Team USA has named their final 25-man roster for the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship. The tournament begins on Sunday, December 26th in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta. Team USA opens the tournament on December 26th against Team Slovakia. The team is coached by Nate Leaman, head coach of Providence College.
Introducing the 2022 U.S. National Junior Team! 🇺🇸 #WorldJuniors
Full announcement → https://t.co/AlRSCKp1vQ pic.twitter.com/er1mEvPkzv
— USA Hockey (@usahockey) December 14, 2021
2022 Team USA World Junior Championship Roster
This group will want to build on the success of Team USA in recent years. After winning gold last year against their Team Canada, Team USA is looking to accomplish something they have never done at this tournament. Win back-to-back gold medals. In addition, Team USA is looking to win medals in five of the last World Junior Championships. During this stretch of success, the only time Team USA did not medal was in 2020.
Team USA features six members from the 2021 team that won goals in Edmonton last year. They will be led on offence by Seattle Kraken prospect Matty Beniers, New York Rangers prospect Brett Berard and Chicago Blackhawks prospect Landon Slaggert. With the loss of Trevor Zegras, Alex Turcotte, and Cole Caufield, Team USA will have to work to earn their goals this year at the tournament. As it is now time for a new crop of USA Hockey players to step up. And Nate Leaman is putting the faith in Beniers and Berard to get it done. As Zegras did last year, Beniers is going to announce himself to the rest of the hockey world.
The defence is led by three returning players in Los Angeles Kings prospect Brock Faber, and two Ottawa Senators prospects in Tyler Kleven and Jake Sanderson. In addition, the defence will also have New Jersey Devils prospect and Michigan freshman Luke Hughes on it. The coaching staff expects a lot out of Hughes at this tournament.
Goaltending could be an issue for Team USA this year. However, don’t tell Chicago Blackhawks prospect Drew Commesso that. Commesso is the favourite to get the net for Team USA with 2022 NHL Draft eligible players in Dylan Silverstein and Kaidan Mbereko backing him up.
The 25 man roster is represented from 16 different states. In addition, 20 of the 25 players are playing college hockey.
Forwards
Matthew Beniers – Seattle Kraken
Brett Berard – New York Rangers
Logan Cooley – 2022 NHL Draft Eligible
Matt Coronato – Calgary Flames
Tanner Dickerson – St Louis Blues
Dominic James – 2022 NHL Draft Eligible
Matt Knies – Toronto Maple Leafs
Chaz Lucius – Winnigpeg Jets
Carter Mazur – Detroit Red Wings
Sasha Pastujov – Anaheim Ducks
Mackie Samoskevich – Florida Panthers
Red Savage – Detroit Red Wings
Logan Slaggert – Chicago Blackhawks
Ty Smilanic – Florida Panthers
Defencemen
Luke Hughes – New Jersey Devils
Brock Faber – Los Angeles Kings
Wyatt Kaiser – Chicago Blackhawks
Tyler Kleven – Ottawa Senators
Ian Moore – Anaheim Ducks
Scott Morrow – Carolina Hurricanes
Jack Peart – Minnesota Wild
Jake Sanderson – Ottawa Senators
Goalies
Drew Commesso – Chicago Blackhawks
Kaidan Mbereko – 2022 NHL Draft Eligible
Dylan Silverstein – 2022 NHL Draft Eligible
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
