With the start of the World Juniors now just a week and a half away, rosters for the event are starting to be finalized. The latest to do so is Team USA with USA Hockey announcing (Twitter link) their full squad for the tourney. The team lines up as follows with their NHL affiliation in parentheses.
Goalies
Trey Augustine (DET)
Jacob Fowler (MTL)
Sam Hillebrandt
Defense
Zeev Buium
Seamus Casey (NJ)
Ryan Chesley (WSH)
Drew Fortescue (NYR)
Lane Hutson (MTL)
Aram Minnetian (DAL)
Eric Pohlkamp (SJ)
Sam Rinzel (CHI)
Forwards
Gavin Brindley (CBJ)
Quinn Finley (NYI)
Cutter Gauthier (PHI)
Gavin Hayes (CHI)
Isaac Howard (TB)
Ryan Leonard (WSH)
Rutger McGroarty (WPG)
Oliver Moore (CHI)
Frank Nazar (CHI)
Danny Nelson (NYI)
Gabriel Perreault (NYR)
Will Smith (SJ)
Jimmy Snuggerud (STL)
Casey Terrance (ANA)
As expected, it’s a roster that has many NHL prospects on it, including two of the top eight selections from the draft back in June. Meanwhile, the Blackhawks are well-represented in this group with four prospects making the cut.
Corey Pronman of The Athletic points out (Twitter link) that there are still two cuts that will need to be made before the roster is formally registered for the tournament. With 14 forwards and eight blueliners on the roster, it stands to reason that one will be trimmed from each of those groups. However, those cuts will serve as standby injury replacements so they will still make the trek to Sweden for the event, which gets underway in Gothenburg, Sweden on December 26th.
Carey Terrance not Casey Terrance
That’s pretty good team. Should be around til the end. I’ll be watching.
Where’s Eiserman?
Yeah, that one is a head scratcher.
Solid in goal and stacked at forward. The D could be the only weak spot, but we shall see.