The World Juniors are a little under 48 hours away and slated to kick off their tournament Tuesday night at 10:00 pm ET, Team USA had to make its final round of cuts for the tournament. Today they did just that, USA Hockey announcing its final roster for the tournament, cutting two players to bring the group down to 25. Frank Nazar (CHI) and Aiden Hreschuk (CBJ) were the final two players cut from the USA roster. The final group is as follows:
Goaltenders
Remington Koepple (2023 draft eligible)
Kaidan Mbereko (2023 draft eligible)
Andrew Oke (2023 draft eligible)
Defensemen
Sean Behrens (COL)
Brock Faber (MIN)
Luke Hughes (NJD)
Wyatt Kaiser (CHI)
Tyler Kleven (OTT)
Ian Moore (ANA)
Jack Peart (MIN)
Jacob Truscott (VAN)
Forwards
Brett Berard (NYR)
Thomas Bordeleau (SJS)
Logan Cooley (ARZ)
Matt Coronato (CGY)
Riley Duran (BOS)
Dominic James (CHI)
Matt Knies (TOR)
Carter Mazur (DET)
Hunter McKown (2023 draft eligible)
Sasha Pastujov (ANA)
Mackie Samoskevich (FLA)
Red Savage (DET)
Landon Slaggert (CHI)
Charlie Stramel (2023 draft eligible)
Of note for this USA team, it features 17 of the 25 players who were on the roster for the original 2022 WJC before it was ultimately cancelled and postponed due to COVID-19. Four of these 25, including Berard, Faber, Kleven, and Slaggert, were also on the 2021 team that won Gold. Team USA General Manager John Vanbiesbrouck had this to say about the difficult selection process:
“We had a great week of camp followed by a pair of good pre-tournament games to help us finalize our roster. We had some spots to fill from December and we filled them in well. These are hard decisions, but we believe these are the 25 best players to achieve our goal.”
Team USA’s coaching staff is made up of Head Coach Nate Leaman, Assistant Coaches Grant Potulny, Kris Mayotte, and Steve Miller, as well as Video Coach Theresa Feaster. The team will be captained by Faber, along with alternate captains in Bordeleau and Slaggert. USA will open the tournament with a preliminary round game against Germany Tuesday evening at 10:00 pm ET at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, where the entire tournament is being held.