Three local hockey players will be leaving their junior teams in late December, and welcome the opportunity to do so.

Laurent Brossoit and Tyler Wotherspoon of Surrey, and North Delta’s Zach Hodder will be in Timmins, Ontario, skating for Team Pacific at the World Under-17 Challenge. The trio was named to the team last week, and are among 11 players from B.C. who will join 11 from Alberta to form the Pacific region squad.

“I’m real excited about it,” sand Wotherspoon, currently in his first full season with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League (WHL). “It’s a short list, the players are selected from two provinces.”

The World Under-17 Challenge includes 10 teams – five from each region of Canada (Pacific, West, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic), as well as national teams from the United States, Russia, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic. The 11 B.C. players were part of a larger group identified by BC Hockey high performance evaluators following a provincial camp last summer. The group was evaluated while with their club teams during the current season, and the team was announced last Wednesday.

“I was confident (of being selected), playing in the WHL and getting a lot better with my game,” said Wotherspoon, who spent last season with the Valley West Hawks of the BC Hockey Major Midget League.

A six-foot-one, 190-pound defenceman, Wotherspoon has one goal and an assist, and is a plus-three in 12 games played with Portland. The youngest blueliner on the Winterhawks roster, he’s hoping to improve his game in Timmins.

“I just want to keep trying to get better,” he said from Portland. “It’s a big tournament, there will a lot of scouts. And I’ve been working on every part of my game.”

Brossoit, a goaltender, was a teammate of Wotherspoon’s with the Valley West midget team last season before moving on to the B.C. Hockey League’s Cowichan Valley Capitals, where he is dealing with “the most mental stress I’ve dealt with in hockey.”

Drafted by the Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL in the 2008 Bantam Draft – 26th overall, three picks after Wotherspoon was claimed by Portland – Brossoit is a backup goaltender with the Junior A Capitals, a team in the basement of the BCHL Coastal Conference standings.

“It’s been rough,” he admitted. “I feel like I play well, but we’re the bottom team in the league and it’s hard to look at my stats (6.16 goals against average). But all I can do is try to give my team a chance to win the game.”

The numbers aren’t impressive, but Brossoit has shown enough with a weak team to be the B.C. netminder on Team Pacific. The Cloverdale Minor Hockey product recorded his first BCHL shutout 11 days ago, making 28 saves in a 3-0 win over the Burnaby Express.

He expects to get at least one start in Timmins, and a chance to earn the bulk of the netminding duties.

“I feel the same way you feel any time you make a team, it’s exciting,” he said. “Now I’m just thinking about the tournament. I have to play well right out of the gate, and earn as many starts as possible.”

While Wotherspoon and Brossoit both played Bantam and Midget hockey at home before moving away to join their respective junior teams, Hodder did it the other way around. After playing minor hockey at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, he joined the WHL’s Vancouver Giants this year.

“I got the call last week, I’m very excited,” said Hodder of being selected. “I was kind of anxious, you play it out in your head who they might pick and there were a lot of guys from the Dub (WHL) on D.”

A five-foot-11, 180-pound defenceman with the Vancouver Giants, Hodder has a goal and three assists, appearing in 16 of Vancouver’s 27 games played.

But individual accomplishments aren’t what he will concentrate on when playing for Team Pacific.

“All I want to do is help Team Pacific win the gold,” he said. “I’ve followed the tournament in the past, I’ve had friends who have played in it.

“We’re a good team all around. We have good goaltending, some big defencemen, strong forwards. I think we have a legitimate shot at winning.”

The World Under-18 Challenge gets underway Dec. 29, with Team Pacific grouped with Team Atlantic, Russia, the Czech Republic and the United States for round robin play.

“At camp, they told us it was in a small rink, so there will be a lot of physical play,” said Wotherspoon when asked what to expect.

“And the European teams will likely be fast, and have players with good hands.”

The top two teams in each of two groups advance to a playoff round, with a championship game scheduled for Jan. 4, 2010.

Last season, Team Pacific won a silver medal after losing 5-1 to Team Ontario in the final.