Augustana head coach Garrett Raboin will look guide Team USA to its first gold medal at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup since 2003
Garrett Raboin will be the head coach for the U.S. Under-18 Men’s Select Team at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton, Alberta. He will look to lead the Americans to their first gold medal at this tournament since 2003.
Last year, under head coach Luke Strand, Team USA won the bronze medal with a 5-3 victory over Finland, marking their first medal finish since 2016.
Raboin, who will be entering his third year as head coach of Augustana in 2024-25, previously served as an assistant coach on David Carle's staff at the 2024 World Juniors, where he helped guide Team USA to the gold medal. He will also serve in the same capacity in Team USA's title defense at the 2025 World Juniors in Ottawa.
In contrast to the World Juniors, where the tournament spans a couple of weeks around the holidays, the Hlinka Gretzky Cup is played under a compressed schedule that essentially spans less than one week with games scheduled every day, which offer unique challenges.
"It's a great opportunity to make yourself uncomfortable and broaden your horizons," Raboin told The Hockey News. "It's a short tournament, it's unique, it's not identical to the World Junior process, but there are some similarities. Again, it's a great opportunity to be around a tremendous staff, learn from them, and coach high-end players."
Regarding the staff, Raboin will be joined by assistant coaches Nick Oliver, Chad Kolarik, PD Melgoza, and Ben Gordon, as well as general manager Marc Boxer and assistant general managers Tony Gasparini and Rod Braceful. This group will work together to select the best players to represent Team USA in the weeklong international showcase north of the border.
Later this month, the initial 36-man roster will compete at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup Camp in St. Paul, Minnesota. From this roster, players will be selected to represent Team USA in pursuit of a gold medal. Many players on this year's camp roster are returning after representing Team USA in the Under-17 Five Nations Tournament last year.
However, forming the right line combinations and defensive pairings, while difficult to predict, are often sorted out in camp and the early stages of the tournament.
"I think it comes organically," Raboin said. "There's a plan in terms of pieces as you form your group, but the biggest thing in a short tournament is to get them on the same page and come together. They're coming from all over the country. It's a race to become really tight-knit.
"Just to look like a team, they have to be in sync in terms of their play. It doesn't happen right away, but that's your challenge is to get them all on the same page as quick as you can."
The Hlinka Gretzky Cup has traditionally provided scouts with the first opportunity to evaluate American talent eligible for the upcoming NHL Draft. Trevor Connelly's standout performance last year, with four goals and nine points in seven games, notably set the stage for his draft-eligible season.
This year, while not guaranteed to make the roster, Team USA's camp will showcase distinguished forwards Cooper Simpson (Tri-City Storm), Masun Fleece (Fargo Force), Sam Kappell (Madison Capitols), and Ben Kevan (Des Moines Buccaneers), along with defensemen Matt Grimes (Sioux Falls Stampede), Jacob Rombach (Lincoln Stars), and Landon Nycz (Waterloo Black Hawks).
A strong performance in Edmonton could greatly benefit these players as they enter their 2025 NHL Draft-eligible campaigns.
"I think it's tremendous for these guys," Raboin said. "They showed up wanting this opportunity, and there's a group that'll earn it and be able to represent the United States up in Edmonton.
"I'm really looking forward to St. Paul as we approach that camp and then moving through the process because it's going to move quickly. But we feel confident that we have some options and depth in all three areas."
Team USA will open the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in preliminary round action against Czechia on Monday, August 5.