Photo by Canadian Hockey League (CHL)
TORONTO — Edmonton Oil Kings forward Kayden Stroeder is among nine players added to Team CHL for the 2026 CHL USA Prospects Challenge, the Canadian Hockey League announced Thursday.
The nine additions are goaltender Vilmer Salén Forsberg of the Brantford Bulldogs, defencemen Brock Cripps of the Prince Albert Raiders, Levi Harper of the Saginaw Spirit, Malik L'Italien of the Halifax Mooseheads and Cooper McAslan of the London Knights, and forwards Ryerson Edgar of the Niagara IceDogs, Aleks Kulemin of the Kingston Frontenacs, Stroeder and Jaakko Wycisk of the Guelph Storm.
They join forwards Brock England of the Seattle Thunderbirds, Dima Zhilkin of Saginaw, Alexis Joseph of the Saint John Sea Dogs and Carter Meyer of the Québec Remparts, who were announced earlier. The remaining players on the roster will be named in early November.
Stroeder, a centre from Lanigan, Sask., was Edmonton's top rookie in 2025-26 with 32 points in 55 games and has opened this season with seven goals and 13 points in 11 games, including a hat trick against Regina on October 2. He recorded nine points in five games this past summer helping Canada win the 2026 Hlinka Gretzky Cup at Rogers Place, his home rink with the Oil Kings.
He will also have a familiar face behind the bench. Oil Kings assistant coach Kyle Chipchura is one of Team CHL's assistant coaches under head coach Ryan Oulahen of the North Bay Battalion, alongside Ryan McDonald of Prince Albert and Brad MacKenzie of Halifax.
All 13 players named to Team CHL so far received an A rating on NHL Central Scouting's preliminary players to watch list for the 2027 NHL Draft, identifying them as first-round candidates. Seven of the nine additions were also part of Canada's Hlinka Gretzky Cup championship team, which went 5-0 and beat the United States 8-1 in the final in Edmonton.
The two-game series against the U.S. National Under-18 Team opens Tuesday, December 1 at the Georges-Vézina Centre in Chicoutimi and concludes Wednesday, December 2 at the Vidéotron Centre in Québec City. It is the third edition of the event and the first staged in Québec and in QMJHL markets.