Now that the real tournament games are about to start, Team USA has trimmed down their roster at the World Junior Summer Showcase. The team had previously been split into two squads, but will come together to face Canada (twice), Sweden and Finland over the next several days. The team has parted ways with 13 players, getting them down to 31 for the rest of the tournament. The cuts are as follows:
D Marshall Warren
D Jackson LaCombe
D Case McCarthy
D Drew Helleson
D Slava Demin
D Alex Vlasic
F Luke Loheit
F Owen Lindmark
F Luke Toporowski
F Johnny Farinacci
F Blade Jenkins
F Demetrious Koumontzis
This doesn’t necessarily mean that these players won’t take part in the World Junior Championship in December, but certainly makes them long-shots to make the club. The roster will likely come out of the 31 players left, which still includes top 2019 draft picks like Alex Turcotte and Trevor Zegras as well as returning World Junior members like Joel Farabee, Oliver Wahlstrom and K’Andre Miller.
Team USA will take on Team Canada at 3:00pm (central) tomorrow afternoon.