USA Hockey revealed its 25-player roster for the IIHF Girls’s World Championship on Wednesday.
The group — with 14 forwards, eight defenders and three goalies — is headlined by the return of six-time world champion defender Lee Stecklein. Will probably be Stecklein’s first worldwide match for the reason that 2023 World Championships in Brampton, Ont., after which she took day without work from the U.S. ladies’s nationwide group.
Since then, Stecklein has remained one of many easiest defenders on the planet for the Minnesota Frost within the Skilled Girls’s Hockey League and received the league’s first-ever Walter Cup championship in 2024.
Her return ought to assist bolster a U.S. group that misplaced to Canada within the final Rivalry Series and the World Championships in 2024.
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The remainder of the roster is a good mix of expertise with gamers like Hilary Knight — the all-time main scorer in match historical past — and elite younger expertise.
“The group we’ve chosen brings a degree of pleasure and talent to the ice,” mentioned head coach John Wroblewski. “We’re assured on this group and excited to move to České Budějovice.”
The ten-team match will start on April 9 in České Budějovice, Czechia. Staff USA will open the match on April 9 towards Finland.
Roster
Forwards (14): Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Alex Carpenter, Hayley Scamurra, Kelly Pannek, Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy, Grace Zumwinkle, Jesse Compher, Lacey Eden, Britta Curl, Kirsten Simms, Pleasure Dunne, Tessa Janecke
Defenders (8): Megan Keller, Lee Stecklein, Caroline Harvey, Savannah Harmon, Cayla Barnes, Laila Edwards, Haley Winn, Anna Wilgren
Goalies (3): Aerin Frankel, Gwyneth Philips, Ava McNaughton
Snubs
Ahead Hannah Bilka, defender Rory Guilday and goalie Nicole Hensley had been all left off the 2025 roster. All three gamers have been fixtures on Wroblewski’s rosters during the last three years.
Bilka, 23, was the No. 4 decide within the 2024 PWHL Draft and had 9 factors in her first 13 skilled video games earlier than getting injured on the Rivalry Sequence in February. Guilday, a shutdown defender, is in her senior 12 months at Cornell College. Hensley, 30, has had a tricky season within the PWHL — a 3.56 goals-against common and .866 save share — however has been on Staff USA since 2016.
If Hensley doesn’t make her means again onto the nationwide group, there might be zero video games of expertise within the U.S. goalie room in 2026.
Though she’s by no means made a senior worlds roster, ahead Casey O’Brien is one other notable snub. She was invited to the Rivalry Sequence again in November and at the moment leads the NCAA in scoring with 79 factors in 36 video games. Simply final week, O’Brien turned Wisconsin’s all-time main scorer, passing Knight, with 265 factors as a Badger.
5 of her Wisconsin teammates — Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Kirsten Simms, Ava McNaughton and Lacey Eden — are on the U.S. roster.
Surprises
Apart from Stecklein, there are a number of different notable names again on the U.S. nationwide group.
Forwards Grace Zumwinkle and Jesse Compher will return to the senior nationwide group after showing largely on Wroblewski’s bubble since he took over as head coach in 2022. Zumwinkle was named as an alternate to final 12 months’s worlds group, however didn’t play a single recreation. Compher hasn’t been on a global roster for the reason that 2022 worlds in Denmark.
Zumwinkle, the 2024 PWHL rookie of the 12 months, confirmed nicely through the November Rivalry Sequence video games towards Canada, whereas Compher is having an awesome PWHL season (8 objectives and 15 factors in 21 video games) for the Toronto Sceptres.
One other standout: Laila Edwards, who was named match MVP final 12 months, is again on the roster as a defender, one thing Wroblewski has been experimenting with all season.
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Edwards is a winger for the College of Wisconsin and leads all forwards in objectives (30) this season. She might add extra offense to the U.S. blue line together with her dimension (6-foot-1) and large shot. Nonetheless, going up towards Canada in a gold medal recreation might be a giant take a look at for a younger (21), inexperienced defender.
Solely two gamers have made the senior world championship roster for the primary time: defender Anna Wilgren and goalie Ava McNaughton. Wilgren is a little bit of a shock, given she’s solely performed 4 senior nationwide group video games during the last two years, however she’s performed nicely with nationwide group staple Cayla Barnes on Montreal’s second pair within the PWHL.
McNaughton, in the meantime, is the 20-year-old starter for the No. 1 Wisconsin Badgers. Her .949 save share and 1.13 objectives towards common lead all beginning goalies within the NCAA. She may very well be one of many American goalies of the longer term, and can now get an opportunity to expertise senior worldwide competitors behind the insulation of No. 1 goalie Aerin Frankel.
Expectations
The expectation, as all the time, is to win the match. That’s notably true as we get nearer to the 2026 Milan Olympics.
Canada has accomplished most of that in recent times, successful 4 of the final 5 main worldwide tournaments, together with Olympic gold in 2022 and three straight Rivalry Sequence.
That being mentioned, that is arguably the most effective U.S. roster for the reason that 2023 worlds, which Staff USA received 6-3 towards Canada. The group has an elite veteran core with Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Alex Carpenter and now Stecklein, and extremely expert younger gamers like Caroline Harvey, Taylor Heise and Abbey Murphy who’ve confirmed themselves as top-of-the-lineup gamers on the worldwide degree.
Additionally they have among the finest goalies on the planet in Frankel, who can battle towards Canada’s No. 1 Ann-Renée Desbiens on the largest stage.
If there’s one secure guess, it’s that the U.S. and Canada are on a collision course for an additional unbelievable gold medal recreation.
(Photograph of Hilary Knight giving a fist-bump to Taylor Heise: Daniel DeLoach / Utica Observer-Dispatch / USA Immediately Community by way of Imagn Photos)
