Representative play has a different feel and emotional resonance to it than club play. Victoria Royals rookie forward Cole Reschny found that out in proudly wearing the green provincial colours as assistant captain in leading silver-medallist Saskatchewan to the final of the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island.
Koen Cleaver of Port Alberni and a WHL prospects draft pick of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, meanwhile, was in his provincial blue backstopping B.C. to the bronze-medal game in P.E.I. last February.
It’s back to P.E.I., but now in national team colours, as both have stepped up to wear the Canadian Maple Leaf jersey at the 2023 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge from Nov. 2-11 in Charlottetown and Summerside. Reschny will play for Canada Red and Cleaver for Canada White.
“I can’t wait to put on that jersey and work for our country,” said Reschny, following Royals practice Monday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“It’s a lot bigger of a job. You’re playing against other countries now and not just other provinces.”
The Canadian squads open Nov. 2 with Reschny and Canada Red playing Finland and Cleaver and Canada White meeting Czechia. TSN will broadcast the medal games.
The dream starts here as 16 first-overall NHL draft picks have played in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge since 2001. That includes Ilya Kovalchuk in 2001, Rick Nash in 2002; Marc-André Fleury in 2003, Alexander Ovechkin in 2004, Erik Johnson in 2006, Patrick Kane in 2007, John Tavares in 2009, Taylor Hall in 2010, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in 2011, Nathan MacKinnon in 2013, Aaron Ekblad in 2014, Connor McDavid in 2015, Auston Matthews in 2016, Jack Hughes in 2019, Alexis Lafrenière in 2020 and Owen Power in 2021.
“We’ve got the top-five picks from our [2022 WHL prospects] draft. It’s a good group of guys and a lot of Western Canada guys,” said Reschny, of the Canada Red roster.
Gavin McKenna went first overall to the Medicine Hat Tigers in that 2022 WHL prospects draft, Jackson Smith second to the Tri-City Americans, Reschny third to the Royals, Reese Hamilton fourth to the Calgary Hitmen and Cole Temple fifth to the Regina Pats.
Players have only days to come together quickly as a group in representative play.
“You have to get to know everybody pretty fast if you don’t know them already,” said Reschny.
“You’ve got to jell pretty fast and figure it out to make things work and have success at tournaments like these.”
The U-17 World Challenge and U-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup are seen as the lead-up precursors to the U-20 world junior hockey championships.
“Obviously, that’s in the back of my mind,” said Reschny.
“That’s what you’re striving for once you enter that [Hockey Canada] Program of Excellence. Your main goal is to make it to U-20 and play in the world juniors.”
Reschny, a five-foot-nine centre, has two goals and 10 points in 11 games this season as a rookie for the Royals.
Six-foot-two goaltender Cleaver played two games in the WHL last season as a 15-year-old call-up for the Hurricanes. The Islander was the first goaltender selected in the 2022 WHL prospects draft as the Hurricanes took him off the board at 48th overall in the third round. Cleaver has a 1-1 record this season with a 4.50 goals-against average and .859 save percentage with the Langford-based Pacific Coast Academy U-18 prep team.
