USA Hockey unveiled today the 30 players selected to the preliminary roster for the 2015 U.S. National Junior Team. The final U.S. roster will be named by Dec. 24. Team USA will compete in the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26-Jan. 5, in Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto, Ontario.
"We're excited about the group of players that we're bringing to our camp in Boston," said Jim Johannson, general manager of the 2015 U.S. National Junior Team and assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey. "The depth of our talent pool continues to make our job more difficult in getting to a camp roster and ultimately the final roster, and that's really a credit to the great job done at the grassroots level by coaches all across the country."
Seven camp invitees were members of the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team, including forwards Jack Eichel (North Chelmsford, Mass./Boston University), Adam Erne (New Haven, Conn./Quebec Remparts) and Hudson Fasching (Apple Valley, Minn./University of Minnesota); defensemen Will Butcher (Sun Prairie, Wis./University of Denver), Ian McCoshen (Hudson, Wis./Boston College) and Steve Santini (Mahopac, N.Y./Boston College); and goaltender Thatcher Demko (San Diego, Calif./Boston College).
Additionally, nine invitees were members of the U.S. Men's National Under-18 Team that won gold at the 2014 IIHF Under-18 Men's World Championship. The group includes forwards Eichel, Dylan Larkin (Waterford, Mich./University of Michigan), Auston Matthews (Scottsdale, Ariz./U.S. National Under-18 Team), Sonny Milano (Massapequa, N.Y./Plymouth Whalers) and Alex Tuch (Baldwinsville, N.Y./Boston College); defensemen Ryan Collins (Bloomfield, Minn./University of Minnesota), Jack Dougherty (Cottage Grove, Minn./University of Wisconsin) and Noah Hanifin (Norwood, Mass./Boston College); and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (Parma, Ohio/Plymouth Whalers).
The chosen players will attend training camp from Dec. 16-19 in Boston at Walter Brown Arena on the Boston University campus. The camp will culminate with a pre-tournament game against the BU Terriers on Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. ET.
Following time in Boston, the U.S. will move to Kingston, Ontario, where it will continue preparations for the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship. The U.S. will be based at the Rogers K-Rock Centre from Dec. 21-24 and in addition to practices, will play pre-tournament games against Germany (Dec. 21) and Sweden (Dec. 23).
For a full training camp schedule, click here.
NOTES: Practices at Walter Brown Arena will be open to the public ... A total of 24 players named to the preliminary roster have ties to the United States Hockey League ... Team USA has medaled in three of the last five IIHF World Junior Championships, winning gold in 2010 and 2013, plus bronze in 2011. The U.S. placed fifth in last year's tournament ... Mark Osiecki (Burnsville, Minn.), associate coach of the American Hockey League's Rockford IceHogs, is the head coach of the 2015 U.S. National Junior Team. Kevin Patrick (Schenectady, N.Y.), assistant coach for the University of Vermont men's ice hockey team, Don Granato (Downers Grove, Ill.), head coach of the U.S. National Under-18 Team at USA Hockey's National Team Development Program, and Mike Ayers (Hingham, Mass.), assistant coach of the Boston College men's ice hockey team, are the assistant coaches. The video coordinator is Adam Nightingale (Cheboygan, Mich.), head coach of Shattuck-St. Mary's Bantam hockey team ... Jim Johannson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations, is serving as the general manager of Team USA for the sixth consecutive year ... Mike Sullivan (Marshfield, Mass.) is an advance scout for Team USA ... Ryan Martin (Simsbury, Conn.), Ray Shero (St. Paul, Minn.), Ben Smith (Gloucester, Mass.) and Don Waddell (Detroit, Mich.) are assisting with player evaluation during training camp ... The U.S. will be based in Montreal for its preliminary round games and compete in a group with Canada, Finland, Germany and Slovakia at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship. For more information about the tournament, please click here ... In August, 42 players attended the 2014 U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid, New York. Complete details from that camp can be found here.