December 16, 2022
CHN Staff Report
USA Hockey has narrowed its roster down to 25 for the upcoming World Junior tournament in Canada, with 21 of those players currently on NCAA rosters, an all-time high.
The tournament will take place Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick.
The U.S. won a gold medal at the 2021 tournament in Edmonton, played in the bubble during the pandemic. The 2022 tournament started but was postponed because of a COVID outbreak and played this past August. The U.S. didn’t medal in that tournament.
Quinnipiac’s Rand Pecknold is the head coach of Team USA for the first time.
Michigan leads the way with five players selected, followed by Minnesota with four. Neither team has an official NCAA game scheduled during the tournament.
Michigan’s five include forwards Dylan Duke, Gavin Brindley and Rutger McGroarty, plus defensemen Seamus Casey and Luke Hughes. Minnesota’s group is defensemen Ryan Chesley and Luke Mittelstadt, plus forwards Logan Cooley and Jimmy Snuggerud. Cooley and Snuggerud were both first round NHL Draft picks last summer, and are among the national scoring leaders in the NCAA this season.
Michigan is also without Adam Fantilli, who is playing for Team Canada.
While all but three of the skaters have been drafted already, none of the three goalies have been yet. The group is led by Colorado College freshmen Kaiden Mbereko, who got the bulk of the playing time in August’s tournament and is the oldest of the three. The others are Andrew Oke, who plays in the OHL, and Trey Augustine, who is a Michigan State recruit.
Other NCAA teams with multiple players on the roster include Colorado College, which has Noah Laba in addition to Mbereko; and Massachusetts with defenseman Ryan Ufko and forward Kenny Connors.
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