Team Manitoba POE
2024 Male U-16 Top 40 Camp Update
After the spring selection camp wrapped up in early April at the Hockey For All Centre, the coaching staff of Jordan Wohlgemuth, Devin Himpe and Aaron Kaatz have narrowed down their group to 40.
The top 40 camp will take place from May 9-12 at the state of the art, J & G Homes Arena in Brandon, Manitoba. The coaching staff will put the Top-40 through an intensive series of practices, skill assessments and inter-squad games. There are multiple activities that occur off-ice as well working at increasing mental focus and preparation, team building and leadership qualities.
The final U16 roster which will most likely be a 12 forward, 6 defence, 2 goalie formation will compete in the 2024 WHL Cup in Red Deer in late October.
Below are the players named to the Top-40
Some surprises left off the Top-40 were forwards Eric Berger from the Southwest Cougars who finished the season with 41 goals and 25 assists and Will Van Norman from the Winnipeg Wild who tallied 40 goals and 37 assists.
The Top-40 is made up of 24 forwards, 12 defence and 4 goalies. Breaking it down further, the split is 15 forwards from the U15 AAA league and 9 forwards from Prep School (all RHA). The defence have 8 players coming from AAA and 4 from Prep School. The goaltenders are split down the middle, 2 each.
It’s always interesting to see the location of where players come from as well. This year is a 60-40 split of Winnipeg players to rural players. In years past, it seems to be that Hockey Manitoba has made it a priority to not have either league dominate the roster or to have a majority of players coming from Winnipeg. Unfortunately for Manitoba, their results of collecting medals at the 4-team tournament haven’t been there. It is time to showcase the talent in Manitoba and simply pick the best roster to compete against Western Canada’s best. The 2008 born team brought home Gold last year and were the first Manitoba team to win the WHL Cup. The 2009 team has some very strong talent and have one goal in mind….repeat. They will be backstopped by 2 strong goaltenders, regardless of who is picked. Last years team was highlighted with a superb defensive core, while this years’ will be about the top end players up front.
A majority of the players selected to play on the teams representing the WHL provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) are selected in the WHL Prospects Draft or will be listed by WHL teams. For the 2009 born prospects, the draft takes place on Thursday May 9. This years’ tournament will be the 11th year of the event. While the first event was back in 2009, there have been 5 years where the tournament did not take place due to the Canada Winter Games. Team Alberta is a five-time champion, BC has won three times and Saskatchewan and Manitoba each have one title. Manitoba won silver in 2015 and 2019. Team Manitoba also collected a bronze medal in 2014 at the Canada Winter Games.
Team Manitoba has had its fair share of Tournament All-Stars. Listed below are the players who have been named to All-Star teams, their WHL teams and NHL teams.
Carson Carels was named MVP of the 2023 WHL Cup. Carels finished first among defenceman scoring with 3 goals and 2 assists.
The upcoming week in Brandon will be the last time for these players to showcase their skills to the coaches and give them the best shot at making the team. The rosters usually aren’t released until the fall so there is potential for some things to change over the summer. Most players won’t want to leave Brandon without making a name for themselves though. If we were to pick the team today, our lineup would look like this.
Gingras – Lafournaise – Perreault
Lewko – Bhathal – Champagne
Picklyk – Urhina – Lockhart
Secord – Correia – Alexander
Pickering – Kuntz
Brownlee – Cooke Tymchak
Moore – Turner
Moosetail
Hunnie
We are not counting anyone out from the final roster and there could be many differences between our roster and the final one. We want to wish all the players attending camp the best of luck. Looking forward to seeing who stands out, who surprises us and who makes the final roster. Go Toba!