The National Team Development Program heads into its first international break of the season, featuring both the Under-17 Team and Under-18 Team crossing borders.

The U17s stay relatively local as they take the sub-two hour bus ride to Sarnia, Ontario for the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

The World U17 Hockey Challenge is the group's first international tournament, which is hosted annually by Hockey Canada. The tournament features the future stars of the game, with all competing players under the age of 17.

This year's competing teams are Canada Red,  Canada White, Czechia, Finland, Sweden and the United States. 

Team USA owns six first-place finishes at the event, nine second-place finishes and three times in third place. In the 2023 iteration of the event, the 2007 U.S. date-of-birth group finished in second, falling in overtime to Canada White in the championship game in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

The Under-18 Team will travel to Tabor, Czechia to compete in the November U18 Five Nations tournament, that also includes host Czechia, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland in a round-robin tournament.

After getting the first day of the tournament off, Team USA will play on four consecutive days in a less-than-70 hour span as they take on Sweden (Nov. 7), Finland (Nov. 8), Czechia (Nov. 9) and Switzerland (Nov. 10).