CALGARY, Alta. – Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team selection camp opens this Friday with 43 of Canada’s top under-18 prospects taking to the ice at the Markin MacPhail Centre. The camp is part of the Hockey Canada National Teams’ Summer Showcase at WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, which will host 193 male and 86 female invitees over the next two weeks for on- and off-ice development sessions.

From July 31-Aug. 4 players will be split into two teams, Red and White, for practices and three Red-White intrasquad games. All practices and 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.

Of the 43 players who have been invited to the selection camp, 22 will be selected for Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team for the 2015 U18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup, Aug. 10-15 in Breclav, Czech Republic and Bratislava, Slovakia. Canada has won the summer under-18 tournament seven consecutive years and 10 of the last 11.

For more information on the Hockey Canada Program of Excellence, please visit www.hockeycanada.ca, or follow along via social media at www.facebook.com/hockeycanada, www.twitter.com/hockeycanada, and www.twitter.com/hc_men.