11 Collegians On US Roster For World Juniors
By Fetch
Team USA Head Coach Dean Blais has made his final cuts, and has named his final roster for the WJC starting next week in Saskatchewan. 10 current college players are on the team:
Goalies (1):
Mike Lee; Roseau, Minn. (St. Cloud State)
Defensemen (4):
Matt Donovan; Edmond, Okla. (Wisconsin)
John Ramage; St. Louis (Wisconsin)
David Warsofsky; Marshfield, Mass (Boston U)
Jake Gardiner; Minnetonka, Minn (Wisconsin)
Forwards (6)
Jerry D’ Amigo; Binghamton, NY (RPI)
Chris Kreider; Boston, Mass. (Boston College)
Danny Kristo; Eden Prairie, Minn. (North Dakota)
Kyle Palmieri; Montvale, NJ (Notre Dame)
Jordan Schroeder; Prior Lake, Minn. (Minnesota)
Derek Stepan; Hastings, Minn. (Wisconsin)
If you want to see the full roster you can go to the USA Hockey website. My mini-thoughts after the jump:
The biggest thing to me is how John Ramage made the team. I know he’s fairly highly regarded, but he shouldn’t have made the team over John Moore, Jake Gardiner or Max Nicastro. Moore is a great player who will have another year to play, Gardiner is a better player than Ramage, although I can see Ramage as being a better fit for the team, and Nicastro is basically a better version of Ramage.
No real gripes about the forwards. With three goals in two exhibition games, Chris Kreider apparently is the stud scorer on this team. Nice to see Las Vegas native Jason Zucker make the team as well. He will be the youngest player out there, but I think he’ll see quite a bit of ice time.
I am assuming Jordan Schroeder, who is on the team for the 3rd time, will wear the C, and returners Danny Kristo and Tyler Johnson will be the assistants.
Team USA’s first game at the World Junior Championships is December 26th