The Capital City Challenge will serve as a one-time event to replace the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, which was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, while providing an opportunity for Canada’s national women’s team to compete as part of its centralisation schedule.

"This is a unique opportunity for our 2005-born men’s players, who will step on the ice with Hockey Canada for the first time after only being able to connect virtually over the past few months," said Scott Salmond, senior vice-president of hockey operations for Hockey Canada.

"We look forward to gathering in Ottawa as we begin to put our off-ice work into practice, and the Capital City Challenge provides an opportunity to introduce our under-17 athletes to the Program of Excellence while supporting Canada’s National Women’s Team in its preparations for the Olympics."

The action will begin on November 26 with preliminary round matches set to be played at TD Place Arena in Ottawa.

Canada's centralisation roster will face Team Canada White in the tournament opener before Team Canada Black take on Team Canada red on the first day.

The preliminary round concludes on November 29 and is followed by the semi-finals on November 30 and the medal games on December 1.

"We are once again presented with an opportunity to face competition that will test us and challenge our team in different ways," said Gina Kingsbury, director of hockey operations with Hockey Canada.

"In addition to our games against the United States, Finland and Junior A clubs, playing under-17 teams in this short-term competition gives us another layer of preparation and evaluation for our players and coaching staff."

Full event ticket packages can be purchased for CAD80 (£47.55/$64.40/€55.68) while individual match ticket prices start at CAD5 (£2.97/$4.02/€3.48).

The Capital City Challenge is part of Hockey Canada's plan to support its national team programmes following the cancellation of all autumn events in September.

Several events have been announced in place of the cancelled tournaments including the national junior team selection camp and national women's under-18 team selection camp in December.

The full season schedule for Canada's national Para hockey team is set to be announced next week.