Predicting USA's 2024 World Championship Roster

Team USA has already sent out invites for their final selection camp. Here's an early look at what their 2024 World Championship women's hockey roster could look like.

There are some holes to fill on Team USA's World Championship roster. With Lee Stecklein leaving the program earlier this year, and Abby Roque reportedly not getting invited, those spots need to be filled. There's also uncertainty surrounding how long term Taylor Heise's injury is, and what her status will be for the World Championships. Amanda Kessel is the other forward from last year's World Championship gold medal winning roster who will not be back.

If Hilary Knight is named to this year's team, it may be her final chance for gold with USA as other players in the PWHL and NCAA have certainly stepped up and leap frogged the future Hall of Famer in terms of their ability and value to USA Hockey.

Here's how USA Hockey's entry to the 2024 World Championships in Utica, New York could look.

Looking at the potential group of returning forwards from last year, Taylor Heise, Alex Carpenter, Hannah Bilka, Abbey Murphy, Tessa Janecke, look like locks. Given her recent resurgence in the PWHL, former USA captain Kendall Coyne Schofield will certainly be back in the mix for USA Hockey as well. Moving into the roster's bottom six, Gabbie Hughes, Kelly Panneck, and Hayley Scamurra are good bets for the versatile roles they can play. Looking at newcomers heading into the their first IIHF World Championships, Kirsten Simms will almost certainly get the call. The electric forward led all NCAA scorers with Wisconsin this year, and was one of USA's top players at the Rivalry Series. That leaves three spots available for the Americans. Given her past history at Worlds, the Americans are likely to slot in Hilary Knight for one of, if not the, final international competition in her storied career. Britta Curl, who played a pair of games for the Americans last year is a good bet to fill another spot given her play at the Rivalry Series and with Wisconsin this year. Given her play in the PWHL this season, it would be hard to keep Grace Zumwinkle off this roster, not only for her ability to score, but also for her physicality in a middle or bottom six role, which would finish off USA's 13 player forward group. Other names who could receive consideration include Lacey Eden and Laila Edwards.

Megan Keller and Caroline Harvey will be the backbone of this group. Harvey is potentially the best defender on the planet, which includes leading the World Championships in scoring last year, while Keller has been arguably the best defender in the PWHL this season. Adding to this duo is Cayla Barnes who seems like a lock as well. Certainly USA will aim to lean on other returning veterans like Savannah Harmon, Haley Winn, and Rory Guilday, but there's no guarantee as they have depth at the position. The safe bet for the final spot on USA's blueline at this point would be PWHL Minnesota's Natalie Buchbinder. She's a good skater, but has limited offensive upside. As a bottom pairing defender however, she brings everything USA Hockey needs. If there are players outside USA's current national team veterans to watch, it's NCAA defenders Sydney Morrow and Ally Simpson. Blueliners Sydney Bard, Hadley Hartmetz, and Anna Wilgren may also have outside chances.

Nicole Hensley was the starter, then Aerin Frankel took the spot, but early in the Rivalry Series and PWHL season it looked like the momentum was back in Hensley's favor, but more recently that could be swinging back to Frankel. The good news is, USA Hockey has two stellar netminders who will push each other and give USA a chance to win each night. There's rumblings that Abbey Levy didn't receive an invite back to USA final selection camp. With that in mind, USA Hockey is likely to bring an NCAA goalie as their third netminder. The options there are likely between Gwyneth Philips and Annelies Bergmann, although goalies including JoJo Chobak, Skylar Vetter, and Sedona Blair, and even Uma Corniea are likely in conversations. While Philips is definitely the best of the bunch at the moment, Bergmann looks like USA's goalie of the future. This one's a coin flip.