USA Hockey announced their final roster for this year's World Junior tournament. Here it is.
There's not a lot of surprises. Patrick Wey seems to have won the battle for the seventh defensive spot. At forward, Brock Nelson picked up the last center spot over Rocco Grimaldi. I would have rather had Grimaldi, but reports were that he didn't have his best camp, while Nelson played well enough to earn a spot. Emerson Etem got picked over Brandon Saad, which is a bit of a surprise, but I think Etem gives them a little more speed on the outside, a commodity the US is always looking for.
So this is the team going to Buffalo. The US hasn't looked overly impressive in exhibition games, losing to both RPI and the Czechs by way of the shootout, but the exhibition games were meant to work out kinks like that. This is one of the best teams the US has ever brought to this tournament, and it should be an exciting ride watching them play.