Chorney to Play for Canada at U17 World Challenge in November
Calgary, Alta. – Vancouver Giants forward Blake Chorney (Nipawin, Sask.) has been named to Hockey Canada’s Team Red roster for the 2025 U17 World Challenge, set for November 2-8 in Truro, Nova Scotia.
Hockey Canada announced on Wednesday the 44 players that will wear the Maple Leaf with Canada Red and Canada White.
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“We would like to congratulate Blake on his selection to Canada’s U17 Red Team,” Giants General Manager Hnat Domenichelli said. “Blake has had an excellent start to his season and this recognition is well deserved.”
Chorney has represented his province of Saskatchewan at the WHL Cup, but never his country, as the U17s are typically the first step in the Hockey Canada ladder.
The 6-foot, 197 lb. centre has been one of the best Giants to start the 2025-26 season, with three goals and two assists for five points in nine games. All three goals have come in the last five games, including his first career WHL goal on Oct. 4 in Moose Jaw.
“We are incredibly proud to announce the 44 athletes who will represent Canada at the U17 World Challenge next month in Truro,” Program of Excellence general manager Alan Millar said. “This is an important step in their development and a tremendous opportunity to compete at the international level. We believe we have assembled two strong teams that will compete to defend our back-to-back gold medals.”
The rosters were selected by Miller, head scout Byron Bonora, and Mike Johnston, U17 lead with the POE management group. Benoit Roy, director of hockey operations, and Scott Salmond, senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations, also provided input, along with regional scouts Pierre Cholette (Quebec), Scott Grieve (Ontario), Jared Power (West), Rob Simpson (Ontario) and Darren Sutherland (Atlantic).
All 44 players have been drafted by Canadian Hockey League (CHL) teams, including 19 from the Western Hockey League (WHL), 17 from the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and eight from the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
Three current Giants have represented Canada recently at the U17 World Challenge: Cameron Schmidt won gold in 2023 with Canada White; Ryan Lin won gold in 2024 with Canada White; and Brett Olson won Silver in 2024 with Canada Red.
The 2025 U17 World Challenge kicks off on Nov. 2, with Canada Red taking on Finland at 3:30 p.m. AT and Canada White facing off against Sweden at 7:30 p.m. AT. Teams will play two preliminary-round games before the medal round, which concludes on Nov. 8 with the medal games.
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the medal games; check local listings for details.
More than 2,000 NHL draft picks have suited up since the inception of the U17 World Challenge (previously known as the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge and Quebec Esso Cup) in 1986, including 18 first-overall draft picks since 2001 (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; Auston Matthews, 2016; Jack Hughes, 2019; Alexis Lafrenière, 2020; Owen Power, 2021; Macklin Celebrini, 2024; Matthew Schaefer, 2025).
