No team has put more players on Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team than the Red Deer Rebels, and the storied WHL franchise is in the spotlight again as Red Deer hosts the Hlinka Gretzky Cup
With a history spanning more than three decades, the Hlinka Gretzky Cup is
an annual summer hockey tradition, being played in five countries since
Yokohama and Sapporo, Japan hosted the 1991 Phoenix Cup.
So it’s fitting, as the tournament returns to Canadian ice for the third
time, that Red Deer plays host.
The city’s ties to the tournament run deep – the Red Deer Rebels of the Western
Hockey League (WHL) have sent more players to
Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team than any other Canadian junior club; Team Canada forward Kalan Lind is the
18th Rebel to wear the Maple Leaf.
There’s a pride that comes with representing the team … and the city.
“I was drafted by Red Deer when I was 14, and being from B.C. I didn’t know
exactly where it was; now, 23 years later, I still live here today,” says
former Rebels captain Colin Fraser. “Red Deer is a smaller city that just
loves hockey and always has.”
Fraser was part of Team Canada at the
2002 Eight Nations Cup in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, scoring twice and adding an assist in
five games to help Canada to gold. The roster that year included names like
Phaneuf, Seabrook, Richards and Perry.
He captained the Rebels in the last of his four seasons in Central Alberta
in 2004-05, the same year he won gold with Canada at the
2005 IIHF World Junior Championship, arguably the best Canadian team ever at the World Juniors.
“In the moment, you almost take it for granted; you look back now and you
realize as an old guy how lucky you were to get the chance to play with and
against all these superstars, all-stars, Stanley Cup champions and Olympic
Gold medallists,” says Fraser, who himself won Stanley Cups with Chicago
(2010) and Los Angeles (2012).
Working today as a Western Canada scout for the Blackhawks based out of Red
Deer, Fraser sees the tournament as the official start to the scouting
season and the lead-up to the 2023 NHL Draft.
“On that side of things, the importance of seeing the top draft picks for
next season here, all under one roof and playing against each other it
really gets things off on a good foot,” he says. “It lets you see where
they are at the beginning of the season.”
Another former Rebels captain has a unique perspective on the…
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