On the consistent calm and emerging confidence of Detroit Red Wings prospect and Michigan State goaltender Trey Augustine, as he looks to backstop Team USA to repeat gold medals at the World Junior

At the fast approaching 2025 World Junior Championship (set to begin Dec. 26, from Ottawa), Team USA will be looking to do something it's never done before: Capture consecutive World Junior gold medals.  Last year's squad in Sweden was a barnstorming one, a veritable golden generation making good on its potential and steamrolling the assembled field.  This year's team won't be able to match the high-end talent or depth of its predecessor, but it still has a serious shot at realizing the same objective, and the biggest reason for that confidence is goaltender Trey Augustine.

Augustine—a sophomore at Michigan State and 2023 Detroit Red Wings draft pick—is quickly becoming one of the most decorated amateur goaltenders ever.  He has a World Junior gold medal, a gold medal from U-18 Worlds, a Big Ten regular season championship, and a Big Ten tournament championship (both program firsts for the Spartans) to his name already.

When asked yesterday about what's changed for him at now his third World Junior camp (he also backstopped the Americans to bronze in the Maritimes at the 2023 WJC), Augustine quipped, "I just feel old now. I felt young at the start. I was a little above my level, but now I just feel comfortable, feel like I'm one of the old guys on the team."

It was a light-hearted comment, but it also showed the confidence that Augustine has added to his trademark sense of calm in net, confidence earned from each added accolade.

"Each time you can see he's out of his shell a little bit more," said USA coach David Carle, who also coached the American WJC side a year ago.  "I heard, even last weekend, I heard he was kinda showing up the crowd a little bit against Minnesota.  People were surprised by that, but excited about that.  There's nothing wrong with that.  We saw a little bit of that in Sweden actually.  When you watch the game back, you see some of the replays where he gets pretty fired up.  You'd never question his intensity or compete or desire to win, but he's probably getting a little more external or forward facing."

In the featured video above, I discussed Augustine's unique combination of confidence and calm.

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