Thursday, July 27, 2017

NCAA Talent Convenes for WJSS

HockeyTV, NHL Network provide coverage of Plymouth, Mich., event.

NCAA Talent Convenes for WJSS
St. Cloud sophomore Ryan Poehling joins his NCAA coach, Bob Motzko, at the World Junior Summer Showcase

Sixteen NCAA schools will be represented as the puck drops at the 2017 World Junior Summer Showcase Friday at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich.

The event – which features candidates to participate in the 2018 World Junior Championship – features six teams from four countries: the United States (White and Blue teams), Canada (Red and White teams), Finland and Sweden.

WJSS Web Site

HockeyTV and NHL Network will provide coverage of the event, which runs through Saturday, Aug. 5.

St. Cloud State head coach Bob Motzko leads the United States contingent, as the entire coaching staff from the 2017 World Junior Championship gold medal-winning U.S. team returns for 2018.

The U.S. rosters include 33 college players, representing 15 schools. Canada features four current or former NCAA players – Dennis Cholowski (St. Cloud State), Dante Fabbro (Boston University), Cale Makar (Massachusetts) and Tyson Jost (North Dakota). Finland’s roster has three current or future NCAA players – Kasper Kotkansalo (Boston University), Aapeli Rasanen (Boston College) and Aarne Talvitie (Penn State).

The U.S. Blue team features:

  • 2017 gold medalists Joseph Woll, Adam Fox and Kieffer Bellows
  • Seven rising sophomores in 2017-18
  • Future teammates at Boston University (Chad Krys, Logan Cockerill, Brady Tkachuk), Michigan (Will Lockwood, Josh Norris), Minnesota Duluth (Mikey Anderson, Riley Tufte), Harvard (Adam Fox, Oliver Wahlstrom) and Wisconsin (Sean Dhooghe, Trent Frederic)

The U.S. White team features:

  • 2017 gold medalists Jake Oettinger, Ryan Lindgren, Joey Anderson and Patrick Harper
  • 2017 first-round picks and Lakeville, Minn., natives Oettinger and Ryan Poehling
  • Potential NCAA defense partners in Michigan’s Quinn Hughes and Luke Martin and Minnesota’s Nate Knoepke and Ryan Lindgren
  • Additional future teammates at Minnesota Duluth (Joey Anderson, Dylan Samberg) and BU sophomores Harper and Oettinger

The two U.S. rosters will be consolidated to one for the final three games of the event.