USA Hockey Set to Begin Olympic Centralization Camp

Tuesday marks the beginning of USA Hockey’s week-long camp in Blaine, Minnesota that will serve as the basis for selecting the group of players that will centralize with the USA women’s national team in preparation for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The camp will take place June 1-6, featuring 40 of the top women’s hockey players in the country. From that group, 28 players will be chosen to take residency with USA Hockey in preparation for the Olympics, with 25 of the 28 also being selected for the 2021 Women’s World Championships, which were pushed back to August of this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite some recent turnover due to retirements, this is still an experienced group, with 14 of the 40 players returning from the 2018 gold medal-winning squad, and 18 returning from the 2019 world championship winning squad, which leaves precious few roster spots for new players.

19 current college players were selected for the camp, and if they are chosen for residency with the US program, would potentially miss the upcoming college hockey season as they prepare for the Olympics.

The Ice Garden had a nice breakdown of some of the players selected for the camp.

Additionally, one would expect the final centralization roster won’t look much different than the roster selected back in March for the 2021 Women’s World Championships, before that event had to be postponed. Though some of the pro players have been playing games in the interim, it’s tough to imagine things being remarkably different just a couple months later.