Red Deer Rebels forward and team captain Conner Bleackley has been added to the Team WHL roster for the 2013 Subway Super Series game against Team Russia Nov. 27 at the Centrium.
Bleackley will not play the following night at Lethbridge, but is the lone 1996-born WHL player scheduled to appear in either of the final two games of the international series.
Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter will handle bench boss duties for Team WHL and as the head coach of the Canadian national team for the 2014 World Junior Championship, will use the two-game set as an evaluation tool.
Several of the players who will compete in the Super Series will be invited to the Team Canada final selection camp in December.
Joining Sutter behind the Team WHL bench will be Kootenay Ice head coach Ryan McGill, who will also serve an assistant with Team Canada at the WJC set for Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Malmo, Sweden. Rebels trainer Dave ‘Radar’ Horning will work both Super Series games, while Jordan Aube of the Rebels will be the Team WHL athletic therapist for the game in Red Deer.
Handling Team WHL goaltending duties for both games will be Eric Comrie of the Tri-City Americans and Tristan Jarry of the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Lining up on the blueline for the WHL squad at the Centrium will be Madison Bowey and Damon Severson of the Kelowna Rockets, Griffin Reinhart of the Oil Kings, Dillon Heatherington of the Swift Current Broncos, Derrick Pouliot of the Portland Winterhawks and the Prince Albert Raiders’ Josh Morrissey.
The Team WHL forwards selected for the Nov. 27 contest are Bleackley, Troy Bourke of the Prince George Cougars, Curtis Lazar and Mitch Moroz of the Oil Kings, Nicholas Petan, Brendan Leipsic and Taylor Leier of the Winterhawks, Kootenay Ice star Sam Reinhart, Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers, Jujhar Khaira of the Everett Silvertips, and Morgan Klimchuk and Chandler Stephenson of the Regina Pats.
The Subway Super Series opens with Russia meeting Team QMJHL Monday and Wednesday at Gatineau and Sherbrooke, Que. Team Russia and Team OHL will meet Nov. 21 and 25 at Oshawa and Sudbury, before moving west.