Sheffield Steelers' young guns receive call-up from their country

Cole Shudra, 25, Brandon Whistle, 26, and Sam Jones, 26, will also represent Great Britain as part of a 26-man roster for their training camp ahead of the World Championship in Czechia.

Veteran captain Robert Dowd, 35, will lead the pack.

Their camp gets underway in Nottingham on Tuesday, April 23 with GB facing Poland in two matches the following weekend.

The two sides go head-to-head at Planet Ice Leeds on Friday, April 26 (19:30 face-off) and at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Saturday, April 27 (19:00 face-off).

GB will be based in Prague in Group A at May's World Championship and will play their matches at the 17,383-seater 02 Arena.

The campaign starts against world number one Canada on Saturday, May 11.

The world’s number two ranked side Finland are GB’s opponents the following day, Sunday, May 12.

GB take-on Switzerland on Wednesday, May 15, before a match-up with Denmark on Friday, May 17.

Hosts Czechia are next up for Pete Russell’s team on Saturday, May 18.

GB round-off their group fixtures against Norway on Monday, May 20 and Austria on Tuesday, May 21.

Squad: 

Netminders: Ben Bowns (Cardiff Devils), Lucas Brine (Dundee Stars), Jackson Whistle (Belfast Giants).

Defence: Josh Batch (Cardiff Devils), David Clements (Coventry Blaze), Nathanael Halbert (HC Innsbruck), Sam Jones (Sheffield Steelers), Evan Mosey (Cardiff Devils), Ben O’Connor (Guildford Flames), David Phillips (Belfast Giants), Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils), Sam Ruopp (Lausitzer Fuchse), Josh Tetlow (Nottingham Panthers).

Forwards: Ollie Betteridge (Nottingham Panthers), Cam Critchlow (Manchester Storm), Johnny Curran (Coventry Blaze), Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils), Robert Dowd (Sheffield Steelers), Liam Kirk (HC Litvinov), Robert Lachowicz (Glasgow Clan), Ben Lake (Belfast Giants), Cade Neilson (University of Alaska-Fairbanks), Sean Norris (Belfast Giants), Brett Perlini (Mec Halle 04), Cole Shudra (Sheffield Steelers), Brandon Whistle (Sheffield Steelers).