The 2024 World Junior Championship is quickly approaching, and we’re going to start hearing more and more about the rosters for the various competing countries. The Blackhawks will have prospects on a number of rosters, but one of those names is not likely to be Kevin Korchinski (head coach Luke Richardson poured water on that a couple weeks ago). Even without Korchinski on Canada’s blue line — or Connor Bedard up front for that matter — Chicago will be well represented.
On Tuesday morning, Scott Wheeler and Corey Pronman at took their shot at projecting lineups for
Along with Korchinski and Bedard, they also excluded Shane Wright (Seattle Kraken/Canada), Adam Fantilli (Columbus Blue Jackets/Canada), Matthew Poitras (Boston Bruins/Canada), Logan Cooley (Arizona Coyotes/USA), Leo Carlsson (Anaheim Ducks/Sweden) from their projected rosters. Can you imagine if Canad꧅a had Bedard-Fantilli-Poitras down the middle? Geez!
Back in August when they last projected lineups, the guys had Korchinski as a maybe and Samuel Savoie on the roster for Canada. Unfortunately, Savoie’s injury will keep him from being available. Now, there isn’t a Blackhawks prospect projected to compete for Canada.
They also do not have a Blackhawks prospect on their rosters for Sweden or Finland at this point. But the United States’ roster has a few interesting options to choose from.
Both Wheeler and Pronman have Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel representing the Blackhawks 🀅and Big Ten on their rosters.
Wheeler has Nazar as the third-line center, Moore as the fourth-line center and Rinzel as the RHD on the third pair. He also has Gavin Hayes as a fourth-line forward. Hayes has been really good this season and would be a greatﷺ pick for the United States.ಞ He plays a responsible game, so a fourth-line role would make sense for scoring depth and defensive ability.
Pronman does not have Hayes on his roster. He has Nazar as the second-line center, Moore as the fourth-line center and Ri🦂nzel on the second defensive pair.
USA ౠHockey will host its U.S. National Junior Team Trainiℱng Camp from Dec. 14-16 in Plymouth, Michigan.
They also throw out some interesting names for other countries for whom they didn’t pick full roster. That includes goaltender Adam Gajan and forward Martin Misiak for Slovakia. As a reminder, Russia is still banned from IIH𓆉F events because of their occupation of Ukraine.
The 2024 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship will be played Dec. 26, 2023 – Jan. 5, 2024, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
