D-man joins Team Canada
Aldergrove's Shea Theodore and his Canadian teammates will be going for gold in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Seventeen-year-old Aldergrove resident Shea Theodore, currently overseas with Canada's U18 hockey team at the 2012 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka tournament, played 73 on the blueline for the Western Hockey League's Seattle Thunderbirds last season.
Photograph by: Submitted photo , for Langley Advance
An Aldergrove defenceman is about to play for Team Canada.
Shea Theodore, a 6', 170-pound skater who played his minor hockey in Aldergrove, made the Canadian U18 team that's set to compete in the 2012 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka tournament.
The tourney runs Aug. 13-18 in Breclav, Czech Republic and Piestany, Slovakia.
The roster made up of the nation's best male U18s was finalized Monday, following Hockey Canada's four-day selection camp at the MasterCard Centre in Toronto. The camp included daily practices and three Red-White intrasquad games.
Canada's roster includes 13 forwards, seven defencemen, and two goaltenders.
Theodore is the lone rearguard from B.C. on the roster, and one of four B.C. residents (forwards Nic Petan from Delta, Sam Reinhart from West Vancouver, and Curtis Lazar from Vernon are the others) on the Canadian squad.
As a Western Hockey League rookie in 2011/12, Theodore - who turned 17 on Aug. 3 - played 73 games for the Seattle Thunderbirds.
He led all Seattle defencemen - and rookies for that matter - in scoring with 35 points on four goals and 31 assists, to go with 32 penalty minutes.
Prior to joining Seattle, Theodore played for the Fraser Valley Bruins of the B.C. Major Midget League, and took part in the league's all-star game in 2011.
He helped Aldergrove reach the championship game of the B.C. provincials (peewee 'AA') in 2008.
He was also a member of the B.C. team that won a gold medal at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax.
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Canada has won the Memorial of Ivan Hlinka tournament four consecutive years, and has won 17 of 21 summer under-18 tournaments since 1991.
It will play in Group B in Piestany with Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. Group A, which consists of Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic and the United States, will play out of Breclav.
Canada faces Czech Republic in a pre-tournament game in Piestany this Saturday (Aug. 11) before opening the tournament against Switzerland on Monday, (Aug. 13).
The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals on Friday, Aug. 17, with the gold medal game slated for next Saturday, Aug. 18.
