A McCreary native is heading to Prince Edward Island next year to represent Manitoba. Team Manitoba announced its final roster ahead of the Canada Winter Games and Ryan Gower has made the team.
The Male U16 Program of Excellence process began in early April 2022 with the Spring Selection Camp which was held in Niverville, MB. Following the Spring Selection Camp, forty players were invited to the POE Top-40 Camp which was held from May 5-8, 2022 in Portage la Prairie.
The third phase of the Male U16 POE selection process was a Summer Camp which was held from July 19-23 2022 at Seven Oaks Arena in Winnipeg and the fourth phase was an exhibition game versus the Winnipeg Wild U18 AAA back in October.
Gower, who is in his first year with the U18 Rangers, has looked very solid on the back end and he has one goal and four assists this season. Ryan has also already signed his Standard Player Agreement with the Prince Albert Raiders
Also making the final roster is Easton Odut. He is also in his first year of U18 hockey with the Brandon Wheat Kings and it's been a great season offensively for him and the team is rolling. He has eight goals and seven assists in 10 games and he also made his Western Hockey League debut with the Wheat Kings over the weekend. Brandon is 13-0 and they're the only undefeated team in the league.
Gower and Odut will join the team in Saskatoon next month for a pair of exhibition games against U16 Team Saskatchewan and the Canada Winter Games take place from February 18 to 26, 2023.
