Goaltender Jayden Catellier of St. Pierre and forward Cabrel LaBossiere of Lorette will play for Team Manitoba at the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alberta.

Labossiere has nine goals and seven assists in 26 games with the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League's Eastman Selects.

Catellier has played in 18 games with the Eastman Selects of the Winnipeg U17 Prep League and has a 2.60 goals against average and a .920 save percentage.

"I was really happy," Catellier told Steinbachonline's Jamie Roy. "I was kind of soaking in the moment and it was very humbling as well."

"It's a great group of guys. Played against quite a few of them last year. Obviously there's a bit of competition but as the tryouts went on we all came together. Everyone's there for the same reason. We all want to be part of the team. We're all like family. It's really nice."

Catellier explained what the next step is leading up to the Winter Games.

"Going to keep on putting in the work, put in a bit more training and get on the ice and in the gym."

The 2019 U16 Team Manitoba roster features 16 players who were selected in the 2018 Western Hockey League Bantam draft including second overall draft pick Carson Lambos (Winnipeg) as well as fellow first round picks, goaltender Tyler Brennan (Winnipeg) and Eric Alarie (Winnipeg).

The roster sees an even split with 10 athletes from Winnipeg and 10 from the rural regions within the Province and representation is spread between both of the midget RHA programs, the MMHL and Winnipeg U17 Prep League.

The U16 Team Manitoba will be led by Head Coach Garth Mitchell (Yellowhead) who will be attending his second Canada Winter Games as a coach with Team Manitoba. Filling out the coaching staff is Brad Purdie (Winnipeg), who will be attending his second Canada Games and Dan Eliasson (Winnipeg) who returns after head coaching Team Manitoba in 2018. Support staff for 2019 are goaltending coach Brian Elder (Westman South), equipment manager Jody Norminton (Brandon), athletic therapist Brenna Cyr (Sekirk) and apprentice coach Scott Antaya (Winnipeg).

The 2019 Canada Winter Games will be held February 14th-23rd.


Eastman goaltender Jayden Catellier