On 27 July, USA Hockey announced its roster for the U.S. Under-18 Men’s Select Team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, to be held 3-8 August in Edmonton, with the USHL again supplying the bulk of the squad: 13 of the 23 players. Since 26 July, a separate event, the World Junior Summer Showcase, has been running in parallel in Windsor, Ontario, and it’s putting somewhere around 47 candidates for the 2027 World Junior Championship, set for Edmonton and Red Deer, through their paces.
Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster
The roster includes forwards Gunnar Conboy and Luke Pietila (Green Bay Gamblers), Joey Cullen (U-17 team), defencemen Rylan Hanson, Ethan Sung and Ryland Rooney (Sioux Falls Stampede), Trevor Shorter (Chicago Steel), Becker Wenkus (Des Moines Buccaneers), goaltender Brandon Wright (Dubuque Fighting Saints) and four more players from the U-18 national team. Head coach Reid Cashman is joined by assistant coaches Todd Knott and Troy Thibodeau, with Marc Boxer as general manager. In the group stage, the USA will face Canada, Czechia, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Sweden. The USA is defending its title after finally winning the tournament last year for the first time since 2003.
47 candidates at the Summer Showcase
The Summer Showcase has brought together 47 players: 18 played in the USHL last season, and 15 are graduates of NCAA programs. Games at the WFCU Centre run from 26 July to 1 August, with training sessions having started on 22 July. Alongside the USA, Canada, Finland and Sweden are also taking part. Among those invited are, by one count, at least five players taken in the first round of this year’s NHL Draft: Wyatt Cullen (NTDP, picked 10th by Nashville Predators), Jack Hextall (Youngstown Phantoms, taken 30th by Calgary), Mason West of the Fargo Force (29th, to Chicago), Will Horcoff out of Michigan and the NTDP (Pittsburgh), and Cullen Potter, who played at Arizona State and the NTDP before Calgary took him. Players from 12 of the USHL’s 16 clubs are represented, and roughly four in five of the invitees, 38 of the 47, played at least nine league games last season.
Where this path leads
Both programs draw players from the same development system: the USHL and NTDP are supplying rosters to both national teams this summer, and for nearly all of these young players, the ultimate goal is reaching the NHL. The league itself has long licensed pokies for the online casino market (such as the NHL Breakaway series), and such league-branded products can be tracked at https://slottactics.com/slot-provider/pragmatic-play/, serving as part of the NHL’s broader strategy to diversify fan engagement and extend its presence beyond traditional hockey platforms.
The Hlinka Gretzky Cup will run 3-8 August in Edmonton, where the USA is defending its title. The Summer Showcase wraps up on 1 August, after which the coaching staff will narrow the list of candidates for the 2027 World Junior Championship, also to be held in Edmonton and Red Deer.
