The 22-year-old made 22 appearances in his breakthrough season at the Liberty Stadium and has been handed the captaincy following a trial match last weekend.
He played a key part in the Ospreys’ fifth placed RaboDirect PRO12 finish, often filling the void left by seasoned internationals in the back-row and at lock in International windows and during injury-plagued periods.
Ardron, most comfortable at blindside flanker, joined the Ospreys from Ontario Blues in his homeland along with fellow Canadian Jeff Hassler, with the latter included in the PRO12 Dream XV after scoring eight tries in 20 league appearances.
He is already Canada’s youngest ever captain after leading the side in a narrow 19-15 defeat to Georgia last year and will be looking to put that result right this summer.
“It’s an incredible honour for me to be named Canada’s captain and I would like to thank (coach) Kieran Crowley, the coaching staff and management for their support.
“I’m fortunate to have a core group of strong leaders and veterans on this roster such as (previous skipper) Aaron Carpenter, DTH van der Merwe and Jamie Cudmore to name only a few.
“To be in the same category as Canadian Rugby legends Gareth Rees, Al Charron, Morgan Williams, Pat Riordan and Aaron Carpenter as captain is a huge privilege for me.”
Canada face Japan on Saturday, take on Scotland on June 14, then face USA in Sacramento a week later.
“I see Tyler as a captain for the future and certainly he’s a young man with a level head and he’s shown that he has great maturity,” said Canada head coach Crowley.
“With the Ospreys he’s been brought into the leadership group and for a person to achieve that in their first year of professional rugby is a major compliment to him.”
