Johnny Gaudreau & Zach Werenski To Play For Team USA At IIHF World Championships

Per Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski will both suit up for Team USA in Czechia for the IIHF World's next month. 

Zach Werenski mentioned to the media a couple of days ago that he would play for Team USA. On March 25th, it was reported that Elvis Merzlikins would also play for Team Latvia, but that was before he suffered a lower-body injury later that week. 

Elvis Merzļikins has plenty of international games under his belt. He's played for the Latvian national team, Lativa U20, U18, and U17. Most of those games for Latvia were played while he was still with HC Lugano. He did play for Latvia in the 2022 World Championships. 

Elvis Merzļikins: .917 SV%, 2.51 GAA, 3 shutouts in 27 tournament games. 

Zach Werenski also has some international experience. He played on Team USA in the 2019 Worlds in which he played in two games and didn't register any points. He's played for the U20 twice, once in which he was a Captain, and also for the U17 team. 

Zach Werenski: 19gp; 3g-9a-12 across all levels for the USA

Johnny Gaudreau has played for Team USA a few times. Four times in the World Championships, once in the World Cup, and once in the U20 World Juniors. 

Johnny Gaudreau: 32gp; 19g-26a-45 across all levels for the USA

I would expect defenseman David Jiříček to play for Czechia. There's no bigger honor than to represent your country and also play on one of the biggest stages right in your backyard. 

Congrats to everyone from the Columbus Blue Jackets who have been selected so far. From the sounds of it, there could be more to come. 

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