CALGARY, Alta. – Canada’s National Women’s Development Team selection camp opens Saturday with 43 of Canada’s top development prospects taking to the ice. The camp – part of Hockey Canada’s National Teams’ Summer Showcase – is hosted at the Markin MacPhail Centre at WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park, and will see the 43 invitees vying for spots on the 23-player squad that will travel to Lake Placid, N.Y., for a three-game series against the United States’ Women’s Under-22 Select Team Aug. 19-22.

From Aug. 7-16 players will be split into two teams, Blue and Gold, which will participate in several practices and intrasquad games, as well as off-ice dryland training, fitness testing, and high-performance classroom sessions. Intrasquad games are free and open to the public and games are being webcast by FASTHockey. Hockey Canada fans can subscribe to the service for free at www.hockeycanada.ca/M18Endirect.

The final team roster will be selected by Melody Davidson, Hockey Canada’s general manager of national women’s team programs, along with head coach Dwayne Gylywoychuk, assistant coaches Delaney Collins and Darren Turcotte, goaltending coach Amanda Mazzotta and Hockey Canada regional scouts - Brian Hart, Greg Hermiston, Chris Higgins, Doug Macleod and Gary Soper.

Canada’s National Women’s Development Team selection camp roster features:

• Four players who won a silver medal with Canada’s National Women’s Team at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Malmö, Sweden (Clark, Desbiens, Krzyzaniak, Maschmeyer);

• 11 players who won a gold medal with Canada’s National Women’s Development Team at the 2015 Nations Cup in Füssen, Germany (Bach, Capizzano, Desbiens, Dubois, Fast, Howe, Kohler, Lefort, MacAulay, Nurse, Stacey);

• 10 players who won a silver medal with Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship in Buffalo, N.Y. (Cogan, Coutu-Godbout, Hart, Higham, Labbe, McGill, Potomak, Pozzebon, Sucharda, Tse).

NOTE TO MEDIA: Morgan Bell, Hockey Canada’s coordinator of media relations, will be on site in Calgary for Canada’s National Women’s Development Team selection camp. Please contact her for any interview requests at (403) 669-1261 or [email protected].

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Women’s Development Team, please visit www.hockeycanada.ca, or follow along through social media at www.facebook.com/hockeycanada, www.twitter.com/hockeycanada and www.twitter.com/hc_women.