USA Announces WJC Preliminary Roster
USA Hockey today announced its preliminary roster for the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championships, which will be held later this month in Ufa, Russia.
The roster includes representatives from 13 states and will be finalized in the coming weeks, as the World Juniors kick off December 26 – just over three weeks away. The USA team looks for its third medal in four years, having failed to medal in last year’s tournament in Alberta.
USA Hockey will hold a training camp on December 16-18 in Tarrytown, N.Y. before moving to Finland for four days beginning December 19.
The final 23-player roster will be announced December 23.
• Goaltenders: John Gibson — Jon Gillies — Garret Sparks
• Defense: Shayne Gostisbehere — Matt Grzelcyk — Seth Jones — Jake McCabe — Connor Murphy — Mike Reilly — Patrick Sieloff — Brady Skjei — Jacob Trouba
• Forwards: Cole Bardreau — Riley Barber — Tyler Biggs — Alex Galchenyuk — John Gaudreau — Rocco Grimaldi — Ryan Hartman — Sean Kuraly — Mario Lucia — Stefan Matteau — J.T. Miller — Stefan Noesen — Blake Pietila — Vince Trocheck — Jim Vesey
Gibson, Trouba and Miller are returning from last year’s national junior team.
The OHL is represented by nine players: Gibson, Sparks, Murphy, Sieloff, Biggs, Galchenyuk, Hartman, Noesen and Trocheck.
There are a number of college players, as well as one representative each from the AHL (Miller, who plays for the Connecticut Whale) and QMJHL (Matteau, of Blainville-Boisbriand).
Finally, nearly all the players on the preliminary list have been drafted to the NHL, with the exceptions being free agent Cole Bardreau and 2013 eligibles Seth Jones and Ryan Hartman.
NHL draftees include goaltender Sparks (a Leafs prospect), defenseman McCabe (Sabres) and Galchenyuk, who went third overall to the Montreal Canadiens in this year’s NHL entry draft.
The Calgary Flames lead all NHL teams with three prospects named to the list, while the Maple Leafs, Rangers, Panthers and Devils have two prospects each on the preliminary roster. Overall, 18 NHL teams are represented in the group.