Moose Jaw's Rhett Gardner in action with the Generals this season.

There's a lot for Moose Jaw hockey fans to keep an eye on when it comes to the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge that kicks off at the end of the week in Drummondville and Victoriaville, Quebec.

Moose Jaw Generals' captain Rhett Gardner is being joined on Team West by Moose Jaw Warriors' rookies Miles Warkentine and Josh Uhrich, while Brayden Point is playing for Team Pacific.

“It came up a lot faster than expected, it seemed so long away during the Summer Camp, now that they're here, I'm real excited to get out there,” said Gardner.

Gardner is one of just five Midget AAA players that cracked the Team West roster after putting together an impressive showing at the Summer Camp and then leading the Generals in scoring through the first 26 games.  He has a team-high 14 goals and 30 points, while playing just 19 of the 26 games.

Despite being such a force offensively for the Generals so far this season, Gardner says he's going into this tournament looking help this team however he can, “I think I'm going to be a shutdown guy.  We have lots of offence on that team, so I think I'm going to need to be good in my own zone, maybe kill some penalties and shutdown the other teams' top lines.”

This will be the Moose Jaw-born forward's first opportunity to represent Canada on the international stage with games against Finland, Russia and Sweden all on tap in the round robin.  “It's going to be really cool, I can't wait to do it,” explained Gardner.  “You watch World Juniors and everything like that on TV and just to actually be part of something similar to that is real cool.

“It will be really cool to throw on that jersey and just to represent the country.”

The tournament will also be a good chance for Gardner to showcase himself against some of the best players at his age group and put himself on the Hockey Canada map for future tournaments down the road.  “I think I'm just going to try to make the most of the experience,” said Gardner.  “There's good coaching there, you're going to play against good teams and just being at that national level and seeing how I compare to everyone else.”

Team West's first action is coming up on Friday when they take on Slovakia in an exhibition game.  They will open the tournament against Sweden on Saturday.  Brayden Point and Team Pacific play the USA in exhibition action on Friday and then take on Russia to open the tournament.