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WJC: 2024 Team USA Roster Talk

I could be biased for sure but Rinzel looks extremely good at Minnesota and I’ve watched a lot of their games. His tools are next level. Would be surprised if he doesn’t make it.
 
MTU34 said:


Some updates from Peters. Minnetian and Whitelaw will be in camp. Conmy will not be at camp, Brown is injured, Brzustewicz might not be at camp, and Stramel’s tough start means he has work to do
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Is there something I am missing about Hunter? He's been far and away the best D in the OHL this year. He's very sound in his own end.

Is it the coach having bias towards the NCAA? Seems crazy to me to leave him off
 
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McNuge said:
Is there something I am missing about Hunter? He's been far and away the best D in the OHL this year. He's very sound in his own end.

Is it the coach having bias towards the NCAA? Seems crazy to me to leave him off
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USA Hockey likes to keep people on their toes and do some weird sh*t every now and then. Recall that Alex DeBrincat and Kyle Connor didn't make the Junior team as 19 year olds, and it wasn't because people didn't know who they were.
 
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McNuge said:
Is there something I am missing about Hunter? He's been far and away the best D in the OHL this year. He's very sound in his own end.

Is it the coach having bias towards the NCAA? Seems crazy to me to leave him off
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I think it mostly comes down to the fact that there won’t really be a role available in which they can use Brzustewicz to the best of his abilities
 
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MTU34 said:
I think it mostly comes down to the fact that there won’t really be a role available in which they can use Brzustewicz to the best of his abilities
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This. I mean, last I checked, a guy like Ryan Healey was barely under PPG at Harvard and leading the whole team in scoring (a team with like 12 draft picks) and he has no chance to make the team. Brzustewicz has a chance. It’s merely not a very strong one.

No offense to the OHL. It’s a good league, but it’s junior hockey. I think if you’re talking about a junior hockey player potentially making a WJC team of one of the big five countries, you have to be one of the best players in that league. You get situations where there’s no depth at a position and Oke can make it as a backup goalie when he’s not one of the best players in the OHL, but when there’s some depth, it’s probably going to take being one of the best junior players. Thats the situation for Brzustewicz to have any chance. If he wasn’t playing like this and the team had any depth at his position, he’d have no chance, so I wouldn’t look at his play as thinking he has a definitive spot.

Then you get to what you said that his role is hard to find.
 
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TLEH said:
I could be biased for sure but Rinzel looks extremely good at Minnesota and I’ve watched a lot of their games. His tools are next level. Would be surprised if he doesn’t make it.
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I haven't seen all of them, but I've thought that he's looked better than Chesley for most of the year.
 
Why did Hunter B. go OHL instead of NCAA after his USNDTP years anyways? Basically no good American does that anymore. The OHL isn't a great League at the moment. Only McTavish, Mintyukov and Poitras were able to jump from OHL to NHL last year to this year (may have missed someone) for instance.
 
WarriorofTime said:
Why did Hunter B. go OHL instead of NCAA after his USNDTP years anyways? Basically no good American does that anymore. The OHL isn't a great League at the moment. Only McTavish, Mintyukov and Poitras were able to jump from OHL to NHL last year to this year (may have missed someone) for instance.
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He had signed a letter of intent to play at Michigan but bolted to Kitchener before he made it on campus. Likely wanted more opportunity after being buried at the NTDP as he would have been buried at Michigan too.
 
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MTU34 said:


Some updates from Peters. Minnetian and Whitelaw will be in camp. Conmy will not be at camp, Brown is injured, Brzustewicz might not be at camp, and Stramel’s tough start means he has work to do
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Understandable that they wouldn't take three defensemen from one team - and age isn't the biggest factor, but are Fortescue and Minnetian (both '05s) more valuable than Charlie Leddy would be? Particularly if Casey, Hutson and Hunter B. are on the blueline to provide scoring?

WarriorofTime said:
Why did Hunter B. go OHL instead of NCAA after his USNDTP years anyways? Basically no good American does that anymore. The OHL isn't a great League at the moment. Only McTavish, Mintyukov and Poitras were able to jump from OHL to NHL last year to this year (may have missed someone) for instance.
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I'd imagine he viewed it as a faster path to the NHL.
 
i really want to find a way to create a lineup that includes Stramel (yes, I still want him…I’m wavering for sure….but right now I still want him), Cam Lund, and Cruz Lucius. I fear that getting all of them is going to be unlikely but that’s my hope.

i can’t see how Rinzel doesnt make it. We need to at least pretend to value size on D a little bit and he’s been good. Gotta be in. Does anybody know if he or Leddy can play the left side?
 
Joe Zanussi said:
Have we ever had a team w zero CHL guys? Seems like a possibility this year
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The trend has been to rely less and less on the CHL. The simple fact is *today* the vast majority of high-end American stays in the domestic pipeline. You get rare exceptions like Musty, but even players like him have a number of analogs in the NCAA.
 
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I think there will be a CHL player or two.

Brzustewicz has like a 40% chance, Oke probably at 70%, Hayes and Musty must be 20% or higher.

It’s going to result in one of them on the team, and possibly more than one.
 
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I think that’s shortsighted, Stramel was hurt and appears to be finally healthy and looking much better the past two weekends. Could have taken a look at him before cutting him IMO.
 
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So maybe something like:

McGroarty-Gauthier-Snuggerud
Perreault-Smith-Leonard
Howard-Hagens-Nazar
Moore-Nelson-Brindley
Hayes

Hutson-Chesley
Buium-Casey
Fortescue-Rinzel
Pohlkamp

Augustine
Fowler
Hillebrandt
 
Bummed Fischer didn’t get an invite :-/
 
Stramel is not a surprising omission. He's been trending in the wrong direction for awhile, he's having a poor year, and his competition (i.e., Nelson) is drastically outplaying him. I wouldn't have been upset if he got a look but he didn't deserve to be on the team as of now.

I'm a bit surprised at no Leddy but he's been struggling a bit lately and given the lack of LHD depth, they're looking for a shutdown guy on that side.

I didn't like Minnetian's chances earlier this season but he's been really good lately for BC. Faber-esque impact for the Eagles in the recent games I've seen.

Cam Lund deserved an invite.

Livanavage seems like an "we need more LHD to evaluate" invite. Hopefully he proves me wrong. I would have rather seen Fischer get an invite but they must be fairly confident in Fortescue / Geary providing the shutdown element on the left side.
 
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