CALGARY — Estevan hockey product Boston Tait is among the players chosen to skate for Team Canada at the upcoming World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Tait will skate for Team Canada Red at the tournament, which runs from Nov. 2-8 in Truro, N.S.
A defenceman in his first season with the Wenatchee Wild of the Western Hockey League (WHL), Tait was selected to participate in the event after he was one of 80 Canadian players invited to Canada’s national U17 Program of Excellence summer camp in July.
“The Wild would like to congratulate all the CHL [Canadian Hockey League] players selected to participate with Team Canada. It is a great honour for these young men to represent their country,” said Wenatchee Wild director of scouting Leigh Mendelson in a news release. “For Boston to have this opportunity, it is a recognition of the work he has put into his game over the past several years, on and off the ice. We hope this is the beginning of a long association between Boston and Hockey Canada.”
Tait has played in seven games for the Wild this season and has recorded two assists. Last season as an affiliated player, he recorded two assists in six games.
He is the first player from the Wild to be named to the tournament since the Winnipeg Ice relocated to the Wenatchee Valley in Washington State in 2023. The Wild selected him with the 12th overall selection in the 2024 Western Hockey League Prospects Draft.
Tait played all of his developmental hockey with the Estevan Minor Hockey Association until last season, when he joined the Regina Pat Canadians of the Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League. He helped Regina win its first Telus Cup national championship since 1999.
The U17 World Hockey Challenge has been held since 1986, when it was known as the Quebec Esso Cup. Canada ices two teams annually for the six-team tournament, which will also feature entries from Czechia, Finland, Sweden and the U.S. Canada claimed the top two spots last year.
