World Junior Summer Showcase features top young hockey stars from four countries

What happens on the ice in October and November once the hockey season is in full swing will matter most in assembling the roster that will represent the United States at the World Junior Championship later this year.

But the tryout officially starts Friday with the World Junior Summer Showcase at Ridder Arena.

It’s a four-country evaluation camp that runs through next Saturday and will include approximately 40 hopefuls vying to compete on home soil for Team USA and an unprecedented third consecutive gold medal.

Summer Showcase Schedule

“This is something on their bucket list,” United States coach Bob Motzko said. “This is something that they want desperately to be a part of, and they’re going to put their best foot forward.”

Canada, Sweden and Finland are also participating in the Showcase. Like the U.S., Canada will have two teams participating next week.

Motzko is back behind the U.S. bench after the Gophers coach led the 2017 team to gold and won bronze in 2018, and the 10-nation, 10-day tournament is returning to Minneapolis and St. Paul for the first time since 1982.

In the meantime, the showcase is when the group will form its identity.

After split-squad practices and games to start, the camp will culminate in one lineup that will face Sweden, Finland and Canada. Of the seven U.S. games, players are expected to appear in two to three.

“They are excited,” Motzko said, “and they are motivated to make this team.”

Among the candidates are nine returnees from the squad that rallied 4-3 in overtime against Finland on Jan. 5 in Ottawa to give the United States back-to-back World Juniors titles for the first time ever.

Golden goal scorer Teddy Stiga is back along with his Boston College teammate James Hagens, a first-round pick by Boston at the NHL draft last month, as well as Boston University defenseman Cole Hutson, who led the last tournament in scoring.

The Americans lost to Canada in overtime in February at the 4 Nations Face-Off, a first of its kind international showdown featuring NHLers in-season, but then won gold at the world championship in May for the first time since 1933 and should be one of the favorites at the Winter Olympics next year in Italy when NHLers make their return after a 12-year hiatus.

While the U.S. women have placed first or second in all but one Olympics since women’s hockey debuted in 1998, the men haven’t medaled since 2010, and their last gold was the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980 in Lake Placid, N.Y. But the strides at the World Juniors have been steady.

“For many years with USA Hockey, it was more of a wish and a hope,” said Motzko, who was also an assistant with the 2014 World Juniors team. “Well, it isn’t anymore. It’s part of our DNA now.”

Over the past 10 tournaments, no country has medaled more than the United States, which has nabbed four golds, a silver and three bronze.

Longtime powerhouse Canada has finished outside the top three for the last two events, a rare drought for the all-time tournament leader in gold medals, and Russia hasn’t competed since it invaded Ukraine in 2022 and was suspended by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Meanwhile, Sweden and Finland have remained competitive; Sweden’s showcase roster is loaded with NHL draft choices, while Finland has two Wild picks in Aron Kiviharju and Sebastian Soini (2024). Czechia is the upstart that has won the past two bronze-medal games after picking up silver in 2023.

Even so, the United States is the reigning juggernaut, and a historic three-peat isn’t all that’s at stake when the final roster returns to the Twin Cities: Team USA has never claimed gold on home ice; the best the Americans have fared is bronze in 2011 and 2018 when the World Juniors were in Buffalo, N.Y.