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Team USA Announces 2025 World Championship Roster

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Team USA has announced the first 18 players on their World Championship roster. The lineup contains all three goaltenders, six of seven defensemen, and nine of 13 forwards. The roster is led by American stars like Clayton Keller, Tage Thompson, and Brady Skjei. That trio will look to take a mixed group of experience to Team USA’s first gold medal appearance since 1960.

The American roster notably features top young players like Frank Nazar, Mason Lohrei, Cutter Gauthier, Logan Cooley, Jackson LaCombe, and Matty Beniers. Beniers offers the most experience on the Men’s Team, having joined USA at the 2021 World Championship and 2022 Winter Olympics. He scored two points in each tournament. Team USA will also continue their trend of bringing collegiate goaltending by adding Los Angeles Kings prospect Hampton Slukynsky to the roster. Slukynsky led the Fargo Force to a USHL championship last season, then won Western Michigan’s starting role and carried the school to their first NCAA National Championship as a freshman this season.

Team USA will still need to add four forwards and one defenseman. The World Championship will run from May 9th to May 25th in Herning, Denmark – giving the Americans a chance to add some more firepower after playoff exits. Jeff Kealty is serving as USA’s general manager, while San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky heads a coaching staff that also features Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach Mike Vellucci, Chciago Blackhawks assistant Kevin Dean, and Michigan State University head coach Adam Nightingale.

The current roster is as follows:

F Tage Thompson (Sabres)
F Drew O’Connor (Canucks)
F Frank Nazar (Blackhawks)
F Michael McCarron (Predators)
F Clayton Keller (Hockey Club)
F Cutter Gauther (Ducks)
F Conor Garland (Canucks)
F Logan Cooley (Hockey Club)
F Matty Beniers (Kraken)

D Alex Vlasic (Blackhawks)
D Brady Skjei (Predators)
D Andrew Peeke (Bruins)
D Mason Lohrei (Bruins)
D Jackson LaCombe (Ducks)
D Michael Kesselring (Hockey Club)

G Joey Daccord (Kraken)
G Jeremy Swayman (Bruins)
G Hampton Slukynsky (Kings)

Central Notes: Holloway, Kapanen, Makar, Novak, Sissons, Marchment, Vlasic

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In an impressive feat, St. Louis Blues’ forward Dylan Holloway will return to the lineup tonight after leaving the team’s most recent game after taking a puck to the neck (X Link). He left the game on a stretcher and was taken to an emergency department following the incident.

He’s been a solid addition to the Blues this season, as he’s off to the best scoring pace of his career to start the season. Four goals and six points in 13 games don’t necessarily jump off the page but considering he’s only managed nine points in 2022-23 and 2023-24, it’s a good improvement.

Unfortunately for St. Louis, the team will still be without forward Kasperi Kapanen tonight. Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic reported the projected lineup for tonight’s game and it didn’t include Kapanan meaning he’s likely still recovering from his upper-body injury.

Other Central notes:

  • Marc Moser of the Colorado Avalanche originally reported earlier that defenseman Cale Makar would be a game-time decision for the team’s contest tonight. As it turns out, Makar is expected to play in tonight’s action. Makar left during the second period of the team’s recent game against the Seattle Kraken but returned for less than a minute in the third period. He’s been the team’s best and arguably the league’s best player this season with five goals and 23 points in 13 games.
  • The Nashville Predators are without a few middle-six forwards tonight as the team announced Thomas Novak is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury and Colton Sissons has a similar injury designation. The news will inevitably hurt the Predators in one of their least productive areas as their 2.38 GF/G currently ranks 27th in the NHL.
  • Brien Rea of Victory+ reports that Dallas Stars’ forward Mason Marchment is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. This means that Marchment won’t be in the lineup tonight but could make his return this weekend against the Winnipeg Jets. He’s gotten off to a decent start on the year with two goals and eight points in 11 games.
  • Chicago Blackhawks’ defenseman Alex Vlasic had an impressive defensive season last year with a 90.6% on-ice save percentage in all situations on a basement-dwelling Blackhawks roster. Now that he’s recorded seven assists in 14 games this year, Scott Powers and Mark Lazerus of The Athletic share that Vlasic is now getting outside consideration for Team USA’s roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off. He played internationally for the United States this past summer recording two assists in eight games in the 2024 IIHF World Championships.

USA Hockey Announces Final 2024 World Championship Roster

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May 5: USA Hockey has invited nine more players to join their upcoming World Championship roster, including college hockey standouts Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Trey Augustine. The roster now carries 21 skaters and two goaltenders, one shy of the limit for both positions. There’s been no indication of who could round out Team USA’s roster, or if the team will look for additional hands at all.

It has also been announced that Dylan Larkin will no longer be able to participate due to injury, per Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). Larkin has been removed from the official roster.

Apr. 24: USA Hockey announced the first 15 players named to their roster for the 2024 World Championship on Wednesday. The remaining eight-ish players will be announced before tournament action begins on May 10.

Only players on the 16 NHL teams who missed out on the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs are on the initial roster. Others will join in as their clubs are bounced from postseason action, even after the World Championship begins.

Early on, it’s clear that the promise of potential spots on the United States roster for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics is making this a more well-attended World Championship than in years past. Some big-ticket stars like Canadiens sniper Cole Caufield, Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, and Blue Jackets stars Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski highlight the initial roster. The full slate is as follows:

F Matt Boldy (Wild)
F Cole Caufield (Canadiens)
F Michael Eyssimont (Lightning)
F Joel Farabee (Flyers)
F Johnny Gaudreau (Blue Jackets)
F Kevin Hayes (Blues)
F Luke Kunin (Sharks)
F Ryan Leonard (Boston College, Capitals)
F Brock Nelson (Islanders)
F Shane Pinto (Senators)
F Will Smith (Boston College, Sharks)
F Brady Tkachuk (Senators)
F Trevor Zegras (Ducks)

D Luke Hughes (Devils)
D Seth Jones (Blackhawks)
D Jake Sanderson (Senators)
D Alex Vlasic (Blackhawks)
D Zach Werenski (Blue Jackets)
D Jeff Petry (Red Wings)
D Matthew Kessel (Blues)
D Michael Kesselring (Utah HC)

G Alex Lyon (Red Wings)
G Trey Augustine (Michigan State, Red Wings)

This year’s Worlds will take place in Ostrava and Prague, Czechia, although some pre-tournament action is taking place across the border in Bratislava, Slovakia. The U.S. is the highest-ranked country in Group B, which will play its round-robin schedule in Ostrava’s 10,004-seat Ostravar Aréna.

Panthers assistant GM Brett Peterson is at the helm of this year’s men’s national team before Wild GM Bill Guerin takes the reins for the truly best-on-best 2025 and 2026 tournaments. The Americans have won bronze medals in four of the last 10 World Championships (2013, 2015, 2018, 2021) but haven’t won gold since 1960, as part of that year’s Winter Olympics in California. Wild head coach John Hynes will be behind the bench.

Blackhawks Sign Alex Vlasic To Six-Year Extension

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11:10 a.m.: Per PuckPedia, Vlasic has a 10-team no-trade list in 2028-29 and 2029-30, the two seasons of the deal he’d otherwise be eligible for unrestricted free agency. The full breakdown of the contract is as follows:

2024-25: $1.5MM base salary + $4.5MM signing bonus
2025-26: $1.8MM base salary + $4MM signing bonus
2026-27: $4.3MM base salary
2027-28: $1.3MM base salary + $3MM signing bonus
2028-29: $1.6MM base salary + $2MM signing bonus
2029-30: $1.6MM base salary + $2MM signing bonus

10:04 a.m.: The Blackhawks have signed promising defenseman Alex Vlasic to a six-year extension with a $4.6MM cap hit, The Athletic’s Scott Powers reports Thursday. The deal, which will pay Vlasic $27.6MM in total, walks him to unrestricted free agency in 2030. The team later confirmed the terms of the deal as initially reported.

Vlasic, 23 in June, was the Blackhawks’ second-round pick in 2019 after they took Kirby Dach third overall. That year, he was the top shutdown defender for the USNTDP’s U-18 squad and was viewed as a consensus late first/early second-round choice. However, he fell a bit to Chicago at 43rd overall. He then embarked on a three-year stint at Boston University, where the 6’6″ blue-liner quietly continued to improve his shutdown game while managing four goals and 20 points in 82 games. His career +1 rating there wasn’t all that impressive, but BU was a rather middling program during his time there and never finished higher than fifth in the Hockey East conference.

The Chicago native turned pro with his hometown club after his junior season, inking a three-year entry-level contract in March 2022 that kicked in immediately. He played 15 games for the Hawks down the stretch, recording his first two NHL points (one goal, one assist) with a -2 rating while averaging 14:19 per game. His possession metrics were decent on a rebuilding club that won just twice in regulation in 20 games after he signed, posting a 44.0 CF% and 54.9 xGF% at even strength, per Hockey Reference. It wasn’t enough to earn him a full-time spot on their 2022-23 roster, playing in only six games last year, but he did post a +12 rating to lead all AHL Rockford defensemen, along with 19 points in 56 games.

He landed an opening night roster spot this season and never looked back. Vlasic operated in a number-one capacity for stretches of the season when Seth Jones was sidelined with injury, finishing second behind Jones in average time on ice (21:29). He put up two goals and 16 points in 76 games in his first full NHL season, adding on a very respectable -4 rating, 44.9 CF%, and 47.7 xGF% while playing shutdown matchups for one of the weakest rosters in the league. When he wasn’t controlling possession himself, he was competent at keeping the puck out of dangerous areas, leading the team with 148 blocks.

Vlasic will never be a point producer, but his linear development and strong showing this season in difficult minutes are exemplary hints that he can be a high-end, top-four complementary shutdown defender for years to come. There haven’t been any major road bumps in his development since his draft day. He navigated the obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic quite well and hit his likely ceiling earlier than most defenders.

In getting Vlasic signed long-term early on, Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson continues the recent trend of early long-term commitments to developing defenders. The Sabres’ Owen Power and the Senators’ Jake Sanderson both signed long-term deals after their first full NHL seasons in 2022-23, although they both had one year remaining on their entry-level deals at the time. Vlasic was headed for restricted free agency this summer. It’s an extremely comparable extension to another young Buffalo defender, 24-year-old shutdown man Mattias Samuelsson, who inked a seven-year, $30MM ($4.29MM AAV) agreement in October 2022.

Vlasic joins Jones as the only Blackhawks skaters signed past 2026. Their deals will expire simultaneously after the 2029-30 campaign. Before today’s news, Jones and veteran Connor Murphy were the only Chicago defenders signed to one-way contracts for next season. Vlasic and Jones are expected to reprise their role as Chicago’s top defense pairing in 2024-25.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Blackhawks Notes: Vlasic, Murphy, Blackwell

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The Chicago Blackhawks could ink rookie defenseman Alex Vlasic to a long-term deal this summer, shares Ben Pope of The Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link). Vlasic told Pope, “I want to be [in Chicago] as long as possible.” The 22-year-old defenseman is set to become a restricted free agent for the first time in his career this season, having played through his 2021 entry-level contract.

Vlasic was maybe the surprise of the season in Chicago, fighting his way up to top-pairing ice time early in the year and not relinquishing it. He would go on to record 16 points and 45 penalty minutes in 76 games, while averaging nearly 22 minutes of ice time. He became the de facto partner for top defenseman Seth Jones – with the pairing recording over 850 even-strength minutes together, Chicago’s only pair to play even 400 minutes together.

Vlasic carved out a confident role and should be due a confident deal when he re-signs this summer. Pope compared Vlasic’s negotiations to K’Andre Miller and Mattias Samuelsson when trying to project what a new deal may look like. Both players pulled in a cap hit of around $4MM, though Miller signed a short-term bridge while Samuelsson received seven years. It’s likely Chicago leans on the side of longer term, with brighter days yet to come.

Other notes out of the Windy City:

  • Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy shared that the injury that held him out of the season finale wasn’t exactly a reinjury of his groin injury, but more of a “tweak”, per Pope (Twitter link). Murphy added that the injury will affect his off-season training plans, though he’s happy to have time off to get back to full health. Murphy played in just 46 games this season, recording eight points, 40 penalty minutes, and a -19. He served in a solid role, averaging nearly 20 minutes of ice time, though that may have been out of necessity more than desire for a Hawks blue-line that iced 12 different defensemen this season. Murphy will hope to regain health and hang onto his strong role in Chicago as he approaches his eighth season with the club next year.
  • Hawks forward Colin Blackwell shared that he would love to stay in Chicago, per NBC Sports’ Charlie Roumeliotis (Twitter link). Blackwell is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer – one of 19 free agents in Chicago’s system. He’s spent the last two seasons in Chicago, totaling 22 points in 97 games with the club. While meager scoring, Blackwell has served in a reliable bottom-six role and maintained his discipline, totaling just 16 penalty minutes over the last two seasons. He’ll likely return to a consistent fourth-line role if he signs a new deal with Chicago.

Evening Notes: Tortorella, Fantilli, Jones, Vlasic

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Despite their recent collapse, it doesn’t appear as though the Philadelphia Flyers are planning to make a coaching change to replace John Tortorella anytime soon. This news comes from TSN’s Darren Dreger who reports that Flyers sources have told him that “Torts is not leaving the bench.” The speculation around Tortorella’s job security makes sense given that the team is mired in a 1-6-3 streak in their last ten and are currently chasing a playoff spot after sitting comfortably in third place in the Metropolitan Division just a few short weeks ago.

The Flyers are winless in eight straight games and have looked lost the last month, particularly in their last three games where they have been outscored 19-7 by the Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens. Last night’s 9-3 loss to Montreal was particularly difficult to watch as the Canadiens dominated the Flyers from start to finish which further added to speculation about Tortorella’s future.

In other evening notes:

  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that Columbus Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli won’t play again this season after suffering a lacerated calf against the Seattle Kraken back on January 28th. While that news isn’t overly surprising given that there are just a handful of games left on the NHL schedule, what is surprising to hear is that the 19-year-old rookie might play for Team Canada at the IIHF World Championships if he is healthy a month from now. Fantilli played for Team Canada last year at the tournament and could return on May 10th if he is at 100 percent. Last year’s third-overall pick will finish his first NHL regular season with 12 goals and 15 assists in 49 games.
  • Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Chicago Blackhawks defensemen Seth Jones and Alex Vlasic will suit up for Team U.S.A. at the IIHF World Championships. The 22-year-old Vlasic hasn’t represented the United States internationally for over five years, last suiting up for the Americans at the U18 World Championship in 2018-19. Jones last suited up internationally two years ago at the World Championships when he captained the Americans to a fourth-place finish.

Snapshots: Ovechkin, Vlasic, Petan, Bellows

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Washington Capitals star winger Alex Ovechkin is officially sidelined, now set to miss his second straight game with a lower-body injury, per team reporter Bailey Johnson. Ovechkin has been dealing with the injury for about a week, taking part in the optional practices and traveling with the team to New York. Ovechkin’s next chance to play will be when the Capitals face the Anaheim Ducks at home on Tuesday.

Ovechkin is experiencing the lowest goals-per-game pace of his career this season, boasting just eight through 39 games this season. But that hasn’t limited his scoring upside, with the 38-year-old still leading the Washington roster with 27 points. He also leads all Capitals forwards in ice time, averaging roughly 19-and-a-half each game. It’s been an impressive year for the 1386-game veteran of the league, who is proving just how effective he still is, even if his illustrious chase of Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record may be dwindling.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson spoke about the likelihood of signing high-end rookie defenseman Alex Vlasic to a long-term deal – sharing that the team is definitely considering weighing the idea but wants to be sure before committing to a long-term cap hit. Vlasic currently has 10 points in 37 games this season, adding 25 penalty minutes and a +7. He ranks second in scoring among Hawks defenders, and first among the team’s multiple rookie defenders.
  • The Minnesota Wild have sent forward Nic Petan back to the minor leagues. Petan was recalled on December 31st, appearing in the team’s last five games. He managed two points and a -2 over the stretch. Petan has also appeared in 26 AHL games this season, scoring 10 goals and 28 points.
  • Kieffer Bellows has signed a minor league deal with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, officially joining the team through the rest of the season. Bellows has already appeared in 25 games with the club, scoring 14 goals and 26 points, leading the team in goals and ranking second in points. Bellows played in 27 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers last season, scoring three goals and recording a -7. The New York Islanders drafted Bellows 19th-overall in the 2016 NHL Draft and is one of seven players from that First Round to not yet play in 100 NHL games. He remains five games short, managing 31 points in 95 career games.

Central Notes: Makar, Cogliano, Jones, Vlasic, Kupari

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As the Colorado Avalanche are set to take on the Chicago Blackhawks tonight, the team will still be without defenseman Cale Makar and forward Andrew Cogliano, according to Conor McGahey of Altitude Sports. On Makar specifically, with a relatively easy schedule to finish out the calendar year, the Avalanche may keep Makar out for several games for him to comfortably recover from his ongoing lower-body injury.

Nevertheless, without Makar in the lineup since the team’s victory against the Buffalo Sabres on December 13th, Colorado struggled defensively in their game against the Winnipeg Jets only three nights later. Making his case for the best player in the organization, Makar has eight goals and 37 points in 27 games played up to this point, carrying an equally impressive 90.5% on-ice save percentage in all situations.

Cogliano, on the other hand, will be kept out of the lineup tonight after receiving a big hit in the team’s most recent game against the San Jose Sharks. Like Makar, Cogliano has also played in 27 games on the season, scoring three goals and nine points as a part of the forward core’s bottom six.

Other notes:

  • Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago reported that while already on the team’s injured reserve, it is unlikely that defenseman Seth Jones will suit up for the Chicago Blackhawks before the Christmas break. With his injured reserve placement coming just three days ago, Jones would be eligible to return from his shoulder injury on December 23rd. Conversely, in the same report, Roumeliotis mentions that Alex Vlasic is much closer to a return, skating on his own this morning.
  • In some positive news for the Winnipeg Jets, Rasmus Kupari was back at practice this morning in a non-contact jersey (X Link). Acquired in the same deal that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings over the summer, Kupari has been dealing with a shoulder injury, recording only one assist in 15 games for the Jets.

Snapshots: Granlund, Red Wings, Blackhawks

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10/29: The San Jose Sharks have activated Granlund from injured reserve and assigned Jacob Peterson and Thomas Bordeleau to the AHL.

10/29: San Jose Sharks head coach David Quinn shared that he expects Mikael Granlund to be available for the team’s Sunday evening contest, although it will seemingly be a game-time decision. Granlund was placed on injured reserve on October 13th with a lower-body injury.

Granlund only managed one game with the Sharks before his move to injured reserve. He went without a point, playing in 15-and-a-half minutes in the matchup. It was his debut in San Jose, officially making the Sharks the fourth team he’s played for throughout his career. The forward missed much of the 2022-23 season with injury but netted 36 points in 58 games during the 2021-22 season; a 50-point pace through 82 games. The 31-year-old has accrued 751 career NHL games, scoring 484 points. He’ll look to climb his way to the 500-point mark with the Sharks this season, set to return from injury soon.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Detroit Red Wings have sent Jonatan Berggren to the AHL. The winger has played two games this season, going without a point. He played his rookie season last year, totaling 67 games and 28 points.
  • The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled defenseman Isaak Phillips to the NHL. This move likely signals that Alex Vlasic, who was injured in the Hawks recent game against Vegas, is likely set to miss at least one game. Phillips has appeared in five AHL games this season, scoring one goal and three points. He has 20 NHL games under his belt, with five career points. Vlasic has been a major bright spot through the early going, making his absence a stinger for the Hawks.

Chicago Blackhawks Reassign Lukas Reichel And Alex Vlasic, Recall Buddy Robinson

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The Chicago Blackhawks have shuffled their roster, sending two young players (forward Lukas Reichel and defenseman Alex Vlasic) to the AHL while recalling a veteran (forward Buddy Robinson) to the NHL.

The move allows two of the team’s more promising young players to join the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs as they look to fend off a push from the Chicago Wolves for the final playoff spot in the Central Division, paving the way for the two to play a major role in any playoff series the IceHogs qualify for.

Since the Blackhawks have three games remaining on their schedule, though, an NHL replacement was needed, so the player chosen as the recall is Robinson, who was reassigned to the AHL by the Blackhawks on March 26th.

The biggest name of this group is Reichel, a 20-year-old German winger who was the 17th overall pick at the 2020 draft. While some of his fellow 2020 first-rounders have already played more than 100 games in the NHL, the rebuilding Blackhawks were more patient with Reichel’s development, and that patience seems to have paid off.

Reichel was drafted so high on the back of a strong draft season playing pro hockey in the DEL for Eisbaren Berlin, where he scored 12 goals and 24 points in 42 games. While it was ten points less than third-overall pick and current Ottawa Senators star Tim Stutzle managed that same year, it’s still an impressive feat for any draft-year player to be a productive regular in a professional league playing against grown men.

The Blackhawks opted to have Reichel spend 2020-21 with Berlin, and that choice paid off as Reichel scored 27 points in 38 regular-season games and five points in nine DEL playoff games.

That successful sophomore season in Germany’s top pro league gave the Blackhawks the green light to bring Reichel across the Atlantic, and they allowed him to spend most of his year in the AHL, save for some brief cameos at the NHL level.

Reichel was a star AHL rookie, scoring 57 points in 56 games, an extremely strong number for a player who spent most of the season still in his teens.

This season, knowing that their roster was unlikely to provide Reichel the most comfortable developmental environment, the Blackhawks opted to keep Reichel in the AHL, and he scored well yet again, potting 46 points in 51 games.

A three-point performance in an overtime victory over the Calgary Flames likely gave Chicago increased confidence that Reichel might be ready for a more extensive stretch in the NHL, and they gave him just that in the month of March. Reichel began growing into more of a go-to option for head coach Luke Richardson, and he now likely finishes his season with a strong 15 points in 23 games.

If he can help Rockford go on a deep playoff run, or at least put some finishing touches on what has been a successful sophomore season, Reichel will likely enter next year’s training camp with his spot on the team’s NHL roster virtually guaranteed.

As for Vlasic, he’s spent almost the entirety of the season with the IceHogs, save for the past two weeks or so that he’s been on the NHL roster. The 21-year-old is a hulking six-foot-six blueliner who turned pro last season after three years at Boston University.

While there isn’t a ton of offense to speak of (he scored 20 points in his NCAA career and has 17 in 52 AHL games this year) Vlasic is an imposing physical force with serious crease-clearing potential. He’s been utilized as a top-pairing blueliner for the IceHogs, and the organization is hopeful that he can soon develop into an NHL option.

As for Robinson, he’s a 31-year-old minor league veteran who has 60 NHL games on his resume. The six-foot-six crash-and-bang winger last played in the NHL in a March 25th, 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild and has not yet registered a point in seven NHL games this season.

With 20 points in 50 AHL contests, any NHL games Robinson can skate in during the remainder of the Blackhawks’ season will be an important opportunity as his one-year league-minimum two-way deal is set to expire, meaning he’ll want to put some quality play on tape before he possibly lands on the open market in a few months.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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