Dupont, Ruck twins named to Canadian team for Hlinka Gretzky Cup
The 16-year-old Dupont from Calgary was the first defenceman granted exceptional status by the Western Hockey League, which allowed him to enter the league at age 15.
He was among 25 players named to the team by Hockey Canada for the annual summer tournament that showcases many of the world's top male players aged 18 and under.
Canada seeks a fourth straight gold medal in the eight-country tournament that runs Aug. 11-16 in Brno, Czechia and Trencin, Slovakia.
Canada beat Czechia 2-1 to win last year's tournament in Edmonton.
Three goaltenders, eight defenceman and 14 forwards were named to Canada's 2025 edition, including a half dozen who won a gold medal at the world under-18 championship in May in Frisco, Texas: Carson Carels, Alessandro Di Iorio, Beckham Edwards, Ryan Lin, Daxon Rudolph and Keaton Verhoeff.
Medicine Hat Tigers twin brothers Markus and Liam Ruck of Osoyoos, B.C., were also named to the squad.
Canada opens the tournament Aug. 11 against Finland. The Canadians will play pre-tournament exhibition games against Hungary's under-20 team in Budapest on Aug. 7 and another Aug. 9 against Slovakia.
The roster was selected by general manager Alan Millar, Yanick Lemay, director of hockey operations Benoit Roy, head scout Byron Bonora and senior vice-president of hockey operations Scott Salmond.
'Our selection camp was highly competitive and provided an opportunity for our players to showcase themselves against the top talent in the country, and we believe we have assembled a roster that will compete for gold and wear the Maple Leaf with pride in Czechia and Slovakia," Millar said Friday in a statement.
Mathieu Turcotte, who has coached the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League's Blainville-Boisbriand Armada for the past two seasons and was an assistant coach of the victorious under-18 team in Frisco, will be Canada's head coach in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2025.
The Canadian Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
From The Archive: A Golden Jets Success (2011)
The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features. Subscribe now to view the full THN Archives here Also, go to to subscribe The Winnipeg Jets are already a success, with an asterisk. Season tickets sold out in hours, merchandise is hotter than Teemu Selanne's rookie campaign and rich broadcast deals have been consummated. It's a made-in-Canada success story, an intense love affair guaranteed to last at least three, four, five years, and one our Winnipeg correspondent Tim Campbell lays out in our cover story, beginning on pg. 26. The question is, what happens when the honeymoon ends? When the joy of the new wears off, how do the Jets sustain the substantial momentum they've built up? Two Jets, Three Manitobans Invited to Canadian Olympic Team Camp Two members of the Winnipeg Jets have earned invites to the Canadian National Team 2026 Winter Olympic Games camp. To be sure, there are already pitfalls of which to be wary. For starters, the Jets will very likely qualify for revenue sharing at the end of this season – something the club is certainly counting on. In order to get a piece of that pie in years beyond, they'll need to meet certain criteria – pending, of course, the shape of the next collective bargaining agreement. Then there's the economy, a situation over which the franchise has zero control. Sure, the Loonie is strong today, but there are fears of another economic downturn and also recent reports Canada could be among the first countries to experience a double-dip recession. When the previous Jets flew south to Phoenix in 1996, one of the biggest contributing factors was the 73-cent Canadian dollar. While the current CBA may provide some protection against a repeat scenario, the Jets aren't completely immune from small-market-Canada syndrome. The most important factor will be their on-ice success. Winnipeg inherits a franchise that has never won a playoff game and the previous NHL inhabitants in Manitoba didn't fare much better. From 1979 through '96, the original Jets failed to win so much as a division title and were victorious in just two playoff rounds. It's possible this year's crew will reverse fortunes and surprise us, but don't count on it. In The Hockey News Yearbook, we've slotted the Jets 13th in the Eastern Conference. On the bright side, in our 2011 Future Watch ranking of NHL-drafted prospects, the former Thrashers ranked seventh of 30. Still, the Jets face significant challenges and it will be several years until we know if we can remove that asterisk from their success label. For what it's worth, an asterisk on the team pages in the NHL Guide and Record Book also denotes a franchise that has relocated. Just sayin'. Longtime Member of the Manitoba Moose Heads Overseas for 2025-26 The Manitoba Moose will be without longtime forward CJ Suess for the 2025-26 season.
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Joey Loperfido's RBI single
Joey Loperfido lines an RBI single to center, scoring Ernie Clement to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
PWHL Vancouver players say women's hockey growth has been exponential
As the expansion of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) franchise in Vancouver gets closer to puck drop, its players say they're excited for the season ahead. Forward Sarah Nurse says the community has already embraced the team, while goaltender Kristen Campbell says it gives young girls interested in hockey something to aspire towards.
