When you're considered among the elite hockey players in Canada, summer is short.
Three members of the Prince George Cougars are on Hockey Canada's radar this year and have been invited to national team tryout camps this week in Calgary.
Cougars forward Justin Almeida and defenceman Josh Anderson are among 42 players trying out for the under-18 team which will represent Canada next month at the Memorial Cup of Ivan Hlinka in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Canada opens the tournament Aug. 8 against the Czech Republic. Former Cougars head coach Stan Butler of the Brampton Battalion (OHL), will serve as the under-18 team head coach.
Canada is pooled in the eight-team tournament with the Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland. The United States, Finland, Russia and Slovakia make up the other pool.
The Canadian team will also play in the IIHF world under-18 championship in April 2016 in Grand Forks, N.D.
Last year, Cougars centre Jansen Harkins helped Canada to a bronze medal in the Hlinka tournament. Harkins, 18, picked in the second round, 47th overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 2015 NHL draft, was not on the list of 40 invited players to the six-day under-20 world junior team camp, which starts Saturday, also in Calgary.
The 2016 world junior tournament will be played Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in Helsinki, Finland.
Cougars defenceman Max Martin, 16, who played triple-A midget hockey in Winnipeg last season and helped Team Manitoba to a bronze-medal win at the 2015 Canada Winter Games, is vying for a spot in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
The World Under-17 Hockey Challenge will be hosted in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, Oct. 30 to Nov. 7. Three Canadian teams - Black, Red and White - will compete for the title along with the U.S. Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic.
The under-17 development camp, which includes 111 players, starts Thursday and runs through Monday in Calgary.
Wade Klippenstein, director of scouting for the Brandon Wheat Kings and a former head coach and general manager of the Cougars, is Hockey Canada's head scout for the West region and helped select the players for the national team camps.
