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Tyler Benson (born March 15, 1998) is a Canadian junior ice hockey winger currently playing for the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League (WHL). Granted "exceptional player" status by the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), he was selected a year before his eligibility in the 2013 WHL Bantam Draft. Benson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and played minor hockey for the Edmonton Southside Athletic Club (SSAC) Lions and the Kelowna Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy.

Minor hockey
Benson played bantam hockey with the Edmonton Southside Athletic Club (SSAC) Lions of the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League (AMBHL), winning back-to-back provincial titles with the team. In his first full AMBHL season, he recorded 84 points over 33 games. The following year, in 2012-13, Benson set a league record with 146 points in 33 games, breaking Ty Rattie's previous mark of 131 (set in 2007-08 with the Airdrie Xtreme). Benson broke the single-season scoring record on January 25, 2013, with another AMBHL record of 10 points in a single game. In addition to the provincial championship, he went on to lead the Lions to the Western Canadian regional title, including a hat trick in the gold medal game.

Garnering considerable attention from the junior hockey ranks, Benson was granted "exception player" status for the Western Hockey League (WHL) Bantam Draft, allowing him to be selected a year ahead of his eligibility. He became the first player in WHL history to receive the exception and the fourth in Canadian Hockey League (CHL) history, after John Tavares, Connor McDavid and Sean Day. In May 2013, he was selected first overall in the draft by the Vancouver Giants. Due to league policy, players under the age of 16 cannot dress for more than WHL 5 games until their midget season is over. Though this rule had been waived for previous "exceptional status" players in the Canadian Hockey League, such as John Tavares, Connor McDavid and Sean Day, Giants management indicated that they were comfortable delaying Benson's first full year of junior in order to play at the midget level first. Benson also later stated that he chose to delay his first full WHL season in order to focus first on his skating at the midget level. Though not a full-time WHL player, Benson trained with the Giants and impressed in his first WHL camp, prompting head coach Don Hay to comment that he would have "like[d] to keep him [with the team] longer if he could."

Following his WHL training camp, Benson joined the Kelowna's Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy at the U18 midget level. He scored 95 points in 49 games. During the season, Benson also competed in the Western Canada U16 Challenge Cup, an annual tournament organized by the WHL in conjuction with the four provincial minor hockey associations in Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan). Representing Team Alberta, Benson scored two goals and an assist in four games. Alberta went undefeated in the tournament to win the Western Canada championship. Upon the completion of his midget season, Benson joined the Giants for the remainder of the 2013-14 WHL season. In his seventh game with the team, he sustained a season-ending medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury while receiving a check in a game against the Seattle Thunderbirds on March 9, 2014.

Vancouver Giants
Starting his first full junior season in 2013-14, Benson was named the game's first star in his WHL debut against the Victoria Royals. The following game, he scored his first WHL goal on September 26, 2014, on an end-to-end rush against Portland Winterhawks goaltender Adin Hill. Later in the season, Benson was ejected and suspended an additional game for a hit that sent that Kelowna Rockets defenceman colliding into the boards on October 1, 2014.

During his WHL rookie season, Benson was heralded by Giants owner Ron Toigo as the most "complete 16-year-old [hockey player he had] ever seen." Former National Hockey League (WHL) general manager and TSN analyst compared him to Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn.

International play
Benson made his debut with Hockey Canada at the 2014 World U-17 Hockey Challenge in Nova Scotia. Being a year underage for the tournament, he was not initially chosen to Team Pacific. Due to an injury, he was a late addition and was the only player on his team to not be playing full-time in the WHL. Playing in six games, Benson scored one goal, helping Team Pacific to a silver medal.

Benson was selected for the following World U-17 tournament as part of Canada's Black Team (in previous year's Canada sent five regional teams to the tournament; starting with the November 2014 tournament, Canada will begin sending three teams -- Red, White and Black). He scored 1 goal and 1 assist in 5 games as Team Canada Black failed to medal. It was reported afterwards that Benson had sustained an injury during the tournament.

Personal life
Benson was born in Edmonton, Alberta. He has a brother, Cole, who plays junior hockey for the Edmonton Oil Kings. Growing up, his favourite NHL team was the Edmonton Oilers, while his favourite player was Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings. He also listed Sidney Crosby as the player he looks up to most and Jarome Iginla as a player whose style he would like to pattern himself after. In Edmonton, he attended high school at Our Lady of Mount Caramel.