Graeme Clarke gets World Under-17 call for Canada

An already strong start to his rookie season just got even better for Ottawa native Graeme Clarke. After impressing at the week-long national under-17 development camp in July, Clarke clearly impressed with his tenacity and skill to earn a spot among 54 CHL players selected – and is one of 23 OHL players.

The tournament opens November 5 at the Encana Events Centre in an all-Canadian affair as last year’s silver-medalist, Team Canada Black, takes on Team Canada White at 2:30 p.m. MT (4:30 p.m. ET). The opening day concludes with Sweden facing Russia at North Peace Arena in Fort St. John.

TSN and RDS, the official broadcasters for Hockey Canada, will air one semifinal and the bronze- and gold-medal games; please check local listings for details.

More than 1,600 NHL draft picks have suited up since the inception of the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in 1986 (previously known as the Quebec Esso Cup), including 13 of the last 16 first-overall draft picks (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).

For more information on the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along via social media on Facebook and Twitter.