Three major thoughts on the Team USA Worlds roster — NCAA news and updates

With the youth movement comes a slew of changes, the biggest of which are in the net for the Americans. In this week’s Hockey Friday from The Ice Garden (TIG), let’s go over some of the biggest roster shifts and whether they might all be warranted.

Disclaimer: I tried to make this five thoughts but, honestly, I needed to group all of the snubs together because there were so many of them.

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No Nicole Hensley or Maddie Rooney? 

Hensley and Rooney have been mainstays in the Team USA net for the better part of the past decade. It’s obvious USA Hockey is looking in another direction by including not just Aerin Frankel — who has been on a heater lately — but Gwyneth Philips and youngster Ava McNaughton out of Wisconsin. 

Upon further review, it’s not really that surprising. Rooney is plagued by inconsistency even at the best of times, as is Hensley, and neither have had the type of season with the Frost that warrants a roster spot for Worlds (if we’re keeping it a buck). But are the replacement names the right choice?

Well, as mentioned, Frankel has been having an excellent year, posting top-three numbers despite the slow start the Fleet had. Philips has also been a bright spot for the struggling Ottawa Charge and McNaughton hails from a school that can manage its front and back ends extremely well. I could see her getting some time in a lower-pressure situation during the round robin if the coaching staff is feeling froggy.

Laila Edwards on defense?

Now this is something different, and it’s actually something reigning tournament MVP Edwards was all for. According to an article by NBC Sports from back in November, Edwards had been getting blueline reps with the team throughout the Rivalry Series and even a little bit at Wisconsin.

The impetus for Edwards’ switch to defense seemed to be a combination of the NCAA’s current goals leader wanting to try out defense and the team’s desire to add some size on the back end — both things I think could lead to a great tournament for her. It shows her willingness to try something new and play whatever role she has to on the team. 

A youth movement without some key youth

I’m just wondering who some of these players may have pissed off, considering this youth-movement roster without one of the leading playmakers in the NCAA (Casey O’Brien), the most recent Patty Kaz winner (Izzy Daniel), nor former Worlds participant Rory Guilday. (To say nothing of the blatant snubbing of an offensive catalyst like Abby Boreen.)

I can’t wrap my head around what this organization says it wants versus whom it wants to make happy. We all know what the politics behind these decisions are like — just ask yourself why Ava McNaughton was chosen over, say, Annalies Bergmann of Cornell, who sees a hell of a lot more rubber.

USA Hockey has a long way to go to truly embrace the young talent coming down the pipeline. With a disappointing loss in the final last year, you’d think they’d look to players like Haley Winn and Laila Edwards — both proven on the international stage. Instead, it’s much of the same, with some interesting new names I don’t think should have been picked over the players mentioned above. 

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Links

Check out the full announcement from USAH here on the who’s who for Worlds, as well as Lydia Murray’s TIG writeup here.

Before we can even get to Worlds, we have to check in with the NCAA (of course), and Giselle Velazquez has the rundown of what to expect with the WCHA. Emma Sullivan holds down Hockey East and NEWHA.

We’ll have more NCAA content coming down as seasons wind down and playoffs ramp up, but in the meantime, take a peek at Nicole Haase’s notebook over at The Victory Press as well.

Related to just about everything already covered in this newsletter, we have our top-10 Patty Kaz finalists and it features a whopping four Wisconsin players — Laila Edwards, Casey O’Brien, Caroline Harvey, and Kirsten Simms. (Again, justice for O’Brien because every single one of these players aside from her is playing at Worlds, what gives?)

If you haven’t been paying attention to former Force player Sally Hoerr’s work at TIG, do so now. She has a great piece on how former Niagara Purple Eagle Allison Coomey is making the transition into coaching the inaugural women’s hockey team at the University of Delaware, set to start play in 2025-26.

Finally, dipping into the men’s hockey world a tiny bit, the NHL and NHLPA have relaunched their newly titled Women’s Hockey Advancement Committee, headed by former U.S. Olympic medalist Lyndsey Fry. The committee is comprised of a wide swath of people from most corners of the hockey world, including the PWHL — but of course, the jury is out on whether or not that means we can expect more involvement from the NHL. (My money is on that not happening, and thank goodness, but we’ll see.) 

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By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer

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Wednesdays: Basketball

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