The MN Blizzard missed the playoff rounds of the 2021 World Selects Trophy by just one point in the standings. Entering the 15U tournament for a second consecutive year, they look to get over the hump in 2022 and into the elimination rounds when the puck drops on May 11th.
In five years, the program has developed numerous players and advanced their playing careers to junior and college levels. This 2007-born group is expected to continue that trend, starting with a pair of high-end goaltenders.
Owen Lunneborg and Grayson Hanggi are compact — listed at 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-8 respectively on Elite Prospects — but maintain great footwork and crisp movements in net. The defense group is very strong and mobile as well, so the Blizzard is one team that could thrive in their own zone.
A strong team effort defensively should provide forwards Poul Andersen and Tre Peck the opportunity to get loose going north and create some offense for the team. Anderson scored 17 goals and 33 points in 20 AAA games. Peck is a shifty skater from Long Lake, Minnesota, who played varsity hockey for Totino-Grace this winter.
The Blizzard are one of three teams primarily based out of Minnesota; a state that has yet to win the 15U world championship. They will certainly rely on their defensive prowess and ability to frustrate opposing offenses, hoping it will be enough to bring the ‘State of Hockey’ its first world title.
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Eight years ago, the California Patriots were developed as an elite-level spring development program. In that span, it has grown to be recognized as one of the top organizations in the Golden State. Now for the first time, the Patriots will enter the ring to compete with some of the world’s best 2007-born teams at the 2022 World Selects Trophy.
The West Coast of the United States has seen a boom in the hockey community over the last decade or more. Pockets like Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Jose, and the addition of the NHL’s newest expansion teams, expect Las Vegas and Seattle should certainly continue that trend of growth in the region. With teams like the California Patriots competing for 15U world championships, it certainly validates how far youth hockey has come in the area. Now, players and coaches alike set their sights on worldwide recognition.
Coaches Kevin Bieksa, Dean Caban and Peter Torsson will head up the team in Nashville. Bieksa is well known for being a 13-season NHL veteran for the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks. Torsson is a native of Sweden, who played four years of NCAA Division-I hockey for St. Cloud State University.
Forward Max Silver is coming off of a season in which he averaged a goal per game for 70 games between California High School and AAA. He scored 68 goals and 98 points this winter. Fellow forward Hayden Russell is an impressive goal scorer as well; he eclipsed the 100-point mark with the California Golden Bears this season in 66 games.
While Hayden and company help propel the offense, twin brother Garrett Russell and crew will anchor the defense. Garrett is a right-hand shot who posted 61 points in 71 games and finished second on Mater Dei High School in scoring, trailing Hayden by just five points.
Daniel Tverdovsky — son of 11-season NHL vet Oleg Tverdovsky — adds his defensive skills to the mix after splitting his time this season between the Golden Bears and CP Dynamo in New York.
Can the California Patriots contend for a world championship in the Music City? World Hockey Hub will have exclusive coverage leading up to, and throughout, the 2022 15U World Selects Trophy. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube for previews, updates, top prospects, highlights, interviews and more!
Exposure Hockey was a strong competitor in its World Selects tournament debut last spring. The 2006-born group competed in six games in Nashville; four of those were decided in a shootout. Three of those were losses, unfortunately, including its first-round exit in the playoffs, 3-2 to Southeast Elite.
The 2007 squad has a much different look to it than last year’s. Despite Exposure Hockey being based out of Northfield, Vermont, three-quarters of its roster this year consists of players from Minnesota. ‘The State of Hockey’ is a good place to start building, especially when those pieces include Cody Niesen, Jake Faith, Landon Cottingham, Gavin Katz and Malachi MacKinnon.
Niesen is a 5-foot-9 goaltender who is athletic and has a high compete level. Being able to play behind top defenders will make the job a bit easier as well. Faith is big and strong, and patrols the blue line with a heavy shot. Cottingham headlines a group that’s loaded with great skaters, including Tommy Kertz and Henry Brzustewicz.
Up front, Katz does a lot of the little things most forwards overlook. He’s strong on draws and responsible defensively while a player like MacKinnon has a real knack for getting to the net front and can play in a lot of different positions. Owen Chartier and Will Belle add some character to the group with a rugged playing style, size and strength. Can the team’s ability to do the little things in the game lead to big results in the tournament? Exposure Hockey will look to outdo its performance from a year ago to be a legitimate contender in the 2022 tournament.
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Barys was the lone European representative in the 2021 World Selects Trophy in Nashville, coming to the U.S. from Kazakhstan. This spring, players from the eastern European country return to the Music City, this time as one of a dozen international programs in the field of 2007-born teams.
Based out of the capital city of Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan is located south of Russia and west of China. Its selects program has competed in World Selects tournaments dating back to 2014, and last year, the ‘06 squad went 2-3-0 in pool play. Abzal Alibek was one of the leading scorers in the tournament and the team snuck into the playoffs as the 15 seed before being eliminated by eventual champion DraftDay-Black.
This year’s 2007 squad comes to the U.S. with a strong roster and looks to improve upon their countrymen’s performance from a season ago. Names like Dulat Yerkinov, Artur Glukhikh, Dinmukhamed Akhalbekov, Beibarys Chokparov and Ilkhyon Ten will hope to play impactful roles at the Ford Ice Center. Certainly, some challenges lie ahead from playing on a smaller rink — European hockey is typically played on an Olympic sheet, whereas North American hockey is generally NHL-sized — as well as differing styles of play.
Can Kazakhstan Selects overcome those challenges are return to the elimination rounds for a second straight year? World Hockey Hub will have exclusive coverage leading up to, and throughout, the 2022 15U World Selects Trophy. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube for previews, updates, top prospects, highlights, interviews and more!
It is one of the most influential spring-summer programs in North America.
DraftDay — based out of Ontario, Canada — has been an impressive developmental program that has impacted the likes of NHL superstars like Aaron Ekblad, Tyler Seguin, Logan Couture, Tyler Toffoli and Nick Suzuki. Most recently, top prospects such as 2005-born Connor Bedard and 2004-born Matthew Savoie have sported the black and red for DraftDay.
It has become a regular participant in the World Selects tournament series, and has three world championships to its name. DraftDay-Black is also the two-time, reigning champion of the 15U tournament, having won the 2019 and 2021 championships.
For the 2022 event, DraftDay enters four teams into the field of 32, including the defending champion Black squad. Red and White both return to the mix for a second consecutive tournament, while WestCan is slated to make its debut. The program has made an impact on youth hockey for 25 years, and has competed in WSI events since 2016.
5-foot-9 goaltender Jaeden Nelson will defend the net for Black. He played in the 12U WSI in 2019, and was a top performer in that tournament. After playing last season with the U18 Nepean Raiders, Nelson will once again look to be a standout in the 15U event. Fellow Ontario natives Matt Schaefer and Tyler Hopkins will play a significant role in the program’s drive to a three-peat. Edge School forward Nathan Behm will provide plenty of offensive power as well, coming off of a 28-goal season in Western Canada’s top league, the Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL).
A trio of defensemen will look to slow down opposing offenses in Nashville. Canadian-born Casey Bridgewater will work with Americans Eric Alexander and Keegan Gillen to provide a strong defensive effort. As long as Darren Mayhew and forwards up front can provide a few goals up front, the D corps should be able to contain most opponents’ offensive surges. Look for Red to slow the pace, and grind out low-scoring games against top teams in the Music City.
Another roster with a heavy Canadian influence, White — like Black — will lean on its goaltender, Owen Edwards, for a strong showing. Edwards played last season for the Whitby Wildcats in Ontario’s Eastern AAA Hockey League (ETAHL). Forward Carson Cameron was an opposing shooter for the Central Ontario Wolves, but will be teammates with Edwards this time around in Nashville. If Cameron and Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) forward Matthew Scozzesse can heat up offensively, White could climb the standings early in the tournament — and stay there.
WestCan — given the name — consists of players primarily from the west coast of the U.S. and Canada. American Kejia Ni was an impactful forward for Top-10 team Los Angeles Jr. Kings. He scored eight goals and 24 points this season. Fellow forward Pryce Thiessen is expected to influence the offense as well, he played a similar role as Ni this past season for the Burnaby Winter Club U15 Prep.Thiessen and goaltender Burke Hood will go from foes to friends, after competing against each other all winter in the CSSHL to now teammates on WestCan. Hood was a top goalie in the league with a 9-4-1 record and 2.62 goals-against average.
With four horses in the race, no other organization will be better represented at the 2022 World Selects tournament. Will any of them survive the field of 2007-born teams to win the championship?
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Based out of the Twin Cities of Minnesota, the TC Selects will come to the World Selects Trophy in Nashville with a heavy contingent from Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area. Nearly half the roster will have roots from ‘The Land of 10,000 Lakes’ while the other half stems from places like Colorado, New York, Connecticut, Michigan and Tennessee.
When the puck drops on May 11th, it will be the first time this group of players will share the ice. Coach Dan Johnson said that presents some unique challenges for the team when they arrive in the Music City.
“There are a handful of the Minnesota kids that have played with my groups for a few years now,” he said. “[But] we haven’t played together as a team so it will be important that we gel quickly and become a team fast.”
It’s possible that even as an underage 2008-born player, forward Cole Bumgarner could prove to be a standout performer at the 15U tournament in two weeks. While it’s rare for an underager to play up an age group at this particular tournament, the ones that have done so have shined brightly. Most recently, names like 2004-born players Shane Wright and Matthew Savoie were standouts at the ‘03 tournament in 2018, while 2005-born Connor Bedard played up the following year. Wright and Savoie are now considered top-10 picks in the upcoming NHL Draft while Bedard is a candidate for the first-overall selection in 2023.
Bumgarner is 6-foot-1 and 178 pounds, and played varsity hockey this winter as a 13-year-old. He has four goals and 18 points in 26 games. He should get significant help from fellow forwards Matvey Stremiakov and Peyton Chase. Stremiakov has great skill and is a threat with the puck on his stick while Chase is a big body who plays with an edge.
6-foot-5 defenseman Mace’o Phillips will be hard to overlook. Not only does he have a great frame, Phillips is a tremendous athlete who possesses great skill with room to grow. Him and Gentry Academy D-man Jacob Guille will anchor the back end for TC Selects.
Logan Nowlin and Oliver Scriver are a strong goaltending tandem from Benilde-St. Margaret’s. They will backstop TC Selects with a combination of athleticism, technical skills and size.
This will be the program’s debut in the World Selects tournament series. TC Selects is a strong spring-summer program out of Minnesota that regularly competes in top showcases. However, it has yet to compete in a World Selects event… until now.
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The Alps region — Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia and Switzerland — has been represented in some capacity at the World Selects tournaments each year since the ‘96 Austrian national team debuted at the 14U event in 2010. Since then, such programs as the German Eagles, Tyrol Selects, Swiss Selects and most recently, Alps Selects have taken turns carrying the torch for this sneaky good hockey hotbed. Not to mention that Bolzano, Italy, and Chamonix, France — two of the tournament’s primary host cities — are nestled in the Alps Mountains.
An area of the world that’s seen an impressive boom in terms of hockey, the Alps region has produced NHL superstars like Leon Draisaitl and Roman Josi in recent memory. In the last few years, Alps Selects has seen the likes of CHL imports Lorenzo Canonica and Attilio Biasca, as well as 2021 NHL Draft pick Brian Zanetti and 2022 NHL Draft prospect Tommaso De Luca.
This year’s squad will bring some of the best ‘07s from the region, including Bern, Switzerland, native Florian Schenk.
Schenk was Alps Selects’ leading scorer at the 12U WSI three years ago in Bolzano. He scored six goals and eight points in six tournament games, and will be leaned on heavily to produce again at the 15U tournament on May 11th. He’ll be joined by Czech native Matej Pekar, who scored 12 goals and 18 points in 10 games this winter playing on Ambri-Piotta’s U17 team.
The tandem of Schenk and Pekar could skate with any top line in the tournament. Will Alps Selects have enough depth to make it out of pool play and advance to the elimination rounds? The last time they competed in the 15U tournament, Alps was one of 16 teams to qualify for the playoffs before being eliminated by silver medalist East Coast Selects-O.
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A veteran of the North American World Selects Trophy tournaments, the NorthStar Elite program will compete in its fourth consecutive 15U event next month. In 2021, the program entered two teams into the field, and at the 2007-born tournament in two weeks, they will once again submit two rosters: NorthStar Elite-Green and NorthStar Elite-White.
Last year’s pair of teams combined to 2-8-0 record, with five of those losses coming in overtime. One of the teams — NorthStar Elite-MN — did qualify for the single-elimination playoffs as the No. 14-seed, but fell 3-2 in the first round.
Teams Green and White will look to improve on those efforts in 2022, with a pair of rosters loaded with players from the American Midwest. While NorthStar as a whole maintains a national base of players, this pair of ‘07 teams stem primarily from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Top defenseman Carson Steinhoff, and forwards Bryce Wiitala, Mason Minsky, Jackson Schroeder and Jacob Kvasnicka will lead the charge for Green. Steinhoff finished third on his Shakopee High School team in scoring as a freshman, with five goals and 26 points from the blue line. Wiitala and Kvasnicka were standouts on the Minnesota Bantam circuit this winter as well, both finishing in the top 20 in the league in scoring. Schroeder impressed people in Wisconsin after finishing second in scoring for Stevens Point Area High during his freshman year, scoring 15 goals and 48 points.
Headlined by a national championship-winning goaltender in Bjorn Bronas, Team White is built from the net out. Bronas led Chicago Mission to a 14U USA championship earlier this month, and is one of the top goalies in the country. He’ll have strong defensive play in front of him from the likes of Andrew Horn and Joey Buzzetta. Forwards Grant Gatliff and Jack Kennedy come from strong Midwestern programs like Carshield and Omaha AAA Lancers as well.
NorthStar has been a consistent participant in the World Selects tournament series as of late. Its best finish came in 2018, with a 4-3-0 record and a quarterfinal loss to Western Canada Selects. Can either of the ‘07 teams outdo that mark? We’ll find out in Nashville when the puck drops on May 11th.
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It’s the hockey hotbed of America. Minnesota. The State of Hockey.
However, one thing the state has yet to achieve is a World Selects Trophy championship. Despite representation from several reputable programs throughout the region, no Minnesota-based team has ever hoisted the trophy. Could the Minnesota Fire become the first program from the Land of 10,000 Lakes to do so? They’re coming to the Music City next month with some top prospects and a goal of winning the 15U WSI in Nashville.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, forward Conrad Fondrk should play a significant role for the Fire. He scored 58 goals and 108 points in 58 games for a Mount St. Charles 14U squad that ranked among the top 25 teams in the world this winter. Teammate Nic Whitehead followed him close behind with 38 goals and 88 points, and will once again team up with Fondrk to continue their dynamic duo in Nashville.
Fellow Minnesotans Brayden Pelci, Michael Mikan, Sam Schulte, Will Distad and Casper Lang will be major contributors as well. Schulte, for instance, played 19 games as a freshman for Mounds View High, and will provide a wealth of experience to the back end for Minnesota.
The Fire is a private development training program designed for goal-oriented athletes to instill the necessary skills, habits, work ethic, attitude and character. They look to achieve long-term excellence in both hockey and life. The ‘07 group is the first birth year the Fire has assembled since the ‘04s — a group that consisted of future NCAA commits Zam Plante, Charlie Stramel, Maddox Fleming, Nick Pierre and Isaac Howard, among others.
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The International Stars — coached by Brian Jardine — are loaded with top American talent from the 2007 birth year. The majority of the roster consists of players from two top-10 teams in the world with Chicago Mission and Little Caesars. That Mission team won the 2022 USA Hockey national tournament earlier this month, and championship names like Asher Barnett, Cole McKinney, Holden Carter and Cameron Aucoin will be in the mix for the Stars at the 15U World Selects Trophy in Nashville.
McKinney is widely considered one of the top forwards in the country, and his tournament teammates Will Horcoff and John Mooney are certainly included in that conversation as well. The son of 15-season NHL veteran, Shawn Horcoff, Will has been a standout at events like the 2017 Brick International Tournament, 2020 PeeWee Quebec and 2021 CCM 68 Combine, in addition to being a top forward for 14U Little Caesars this winter. Additionally, Mooney has been one of the most highly-touted prospects out of the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite program, with a unique skill set and impressive motor. Egan Beveridge, Aiden Janz, Evan Jardine, Cullen Potter and Lukas Sawchyn add even more offensive firepower to the mix.
Asher Barnett is a top American-born defenseman among 2007s, and he anchors a group that includes other standouts like Cam Aucoin — son of 17-season NHL vet Adrian Aucoin — Holden Carter, and Charlie Trethewey.
If that wasn’t enough star-studded power, a pair of goaltenders in Crosby daCosta and Joey Slavick may be the best one-two punch a team could find in the U.S.
The International Stars program started with the ‘95 and ‘96 birth years, with teams that featured future NHL players like Dylan Larkin, Zach Werenski, Mike McCarron and Matt Roy. Back in action in the 2022 WSI with top ‘07 talent, the Stars may just have a few more NHL-superstars-to-be on its 15U roster once again.
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