Gavin Betts of the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Pickering Panthers led Canada’s Team White to gold at the 2024 U17 World Challenge in Sarnia Saturday night.
Betts was named first star after making 38 saves as his team defeated Canada Team Red 3-1 in the championship game.
The Toronto product played in four games at the event compiling a 2.98 goals-against average and a 0.892 save percentage.
Betts was also named to the tournament’s all-star team.
He was the first goaltender chosen in the 2024 Ontario Hockey League U16 Priority Selection April 14.
Selected by the Kingston Frontenacs in the second round, 37th overall pick, Betts committed to Kingston in May.
In Pickering this season, Betts is 3-3-1 with a 3.01 goals against average and a 0.916 save percentage.
The U17 World Challenge also included four international entries: Czechia, Finland, Sweden and the United States.
More than 2,000 NHL draft picks have suited up since the inception of the U17 World Challenge (previously known as the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge and Quebec Esso Cup) in 1986, including 17 first-overall draft picks since 2001 (Ilya Kovalchuk, 2001; Rick Nash, 2002; Marc-André Fleury, 2003; Alexander Ovechkin, 2004; Erik Johnson, 2006; Patrick Kane, 2007; John Tavares, 2009; Taylor Hall, 2010, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 2011; Nathan MacKinnon, 2013; Aaron Ekblad, 2014; Connor McDavid, 2015; Auston Matthews, 2016; Jack Hughes, 2019; Alexis Lafrenière, 2020; Owen Power, 2021; Macklin Celebrini, 2024).
For more information on Hockey Canada and the U17 World Challenge, visit HockeyCanada.ca, or via social media on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.
Photo credit: Hockey Canada
