Teen hockey phenom Chloe Primerano makes Team Canada debut in Rivalry Series

Teen phenom Chloe Primerano made her debut for Team Canada on Wednesday night during Game 1 of the Canada-USA Rivalry Series in San Jose, California.

The 17-year-old was the youngest player named to Team Canada's roster for the November games. Primerano is now the second-youngest defenseman to ever play for the Canadian women's national team, behind Cheryl Pounder, a hockey broadcast analyst for TSN who debuted for Canada as a teenager at the 1994 Women's World Cup.

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Primerano started the match on a pair with Jocelyne Larocque, Canada's longtime top pair defender.

It's another milestone for Primerano, who is charting a unique path in women's hockey. In September, she made her long-awaited NCAA debut at the University of Minnesota, a year earlier than expected, after graduating high school early and starting college at age 17. Primerano is the youngest player in women's hockey and has six points in ten games for the No. 3 Golden Gophers good for second among defensemen on her team.

She doesn't really have anything to prove at this U18 level, and as she moves to the college level she can really see what she really needs to work on at that level to continue to grow during the Canadian national program, Primeranos high school coach Kris Hogg said . The Athletics in September. Sometimes you have to dive in with both feet and see where everything goes.

Primerano first made headlines in May 2022 when she was drafted by the Vancouver Giants of the WHL (268th overall), becoming the first female skater ever selected in a Canadian Hockey League draft. She didn't make the transition to women's hockey until 2022-2023, joining the RINK Academy's elite girls program and winning back-to-back CSSHL championships and league MVPs. In two seasons at RINK, Primerano finished third all-time in scoring (137 points in 59 games) and first among defensemen.

She has already proven herself as one of the most promising talents in women's hockey. She is dynamic on the blue line with elite skating and edgework and sees the game at a very high level: a rare breed of defender who can make something out of nothing.

There are players who are elite skaters, there are players who are elite puck handlers, there are players who have a very high hockey IQ or they are scorers or they set people up. Chloe is the highlight of it all, Minnesota coach Brad Frost said.

That Primerano cracked the roster for November's Rivalry Series is significant, as college players typically don't go to the final leg of the series in February because it's too close to the end of the NCAA season. So she'll get three chances to showcase her game to Canada's brain trust at a crucial national team evaluation event.

The 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship is just six months away, and a look at our team and roster depth starts with these first three matches, Canada general manager Gina Kingsbury said in a statement when the roster was announced last month.

With a strong performance, Primerano was able to force himself to be considered for a major international selection spot. It wouldn't be unheard of for a player like Primerano to jump from the U18 world, which she can still attend in January 2024, to the April women's world. Especially when we consider that Primerano led the U18 world in scoring last year, setting a record for scoring by a defender and winning the tournament's MVP at the age of 16.

Still, with an experienced D-core and the return of Olympic record holder Claire Thompson, cracking Team Canada's blue line full-time is a tough task. Canada normally brings 23 players to worlds with seven defensemen, while the Rivalry roster consists of 25 players with eight defensemen.

Patty Kazmaier Award winner Daryl Watts also made her highly anticipated Team Canada debut in the game. Watts is one of the all-time highest scoring players in the NCAA (297 points in 172 games). Her exclusion from the national team has caused consternation among fans for years, but after an excellent rookie season in the PWHL, she is officially back with Team Canada for the first time since the 2017 U18 Women's World Championships.

It was otherwise an unforgettable evening for Canada, as Team USA won convincingly 7-2 with a young, college-heavy lineup. Team USA now has a 1-0 lead in the five-game series. Game 2 is Friday at the Maverick Center in West Valley City, Utah.

(Photo: Vedran Galijas / Just Pictures / Girl USA / Girl via AP Images)