forwards
Nick Bjugstad, 18, Minnesota
Ryan Bourque, 19, Quebec
Connor Brickley, 18, Vermont
Chris Brown, 19, Michigan
Mitchell Callahan, 19, Kelowna
Charlie Coyle, 18, BU
Jerry D'Amigo, 19, Toronto Marlies
Emerson Etem, 18, Medicine Hat
Rocco Grimaldi, 17, US Under-18 Team
Chris Kreider, 19, BC
Jeremy Morin, 19, Rockford/Chicago
Brock Nelson, 19, North Dakota
Matt Nieto, 18, BU
Kyle Palmieri, 19, Syracuse, Anaheim
Brandon Saad, 18, Saginaw
Drew Shore, 19, Denver
Jason Zucker, 18, Denver
dmen
Adam Clendening, 18, BU
Brian Dumoulin, 19, BC
Justin Faulk, 18, Minnesota-Duluth
Derek Forbort, 18, North Dakota
Nick Leddy, 19, Rockford/Chicago
Jon Merrill, 18, Michigan
Jamie Oleksiak, 18, Northeastern
John Ramage, 19, Wisconsin
Philip Samuelsson, 19, BC
Patrick Wey, 19, BC
goalies
Jack Campbell, 18, Windsor
Andy Iles, 18, Cornell
Right off the bat, I have to point out the annual absurd snub, which of course is always a CHL player. Shane Prince, who admittedly I hadn't heard of until I began my WJC prep a month or two ago, is a kid who just turned 18 and is leading the OHL in scoring playing for Ottawa. He's in his third year in the league and is rated to be a top two round pick this year. Now, I didn't even put Prince on my team a month ago, but a kid leading the OHL in scoring has to be at this camp. I can't say I'm surprised though. I'm assuming they pretty much know who they want for the top two, maybe even three lines and want players who will provide certain elements for the smaller roles. And that is fine, but just for appearances, how can a such an obviously talented player not even get a token invite over, say, Connor Brickley?
Austin Watson was another CHL snub but he has had a slow start this year.
I'm thrilled that D'Amigo, Palmieri, Morin, and Leddy are there. Just the fact that they're on this roster tells me they all have the blessing from their NHL teams to play in the tournament. So, basically I expect them to all be on the team, which I was not expecting to happen. This is awesome news.
As for the blueline, the biggest omission in London's Jarred Tinordi. I'm very surprised by this omission. That said, I have no idea how he's played this year and we have plenty of other talent.
I'm pretty sure we do this every year, but I'm still a little surprised that we only invited two goalies. Way to ramp up the competition. I don't think I would have gone with Iles as the backup but hopefully it doesn't even matter.
Of the players I thought should be on this team, only three were left off. They are Watson, Tinordi, Cam Fowler (not really an omission as he's playing 20 minutes a night in the NHL), and Michael Houser, who I selected as the backup goalie. So, all in all, it's not as bad as it's been in the past and we do have a lot of talent.
Hopefully, I'm taking off of work on January the 5th to drive up to Buffalo for the gold medal game. Back to back.
