Just a heads up to fans of teams who are thinking draft more than playoffs, or just fans in general since many of these players have already been drafted and are loaned to their national teams from the university, juniors or other teams.
The WJC-U18 tournament in December 26 - January 5 in Vancouver and Victoria British Columbia is the premier showcase for prospects.
Here is the US prelim roster and some of my notes on these guys (there is a camp/tryout end of next week, so some of these guys will be cut)
Goalies:
Primeau is at Northeastern, Habs draft pick.
Defense:
For Rangers fans..K'Andre Miller is on fire, he's one of the best NCAA defenseman, playing in a great program.
Forwards:
Several of these players are 2019 draft eligible:
Hughes, Coskey, Dhooghe (5' 3" dynamo, fun to watch, not sure if he's got an NHL future. I guess he'd be the shortest player in the NHL or if not close to it) among others.
Poehling a 1st round pick in 2017 for the Habs.
Wahlstrom a 1st round pick in 2018 for the Islanders
I'll post some tidbits from other teams soon for their prelim rosters.
Would be cool to see both Hughes bros play together and win the gold.
And I called this U18, but it's U20.
Keith.
and he's the youngest of three brothers, only way I can explain him becoming a goalie (the youngest brother always got stuck in the net at home in the driveway) - though one of his brothers is MUCH older.
I had season tickets in Badger Bob days - great athletic development culture, great university, great town.
I still can't believe he fell to them. I wanted the Devils to draft him because I didn't think Ty Smith would be there at 17.
USA lost to Sweden in the semis and beat the Czech's for the bronze.
I think the US had the best team though last year, and I do again. Though Sweden was loaded too. Pettersson, Dahlin, Nylander, Andersson. etc.
USA had Mittlstadt (who led the tourney in pts), Tkachuk, Bellows, Joey Anderson, Poehling, Yamamoto, Quinn Hughes, Fox, etc.
Because of their 1st place finish, Canada has the more favorable bracket. US is with Sweden and Finland (among others including Slovakia). Canada is with Russia and the Czech's and others.
For Rangers fans, last year's final had Brett Howden vs Lias Andersson and resulted in Lias throwing his silver medal in the stands (which I had no problem with). Carter Hart, Canada goalie, was the story in that game.