With the holiday season in full swing Team USA has released it’s preliminary World Juniors camp roster for the 2014 tournament. Camp begins December 15th in Minneapolis Minnesota and the US will play their first game of the tournament against the Czech Republic on December 26th at 11:30 a.m. EST.
Team USA’s 26 man camp roster looks something like this
How do they stack up to last year?
While Team USA is loaded with talented NCAA players they lack the big superstar quality player that the team had last year in Alex Galchenyuk and Seth Jones as well as a true stand out goalie such as John Gibson to guide them. Only three players from the gold medal winning 2013 squad are returning to camp including goalie Jon Gillies(Providence College), Riley Barber (Miami of Ohio), and Ryan Hartman(Plymouth Whalers). So there is a lot of new faces coming in for this squad.
The Habs Angle
Unfortunately this year there are no Habs prospects on Team USA which doesn’t come as much of a shock given the lackluster play and production of 2013 1st round pick Michael McCarron. Also of note that 2012 4th round pick Brady Vail did not make the cut either which could be attributed to a poor showing at the summer camp held by Team USA.
