WJC: 2020 Team USA Roster Talk

[AmericanDream]

I can't imagine Jake Wise on the team. I think it's more likely he's not even at the summer camp than it is he's in contention for the team. Beecher also seems like a stretch. His size and skating are a fit, but he's so wildly inconsistent and his offensive upside is limited. I think they'd opt for a center with a better defensive game than Beecher for a lower line role.

the Chicago fan in me is hoping Wise makes the cut...strong bounce back season for the kid. Beecher checks a lot of boxes for me, bit buried on an insanely deep team but his skillset is definitely tantalizing with his size..not sure we have that shutdown center outside of Turcotte...have to look things over more.

 

[William H Bonney]

Good for Sandelin. Quite a ride he's been on with UMD. He has to be on the radar for some NHL coaching vacancies too.

And so it begins.



Could we lose our WJC head coach to the NHL two years in a row? It's only a matter of time before an NHL team hires Sandelin, so it wouldn't surprise me if we do. And I'm fine with it. I'd rather we have more American coaches trying to reach the upper echelon of the coaching profession versus happily plateauing at the collegiate level.

The real question is who would assume the head coaching role if Sandelin gets an NHL job? When Quinn got the Rangers job last year, it was easy to name Mike Hastings as the replacement: he was already one of Quinn's assistant coaches for the tournament, he'd been at the tournament twice before as an assistant, and he'd long been a head coach.

Right now, Sandelin has 4 assistant coaches for the WJC:

• Steve Miller - been at the last 3 tournaments and while he's long been in coaching, he's never been a head coach.
• David Lassonde - also been at 3 tournaments but like Miller, he's been in coaching a long time but never as a head coach.
• Jerry Keefe - on the staff last year for the first time, currently an associate head coach, and has only been a head coach for a 2 year stint in D3 hockey many years back.
• Brett Larson - never coached in this tournament and while he's now the head coach at St. Cloud State, last year was his first year in that role and he's only been a head coach 2 other years, both in the USHL.

I would hope they wouldn't consider assistant coaches without any head coaching experience and the only assistant with head coaching experience is pretty inexperienced. Larson did lead St. Cloud State to a pretty impressive regular season in his first turn as a head coach outside of the USHL, but he also took over a stacked St. Cloud State team and then suffered a monumental first round upset in the NCAA tournament.

 

[William H Bonney]

Team USA names the WJSS roster before the NHL draft (Friday, June 21st), so we should see the roster in the next 2-3 weeks. With that, here's my refreshed projection since my last go-around:

Forwards (x24):

John Beecher
Matt Boldy
Bobby Brink
Cole Caufield
Jack Drury
Joel Farabee
John Farinacci
Johnny Gruden
Curtis Hall
Trevor Janicke
Blade Jenkins
Arthur Kaliyev
Owen Lindmark
Robert Mastrosimone
Blake McLaughlin
Patrick Moynihan
Shane Pinto
Jacob Pivonka
Nicolas Robertson
Luke Toporowski
Alex Turcotte
Oliver Wahlstrom
Tyler Weiss
Trevor Zegras

Defense (x14):

Ben Brinkman
Slava Demin
Ty Emberson
Jordan Harris
Drew Helleson
Ryan Johnson
Zachary Jones
K'Andre Miller
Alec Regula
Mattias Samuelsson
Henry Thrun
Marshall Warren
Bode Wilde
Cam York

Goalies (x4):

Spencer Knight
Cameron Rowe
Isaiah Saville
Dustin Wolf
​

Notes:

• Even without Hughes, it would be a monumental embarrassment if this team isn't playing for a medal and anything less than gold is a failure. The biggest concerns should be that the forwards should be young since the '00 group doesn't really have many spots locked in, especially down the middle.
• Forwards:
  • No Hughes for obvious reasons. He won't be at camp regardless, but if for someone reason he's available come tournament time, you slide him into the roster and run with it.
    
  • Depth is strong until you get to around the 20 player mark and then you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, largely driven by the shallow '00 birth year. I don't think guys like Pivonka, Moynihan, or Lindmark are ready for this level, but they're the type of players USAH loves to bring to camp. You could easily slot in any of the following guys in those bottom spots instead: Judd Caulfield, Parker Ford, Sean Farrell, Michael Gildon, etc.
  • Can any of the '00 forwards rise to the occasion over the next 6+ months? Over the 2nd half of the last season, a guy like McLaughlin showed well after a really slow start and Weiss started to flash his skill after starting the year injured. Can those guys build on it and/or can other guys like Wise recover? It would be really nice if at least one guy that's not really in the mix now gets into a major role a la Tyler Madden last year.
• Defense:
  • Strong depth here and it feels like a lot of the spots are locked in outside of the RHD. Should be a strong group, assuming we don't screw up the picks.
  • I think at least one of Ryan Johnson or Zachary Jones will make the team. The LHD spots are already crowded with two returnees (Miller, Samuelsson) and a lock (York). Johnson can play again next year and he's better overall, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Jones make it based on his offensive ability. Both would do well here though and would be capable of positive impacts at the tournament.
  • I expect a guy like Vlasic to be here but it would be a wasted evaluation in my opinion. I'm not a big fan of his and he'll only be drafted on a basis of his size. He's a long term prospect who's not currently a good junior aged player. He'd get eaten alive at the U20 level right now. There's numerous other players I'd rather see here than him.
  • I wouldn't be surprised to see Brinkman left off. He's a middle-of-the-road prospect right now and despite the hype he's carried for the last 3-4 years, he's never represented Team USA. It'll be interesting to see if they've warmed up to him.
• Goalies:
  • It should be Knight and Wolf and then who cares. I think Saville is the next best goalie. I wouldn't bring Rowe along as he should never play at this level. I would bring Commesso along for the experience as he's the best '02 goalie right now but I doubt USAH will do it.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Great depth all the way around.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Caulfield should definitely be there over some of those players. Fensore, Struble, Malone could also be better options than some of those players, but none are likely to make the team. I think Caulfield would have a good chance to make the team next year. Wise should be listed, but he might still be injured and unable to participate at this tournament.

 

[OKOptimistic]

We can never get gold

 

[William H Bonney]

Caulfield should definitely be there over some of those players. Fensore, Struble, Malone could also be better options than some of those players, but none are likely to make the team. I think Caulfield would have a good chance to make the team next year. Wise should be listed, but he might still be injured and unable to participate at this tournament.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Caulfield at camp. He's in the mix of guys around the 20 player mark where you're choosing to evaluate guys you mostly know aren't ready for this yet. That said, I thought Caulfield had a pretty disappointing season and was almost always a non-factor when I watched him in the regular season. He's better than he showed at the U18s where was he was invisible though. He's not highly skilled but a guy of his size should be able to find a way to make a difference on a nightly basis and he usually didn't. And it's concerning to me that he didn't really improve at all from his U17 season, both anecdotally and statistically.

Struble's interesting but I think his chance to get into camp is next year. I haven't seen much of him so I could just be missing the obvious. He has intriguing tools but he plays low level hockey and he's playing low level hockey again this upcoming season, now in the BCHL, so that definitely doesn't help his chances.

Fensore is okay. I'm not as big a fan as some others. He reminds me more of a guy like Fortunato. A good player no doubt but not an impact player at this level. Unless they choose to go with more offensive catalysts on the backend than I have on my list already and he gets in over a dissimilar player like say Brinkman, I don't see him beating out guys like Jones, Harris, Demin, etc. in the offensive catalyst category. They're all much better than Fensore right now.

I haven't seen enough of Malone to gauge him fairly. I saw him at the WJAC, where he wasn't good, but a 6 game sample size is pretty meaningless. Statistically he had a good year in the USHL though, so he could be a guy worth a look here, especially as an '00.

I'm torn on Wise. The injury probably keeps him out regardless, but if he were healthy, I'd probably invite him because they need some '00 forwards to step up and he's better positioned to do so than most. But he was pretty bad in the NCAA before he got hurt and he's only had about a 30 game stretch in the last 3 seasons where he looked good. Whereas others may give him too much leeway because of his hype as a 14/15 year old, I'm probably too hard on him as he hasn't come close to living up to it. Unless he's been 100% and training for awhile, I hope he stays home if he were to get an invite though. He's not a player that's going to lock up a role in the summer camp. He's going to make the team by rebounding with BU this year, getting himself an invite to the December evaluation, and earning his spot there. It's a long game for him.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Caulfield at camp. He's in the mix of guys around the 20 player mark where you're choosing to evaluate guys you mostly know aren't ready for this yet. That said, I thought Caulfield had a pretty disappointing season and was almost always a non-factor when I watched him in the regular season. He's better than he showed at the U18s where was he was invisible though. He's not highly skilled but a guy of his size should be able to find a way to make a difference on a nightly basis and he usually didn't. And it's concerning to me that he didn't really improve at all from his U17 season, both anecdotally and statistically.

Struble's interesting but I think his chance to get into camp is next year. I haven't seen much of him so I could just be missing the obvious. He has intriguing tools but he plays low level hockey and he's playing low level hockey again this upcoming season, now in the BCHL, so that definitely doesn't help his chances.

Fensore is okay. I'm not as big a fan as some others. He reminds me more of a guy like Fortunato. A good player no doubt but not an impact player at this level. Unless they choose to go with more offensive catalysts on the backend than I have on my list already and he gets in over a dissimilar player like say Brinkman, I don't see him beating out guys like Jones, Harris, Demin, etc. in the offensive catalyst category. They're all much better than Fensore right now.

I haven't seen enough of Malone to gauge him fairly. I saw him at the WJAC, where he wasn't good, but a 6 game sample size is pretty meaningless. Statistically he had a good year in the USHL though, so he could be a guy worth a look here, especially as an '00.

I'm torn on Wise. The injury probably keeps him out regardless, but if he were healthy, I'd probably invite him because they need some '00 forwards to step up and he's better positioned to do so than most. But he was pretty bad in the NCAA before he got hurt and he's only had about a 30 game stretch in the last 3 seasons where he looked good. Whereas others may give him too much leeway because of his hype as a 14/15 year old, I'm probably too hard on him as he hasn't come close to living up to it. Unless he's been 100% and training for awhile, I hope he stays home if he were to get an invite though. He's not a player that's going to lock up a role in the summer camp. He's going to make the team by rebounding with BU this year, getting himself an invite to the December evaluation, and earning his spot there. It's a long game for him.

I don't think Caulfield is one of the 13 best forwards, but when picking players who can play hockey and play a 4th line game, I think he's one of the main candidates along with players such as Drury, Beecher, Janicke, Pivonka, Lindmark, maybe Wise could be used in that role if he's on the team. He was snake-bit with points at the WJC18, but I didn't think he played that bad at that tournament, and his role isn't to score points. I guess I just disagree about the season he had, and I liked the Beecher-Caulfield combination when I saw the NTDP play. Both those kids are big, physical, can skate and score a few points. I'd like to think both make the team on the 4th line, but maybe I like Caulfield's potential more than some others.

It's hard to know exactly what is happening with Wise because we don't know that much about the injury. There wasn't a lot of news about it. It was announced by one or two reporters in December that he would miss the season with a shoulder injury, but there wasn't any news on it besides that. I wouldn't rule out that it could've been one of those injuries where he was playing through it during the early part of the BU season, and decided to have surgery because he couldn't effectively play through it. But thats purely my own speculation. It is possible that he was playing bad hockey with no injury, and then all of a sudden he got a shoulder injury.

There aren't going to be that many good 19 year olds forwards on this team, if Wahlstrom and Farabee don't play on this team. This team would benefit a lot with a healthy Wise. I don't know that the team has a good 3rd line center candidate without Wise. Maybe Drury, but he might also not have the offense for that. This team is going to be relying a lot on two 18 year old centers.

 

[Dodospice]

Just my stab at the team, obviously this won’t be the case but if I was to send a roster, right now, based on the information I have, I’d send this (the lines/pairings can be rearranged/changed but this is the roster I’d send):

Farabee- Turcotte- Caufield
Boldy- Zegras- Wahlstrom
Kaliyev- Drury- Brink
McLaughlin- Beecher- Janicke
Gruden

Miller- Emberson
Samuelsson- Wilde
York- Regula
Demin

Knight
Wolf
Saville

 

[clevelandcane]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Caulfield at camp. He's in the mix of guys around the 20 player mark where you're choosing to evaluate guys you mostly know aren't ready for this yet. That said, I thought Caulfield had a pretty disappointing season and was almost always a non-factor when I watched him in the regular season. He's better than he showed at the U18s where was he was invisible though. He's not highly skilled but a guy of his size should be able to find a way to make a difference on a nightly basis and he usually didn't. And it's concerning to me that he didn't really improve at all from his U17 season, both anecdotally and statistically.

Struble's interesting but I think his chance to get into camp is next year. I haven't seen much of him so I could just be missing the obvious. He has intriguing tools but he plays low level hockey and he's playing low level hockey again this upcoming season, now in the BCHL, so that definitely doesn't help his chances.

Fensore is okay. I'm not as big a fan as some others. He reminds me more of a guy like Fortunato. A good player no doubt but not an impact player at this level. Unless they choose to go with more offensive catalysts on the backend than I have on my list already and he gets in over a dissimilar player like say Brinkman, I don't see him beating out guys like Jones, Harris, Demin, etc. in the offensive catalyst category. They're all much better than Fensore right now.

I haven't seen enough of Malone to gauge him fairly. I saw him at the WJAC, where he wasn't good, but a 6 game sample size is pretty meaningless. Statistically he had a good year in the USHL though, so he could be a guy worth a look here, especially as an '00.

I'm torn on Wise. The injury probably keeps him out regardless, but if he were healthy, I'd probably invite him because they need some '00 forwards to step up and he's better positioned to do so than most. But he was pretty bad in the NCAA before he got hurt and he's only had about a 30 game stretch in the last 3 seasons where he looked good. Whereas others may give him too much leeway because of his hype as a 14/15 year old, I'm probably too hard on him as he hasn't come close to living up to it. Unless he's been 100% and training for awhile, I hope he stays home if he were to get an invite though. He's not a player that's going to lock up a role in the summer camp. He's going to make the team by rebounding with BU this year, getting himself an invite to the December evaluation, and earning his spot there. It's a long game for him.

You are talking about Cole Caufield from the U18 team? The kid who scored 70+ goals? I'm confused. You don't think he's good enough for the WJ team didn't have a good season? I thought the kid was lights out at the U18 WC. Help me out.

 

[William H Bonney]

You are talking about Cole Caufield from the U18 team? The kid who scored 70+ goals? I'm confused. You don't think he's good enough for the WJ team didn't have a good season? I thought the kid was lights out at the U18 WC. Help me out.

Caulfield, as in Judd, not Cole Caufield. Cole is clearly deserving and on my list that you liked.

 

[clevelandcane]

Caulfield, as in Judd, not Cole Caufield. Cole is clearly deserving and on my list that you liked.

Great! I had a moment there. Sorry.

 

[AmericanDream]

Great! I had a moment there. Sorry.

#rookie

lol

 

[William H Bonney]

 

[William H Bonney]

Forward choices look good. I was off by two here - Ford and Loheit in, Moynihan and Weiss out. I suspected they'd love Ford's game.

Loheit is a name way off the board. Played high school hockey in MN, was in the BCHL last year, headed to UMD this year. Has anyone seen him play? His stats aren't impressive in the BCHL.

They're bringing a lot of d-men. 16 when typically they're around the 14 number or lower.

No Brinkman but it's been long clear USAH isn't a fan, so it wasn't unexpected. He's a middling prospect mostly living off his 14 year old hype.

I'm flabbergasted that Thrun, and to a lesser extent Warren, isn't there, especially with 16 players chosen. I thought Thrun would be in contention for the final team and he's much better than multiple guys at camp.

Krygier??

Vlasic is going to get eaten alive at camp.

Lacombe and Struble aren't surprising invites but Struble will be in the BCHL next year so he'd have to rip apart this camp and that league to deserve consideration.

Meh to the DeRidder invite. I'd rather get a look at a younger player but whatever, it's Knight's show anyway.

 

[OldScool]

Forward choices look good. I was off by two here - Ford and Loheit in, Moynihan and Weiss out. I suspected they'd love Ford's game.

Loheit is a name way off the board. Played high school hockey in MN, was in the BCHL last year, headed to UMD this year. Has anyone seen him play? His stats aren't impressive in the BCHL.

They're bringing a lot of d-men. 16 when typically they're around the 14 number or lower.

No Brinkman but it's been long clear USAH isn't a fan, so it wasn't unexpected. He's a middling prospect mostly living off his 14 year old hype.

I'm flabbergasted that Thrun, and to a lesser extent Warren, isn't there, especially with 16 players chosen. I thought Thrun would be in contention for the final team and he's much better than multiple guys at camp.

Krygier??

Vlasic is going to get eaten alive at camp.

Lacombe and Struble aren't surprising invites but Struble will be in the BCHL next year so he'd have to rip apart this camp and that league to deserve consideration.

Meh to the DeRidder invite. I'd rather get a look at a younger player but whatever, it's Knight's show anyway.

Pretty much on same page. Thrun and Warren should have got invites. DeRidder makes sense since he is an 00' and I think USA Hockey brought Knight last year and he didnt even dress so why bother bringing a younger goalie if he isnt going to play, better for development to keep him playing rather than sitting on bench for a month.

 

[PWJunior]

Nice to see Bode Wilde get an invite.

 

[William H Bonney]

Pretty much on same page. Thrun and Warren should have got invites. DeRidder makes sense since he is an 00' and I think USA Hockey brought Knight last year and he didnt even dress so why bother bringing a younger goalie if he isnt going to play, better for development to keep him playing rather than sitting on bench for a month.

On DeRidder, I'd just rather see a younger goalie like '02 Commesso at the camp for development. He'd play at camp, he wouldn't miss anything else, he's a better prospect, and he's still got future tournaments ahead of him for USAH (U18, U20). I don't think Commesso should be considered for the actual tournament but DeRidder wouldn't play there either if he makes the team. It's just another example of how short sighted USAH is with development of younger players. An '02 like Commesso could be at this camp or Hlinka for off-season development but instead he'll be sitting at home because USAH doesn't fully utilize its development opportunities like most other hockey countries.

 

[AmericanDream]

absolutely love the upside in the defense selections of Struble, Jones, Lacombe and Ryan Johnson. signals to me this group is looking to be aggressive on skill and transition game, which all 4 can do in spades..maybe one of them can actually make the team but I like their inclusion with the massive upside most of them have...overall not much to complain about, looks like yet again another solid to amazing group of players.

 

[OldScool]

On DeRidder, I'd just rather see a younger goalie like '02 Commesso at the camp for development. He'd play at camp, he wouldn't miss anything else, he's a better prospect, and he's still got future tournaments ahead of him for USAH (U18, U20). I don't think Commesso should be considered for the actual tournament but DeRidder wouldn't play there either if he makes the team. It's just another example of how short sighted USAH is with development of younger players. An '02 like Commesso could be at this camp or Hlinka for off-season development but instead he'll be sitting at home because USAH doesn't fully utilize its development opportunities like most other hockey countries.

You did call it in your early posts and I absolutely 100% agree with you that Commesso would have been a better pick and would have been the pick I would have made as well but USA sticks with older veteran goalies and Saville/DeRidder are 00's that can back up Knight if anything happens. Only thing I can think of is that USA hockey wants to give the NTDP goalies some rest as that U17 season is pretty brutal in terms of playing older USHL teams all season. The USA never sends their NTDP players to Hlinka so that isnt happening (on a side note I think the USA team at Hlinka is going to struggle mightily). Also keep in mind that I think Knight was brought last year and didnt play at all because the 00' goalie class was so weak so he was probably brought just because. The 01' class with Knight is better so maybe thats the reason? Personally, based on pure talent I would take Knight/Commesso tandem over anything else for WJ but I can see USA hockey going with older goalies and taking its time developing younger goalies as it seems like they know what they are doing and have done an outstanding job developing some promising American goalies of late.

 

[Jaykay]

I've seen Loheit 5 or 6 times. He's fine as a fourth line grinder, but he has no business being at a camp like this.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

The lack of Thrun and Warren is surprising. The rest isn’t that surprising. I would’ve liked to see Caulfield and Rowe, and I suspect Wise still isn’t healthy yet.

 

[AmericanDream]

The lack of Thrun and Warren is surprising. The rest isn’t that surprising. I would’ve liked to see Caulfield and Rowe, and I suspect Wise still isn’t healthy yet.

Wise has a lot to prove, hoping for a Dec camp invite and strong year

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Wise has a lot to prove, hoping for a Dec camp invite and strong year

He has a lot to prove because he missed a season. I think people forget that he had a really good draft season. If he’s healthy, I suspect he’ll make this team.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

Forward choices look good. I was off by two here - Ford and Loheit in, Moynihan and Weiss out. I suspected they'd love Ford's game.

Loheit is a name way off the board. Played high school hockey in MN, was in the BCHL last year, headed to UMD this year. Has anyone seen him play? His stats aren't impressive in the BCHL.

They're bringing a lot of d-men. 16 when typically they're around the 14 number or lower.

No Brinkman but it's been long clear USAH isn't a fan, so it wasn't unexpected. He's a middling prospect mostly living off his 14 year old hype.

I'm flabbergasted that Thrun, and to a lesser extent Warren, isn't there, especially with 16 players chosen. I thought Thrun would be in contention for the final team and he's much better than multiple guys at camp.

Krygier??

Vlasic is going to get eaten alive at camp.

Lacombe and Struble aren't surprising invites but Struble will be in the BCHL next year so he'd have to rip apart this camp and that league to deserve consideration.

Meh to the DeRidder invite. I'd rather get a look at a younger player but whatever, it's Knight's show anyway.

Agreed on Thrun, I’m a big fan of his and have no idea why he isn’t on the invite list.

I think right now Knight is still their guy, but I feel there is some chance Wolf steals the starting job before the real tournament even starts. He had a stronger season last year, if he plays better at the WJSS, they won’t be able to ignore the competition any longer.