USA Hockey's 2024 World Championship roster looks ready to challenge for gold, both this year in Utica, and through the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.
USA Hockey's 2024 World Championship roster looks ready to challenge for gold, both this year in Utica, and through the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.
Sydney Morrow, Laila Edwards, Joy Dunne, Kirsten Simms, Tessa Janecke. None of these players will have hit their 23rd birthday when the puck drops on the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.
It's an impressive group of youth. Add to the list Abbey Murphy, Cayla Barnes, Haley Winn, Caroline Harvey, Hannah Bilka, Rory Guilday, Britta Curl, and Lacey Eden who all played in the NCAA this season, and pro rookies Taylor Heise, Grace Zumwinkle, and Aerin Frankel, and you not only have a team that can win gold today, but one that will build together toward the 2026 Olympics.
In Dunne and Edwards USA got not one, but two replacements for Hilary Knight. Sydney Morrow is an electrifying puck moving defender who alongside Winn look like the future of USA's powerplay on the back end.
Janecke combines skill and a motor that never quits, and Kirsten Simms may immediately become USA's leading scorer, as she's arguably the most electrifying and skilled forward on the planet right now.
When you look at the "older" players, you have arguably the best defender on the planet in Harvey, future PWHL first round picks and national champions in Barnes and Bilka, a power forward in Zumwinkle, pests who can score in Murphy and Eden, and a starting goalie and former back-to-back NCAA Goaltender of the Year Aerin Frankel. Gwyneth Philips, who is a year younger than Frankel, won the NCAA's Goaltender of the Year award the season after Frankel graduated.
With this roster, USA will be fielding a team at the 2026 Olympics who are in their prime.
Other nations, like Canada, will be holding on to veterans past their prime in hopes of one final gold.
When the 2026 Olympics roll around, Nicole Hensley, Savannah Harmon, Alex Carpenter, Kelly Pannek, Hayley Scamurra, Kendall Coyne Schofield, and Hilary Knight will all be on the other side of 30, and there's a legitimate chance a few of these names will no longer be key names with USA. At the same time, USA could hold onto this small core of veterans to be a calming presence at one final Olympic games before saying goodbye. Canada will have nearly double the number of players in their 30s, a list that includes Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner, Renata Fast, Ann-Renee Desbiens, Emerance Maschmeyer, Renata Fast, Jamie Lee Rattray, Erin Ambrose, Emily Clark, Sarah Nurse, Laura Stacey, and Blayre Turnbull.
It's a forward thinking model that will see USA bring an NCAA heavy roster to Utica despite the PWHL being in their first year.
And while USA looks stacked with youth now, they have more waves coming. By 2026, this roster could include players like Casey O'Brien, Izzy Daniel, Ally Simpson, Elle Hartje, Elyssa Biederman, Annelies Bergmann, Grace Dwyer, Laney Potter, Cassie Hall, Ava Lindsay, Sammy Taber, Emma Peschel, Vivian Jungels, Ava McNaughton, Molly Jordan or a number of other young players.
Looking at Canada and their aging core, the nation has resisted bringing in young talent. Canada will likely look to Chloe Primerano by that point to join their roster, but there's no guarantee the rest of their young prospects, players like Emma Pais, Jocelyn Amos, Jade Iginla, Karel Préfontaine, Ava Murphy, Avery Pickering or Caitlin Kraemer will be anywhere near Canada's national program.
USA's current World Championship roster looks ready to challenge for gold now, but also looks destined to be the roster to beat in 2026.