSSHL she finished 2nd in scoring on her team behind U18 WWC Gold Medalist Jordan Baxter which is pretty impressive considering she was one of the youngest players on the team. Team Nova Scotia was the story at the Canada Games & a player who earned enough spotlight to get an invite is Jessica MacKinnon. She didn’t light up the scoresheet but followed the Nova Scotia game plan perfectly. It also helps when you play with a U18 WWC Gold Medalist in Charlotte Pieckenhagen at Ridley College while scoring 9 goals in 11 games. Last but not least want to point out Madison Burr the ’07 forward who helped her team win the U18 Esso Cup over a team featuring Rebecca Noble and by helped I mean lead the way by being named tournament MVP as well as leading the comeback, helping take the lead, then scoring the game winning goal on an amazing 1v3 play. Very good skater, good shot & really loves to play a type of power game. She’s used to playing against older players though the OWHL will provide another challenge for her.

If you’ve made it this far thank you for reading! These are just the names that I know & have found personally interesting. Just like last year’s Fall Festival I’m sure there will be quite a few players earning some spotlight & I’ll be happy to do my best to give it to them. Keep an eye on Twitter (maybe Instagram & maybe back here) for updates on players from the Summer Showcase games.