Toggle sidebar

WJC: 2024 Team USA Roster Talk

I think they should have at least invited Brzustewicz to get a look at him, however, I don't think he's a huge loss. Buium with context is having arguably just as impressive a season as he is. (.02 PPG behind Lane Hutson for the lead among all defensemen in college hockey) I know he's not competing directly against him, because they play different sides, but the US is stacked with talented offensive blue liners right now and it's a really hard decision to decide who's making the cut, so I don't have a huge issue with his omission.
 
  • Like
Reactions: novisor, TLEH, WhiskeyYerTheDevils and 1 other person
Pavel Buchnevich said:
We saw that the smallboyz strategy wrecked us last year, and it doesn’t seem like we’ve learned our lesson.
Click to expand...
The average height of the forward group of this preliminary roster is taller than the average height of the last US team to win this thing. And 2 of the only 3 forwards on that team above 6-1 (Kaliyev and Boldy) are both skill/finesse players, not heavies.

You don't need power forwards to win this tournament. You need good ones.
 
Last edited:
WarriorofTime said:
Terrance got called up for the U-18 squad and was good in that event. Hayes plays a good style of game that can project for a 4th line, which is a role he is very comfortable in, in addition to being Top 10 in the OHL in scoring, his +/- is running away from the rest of his team.

Don't understand all the strays those two are getting as camp invites. They've been well in the running for 4th line roles since Summer and have had had good seasons.
Click to expand...
They are average players. They’ve had good seasons in a junior league. So has Connelly and Swanson. You want them on this team?

mphmiles said:
The average height of the forward group of this preliminary roster is taller than the average height of the last US team to win this thing. And 2 of the only 3 forwards on that team above 6-1 (Kaliyev and Boldy) are both skill/finesse players, not heavies.

You don't need power forwards to win this tournament. You need good ones.
Click to expand...
I don’t disagree, but given we had a very obvious weakness last year where we took too small of a team, I would like to lean towards the other direction this year.
 
Jersey Fan 12 said:
Musser and Slukynsky for starters. Though I'd imagine both having played for the U18 team gives the powers-that-be at USA Hockey a pretty good read on both (while allowing both to continue growing with their respective USHL clubs).
Click to expand...

Musser's stats aren't good enough as a USHL goalie to be under any consideration. Slukynsky is having a great start to the season (in the USHL) but he's on the WJAC team, so he wasn't under consideration here. Probably better for him to be the guy there than sit in the press box here.

mphmiles said:
I think they should have at least invited Brzustewicz to get a look at him, however, I don't think he's a huge loss. Buium with context is having arguably just as impressive a season as he is. (.02 PPG behind Lane Hutson for the lead among all defensemen in college hockey) I know he's not competing directly against him, because they play different sides, but the US is stacked with talented offensive blue liners right now and it's a really hard decision to decide who's making the cut, so I don't have a huge issue with his omission.
Click to expand...

Buium normally plays on the right side, so they could have been in competition in the staff's eyes.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: mphmiles
William H Bonney said:
Buium normally plays on the right side, so they could have been in competition in the staff's eyes.
Click to expand...
Interesting.

Also of note, I saw he's listed at 6-2 on the roster. Does that seem accurate? If he had a late growth spurt he's going to rocket up draft boards.
 
mphmiles said:
Interesting.

Also of note, I saw he's listed at 6-2 on the roster. Does that seem accurate? If he had a late growth spurt he's going to rocket up draft boards.
Click to expand...

He definitely looks bigger to me than he did to end last season. Whether he's precisely 6'2 or not I'm not sure, but given his brothers are 6'2 and 6'3 and he's only just about to turn 18, I'm not surprised if he's grown that much already. Agree, his draft stock fascinating.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bye Bye Blueston and mphmiles
On the plus side, Geary and Nelson getting opportunities is encouraging.

Terrance and not Musty is a head scratcher.
 
Pavel Buchnevich said:
No Stramel is stupid. We saw what happened last year. Everyone said he shouldn’t make it because of a slow start and then he had a good tournament. We will probably be missing some much needed size, physicality, and defensive ability in the forward core. We saw that the smallboyz strategy wrecked us last year, and it doesn’t seem like we’ve learned our lesson.

I guess the goalies are decided. I really don’t care whether Oke or Hillebrandt made it. Probably better the one that can come back next year did.

Defense worries me a lot on that left side. I guess we’re down to Fortescue and Geary for that 3LHD spot. I don’t think Fortescue is bad, but I have little faith he can do the job as an 18 year old. Know nothing about Geary. I hope he’s good. Livanavage and Minnetian are wastes of camp spots. Pohlkamp probably is on the team.

Told everyone Quinn Finley might have a chance to make this team, although I actually would cut him from the forwards. We have enough skill. Whitelaw has no business on this team. Cut him and either Finley, Hayes or Terrance. Those are the four obvious ones to cut from the forwards.
Click to expand...

Don't have a problem with Whitelaw for the role he will play next year. Would be surprised if he's on the final at this tournament but Wisconsin has been one of the first-half surprises and nice to see him being a part of things.
 
Eiserman for me is a definite head scratcher, same with Brzusty...those two should have at least made the camp.

I don't see any CHL bias with Brzusty as others have said we have CHLers here as well...This blue line looks pretty average overall to me. Not going to win us games nor lose us any. I think last year we went to soft on the blue line, this year we might be trying to over correct it by leaving Brzusty off...I dunno, might be a mistake come medal round. Buium is the pure wild card here. He could be our Jaccob Slavin level player who "wows" the shit out of everyone...excited for him.

Overall though, this team has 3 insanely talented lines...if the heart is there they should coast into the medal round with the skill level we have here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SanDogBrewin
Snuggerud, Moore, and Chesley have all been having very inconsistent and frankly disappointing seasons so far. Hence the Gophers' poor start.

I would not be surprised to see Moore not make it or be a 13th forward. He isn't really impacting games.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Obvious Fabertism
Jersey Fan 12 said:
Don't have a problem with Whitelaw for the role he will play next year. Would be surprised if he's on the final at this tournament but Wisconsin has been one of the first-half surprises and nice to see him being a part of things.
Click to expand...
I don’t think Whitelaw is some lock for next year. He’s a good player. He’s not great. Could easily barely miss this team, and then miss the year everyone thinks he’ll make it, like Lund did this year.
 
I think USA Hockey overthinks the roles every year. We have only won in age groups that were clearly exceptionally good. I think that you choose the best 23 available players for this tournament and that is enough if it is enough. Especially nowadays when the whole game has changed so much where skill matters much more. It's stupid to leave out players from the team every year whose performances deserve to be included and then watch as Canada lifts the trophy once again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pavel Buchnevich
SK94 said:
I think USA Hockey overthinks the roles every year. We have only won in age groups that were clearly exceptionally good. I think that you choose the best 23 available players for this tournament and that is enough if it is enough. Especially nowadays when the whole game has changed so much where skill matters much more. It's stupid to leave out players from the team every year whose performances deserve to be included and then watch as Canada lifts the trophy once again.
Click to expand...

Not at all. The idea is to build the best team and fill all the various roles necessary to win a tournament. Finland does the same and it is the main reason it has consistently "punched above its weight" despite having far fewer players from which to choose than Canada does.

The college vs. junior discussion however may have some merit; as does the case of the rare instances where there have been grudges held against individual players (or favors shown) based on the relationships to the NTDP.
 
Bonin21 said:
Snuggerud, Moore, and Chesley have all been having very inconsistent and frankly disappointing seasons so far. Hence the Gophers' poor start.

I would not be surprised to see Moore not make it or be a 13th forward. He isn't really impacting games.
Click to expand...
I see that too when I watch. Since early November Rinzel looked better and more competent than Moore in all the games I’ve watched.

After that Wisconsin series that he played terrible.
 
AmericanDream said:
I see Pavel with his typical overreaction to a few solid players potentially making this team as 4th liners.

If we need guys on the 4th line to score with this freaking roster, throw in the towel we are toast.
Click to expand...
This forward group is so loaded I think no matter who they pick, even the 4th line guys will be able to provide some offense- however, I do think this idea that the 4th line needs to be some kind of sandpaper checking line (That we see a lot of years with US rosters) is dinosaur rhetoric.

This isn't the NHL where you can only fit so many skilled, talented offensive players under your cap. I remember in 2020 when Zegras was getting about 5 minutes of ice time per night and scored 9 points in the tournament. The people in charge do have a habit of overthinking things at times.

Do you need effective PK'ers? Absolutely. Do you need guys that compete in both ends? Absolutely. But we should be past the point the vast majority of years where we take guys that pretty much only provide that and not much else.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Statsy, DatsyukToZetterberg and WhiskeyYerTheDevils
Jersey Fan 12 said:
Not at all. The idea is to build the best team and fill all the various roles necessary to win a tournament. Finland does the same and it is the main reason it has consistently "punched above its weight" despite having far fewer players from which to choose than Canada does.

The college vs. junior discussion however may have some merit; as does the case of the rare instances where there have been grudges held against individual players (or favors shown) based on the relationships to the NTDP.
Click to expand...
Finland has to do that out of necessity, just as the US used to.

It's 2023. The US has 2/3 of the NHL players and points that Canada does in the league. There are plenty of guys who can fill roles in addition to being high level players.

Finland has punched above their weight for a while with the above strategy, but the US has punched below theirs significantly more often than they've punched above it the last 10 years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SK94
Hockey-wise while the number of Americans has increased it still trails Canada significantly.

With respect to Finland, while overall the population is smaller, the percentage of the nation's top athletes pursuing hockey is significant. That is not the case in the US.
 
Joe Zanussi said:
Have we ever had a team w zero CHL guys? Seems like a possibility this year
Click to expand...
Went through the last 11-12 rosters, all had CHL players. Once you hit 2013, there are probably 2-3x the amount of CHL players as today. I'd say the last 7-8 tournaments they bring about 2-3 on average.
 
In looking at the camp roster I was disappointed to see there were no players from ECAC Hockey.

But going through the rosters of the respective clubs there were only a handful of players young enough to be eligible; none of whom could be looked at as "snubs".

Quinnipiac's Anton Cerbone is the most productive eligiblw forward and I don't remember him being discussed.

Among the defensemen Harvard's Ryan Healey probably had the best resume. Ben Robertson (Cornell) has 11 assists in 11 games.

The only eligible goalie who has seen significant playing time to this point is Princeton's Arthur Smith.
 
Crazy to think that if we had Cooley, we'd be able to roll 4 centers who are all current or future top 5 picks (Cooley, Gauthier, Smith, Hagens). On past teams we'd be lucky to have even 1 center of that caliber.

10 years ago our centers were:

Danny O'Regan
Jack Eichel (just turned 17)
Andrew Copp
Vinnie Hinostroza

What a difference a decade makes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: clydesdale line, Guttersniped, AmericanDream and 3 others
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom